[Applause]
the class of 2022 is heading into a
great job market let me add my
congratulations to all of you for
this extraordinary accomplishment under
challenging unprecedented circumstances
they are the most in-demand college
graduates to enter the job market in
years it took a long time
to get any responses and then very
suddenly i started getting many
interview requests this job market is
the tightest for labor
that i have seen a nationwide labor
shortage means grads are in high demand
and they know it i think happiness and
the ability to be happy workspace has
been more prioritized now than ever
wanting a job that's going to not only
be something that pays well and it's
fulfilling um professionally but also
fulfilling emotion so as the class of
2022 enters the workforce with far more
leverage than grads from recent years
how should they approach the job market
i casted a wide net i was looking
for jobs everywhere in new england the
southeast on the west coast top of line
for many grads is salary the pay was the
most important thing for me i have
expenses i know i will have college loan
payments coming soon
and making sure that i am prepared for
those is the most important thing
a shortage of entry-level workers in
some sectors has led to starting
salaries of 100 000 or more for
inexperienced workers they are very
aware of the tumult of the last few
years and are really looking for
stability and the dollar figure on that
paycheck is going a long way for for
many individuals
flexibility is also important to these
recent grads
because new graduates can afford to be
choosy some are taking their time to
lock in a new job
according to a recent survey about half
of new grads who hadn't decided on a job
had gotten at least one offer without
accepting there are students that i can
think of who have had
offers in hand
that they are just about to accept and
then are contacted by recruiters from
other organizations to say we urgently
have an opportunity we want you to
consider that's what happened to austin
bowles who recently accepted a position
as a staff electrician at northern stage
a theater in vermont to be totally
honest here northern stage actually
wasn't the first place i accepted i
accepted another job a summer stock job
is what we call it it's a temporary only
for the summer i had accepted that uh in
south carolina and it wasn't until
sometime in march when i got an email
from northern state you're saying we'd
like to interview him so i actually had
to give them an unfortunate call letting
them know that i wouldn't go there and i
was gonna go here so i do wish i had
gone a little slower outside of salary
many recent grads have other requests
for their future employers i'm a first
generation low-income college student
and i very much yes salary was something
that was very important but on top of
that i also wanted a company that was
going to prioritize my work-life balance
and i also wanted to be able to do work
that i felt very proud of but also was
very interested in eugene thomas
recently graduated from yale after
interning at john deere over the summer
he took a position with the company in
iowa students are
very discerning and thoughtful about how
the organization's values
line up with their values and that is
certainly around issues of diversity
equity and inclusion and i felt really
comfortable with the entire team of
engineers at john deere i was able to
visit waterloo iowa at some point
throughout the summer every single one
of the members of the engineering team
made me feel very comfortable one of the
biggest challenges for recent grads is
housing which has been made more
difficult by the recent surge in rental
prices place i'm currently working with
here the northern stage they have
subsidized housing and that was a
key factor in the decision i am from new
york city um and i guess there was some
incentive to work in a place where cost
of living is considerably lower than new
york city and even new haven connecticut
median apartment rents are up more than
16 in the past year and up 28
since january of 2017.
they uh saw their families impacted by
the great recession
uh years ago
they certainly have seen people be
impacted by the pandemic and
corresponding employment crisis that
resulted from that and the tight
finances that people
felt during those times
and to some degree are still feeling so
i think the rental prices and the
concern about where will i live and how
will i finance this are connected to the
salary conversations that folks are
having after years of working remotely
grubbs said many students want to get
into the field i have talked personally
with a few students who
worked for organizations as a summer
intern
and those internships were fully virtual
and
while these students are very grateful
to have had those experiences
they feel like they missed out on
opportunities to connect with other
people in their workplaces hands-on
experience was very important to me
especially i think the class of 22 was
really special in that respect
especially in industries like
engineering because a lot of your
classes during your junior year would
have been done more hands-on and in
person and that entire year was remote
at least for yale
on top of that my summer internship with
the exception of one week was remote and
i was able to have a lot of great
experience there and a lot of exposure
however i would love like if it were in
person go and permit it like copy
permitting um to have more hands-on
experience and i'm really excited to get
some throughout my post-grad job