Perhaps delay graduation for work experience & stay specialized? Being job ready in the covid market & beyond. https://lnkd.in/eZGZbkP
Most good paying jobs are highly specialized (e.g., purchasing, operations, and logistics). Your degrees are highly specialized but you also have to get good practical work experience related to what you are majoring in. Quite simply, students without work experience in their major do not get good jobs in their major. That means you have to make getting an internship one of your top priorities while in school. You have to do this even if it means delaying graduation (in my opinion). The delay will pay for itself in terms of starting salary & future advancement opportunities (because of what you learned during the internship & what you brought into your full-time job because of the internship).
Pasted below is some feedback from a manager that thinks students are less inclined to delay graduation for great work experience. I think his points are somewhat exaggerated, but I just wanted to reiterate the importance of getting work experience related to what you are majoring in. Please take this in the right spirit. I just want the very very best for you. I am currently working with a handful of graduates that are unemployed. What do they have in common? Low GPAs & no work experience. Again, please know that I am not judging.
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Students (here is an email from a manager):
As a bit of feedback, we always seem to have trouble convincing students that taking a semester off school & working for a company is “okay”. They tend to want to stay in school straight through & graduate in 4 yrs. In my opinion, times have changed, & a student absolutely needs to have some co-op work experience on their resume in order to land a good job in the area of Supply Chain. A summer internship (around 3 months) is just not enough anymore.
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Being job ready in the covid market and beyond…
https://lnkd.in/ed-ZfanD
Also, students who choose to specialize in their education (e.g., SCM) are having better experiences than those who stay generalist. FYI, research from my colleagues:
https://lnkd.in/ex89namH
In their research, students in specialized majors reported more professional opportunities, higher quality courses, higher quality students and instructors, stronger culture, and more enthusiasm toward their training. The only advantages perceived in taking the generalist path were more flexibility and ease.
We also found that college educators have more influence on a student’s choice of major than any other person–more than parents, friends, other students, high school figures, academic advisors, etc.
If there’s one thing my SCM career taught me, it is to not fear specialization. It is the fastest road to growth and opportunity.
FYI: What do ISM internships pay (& they all pay, never work for free)? The going rate is $16-27 per hour. https://lnkd.in/e8pfXtC
College educators have more influence on a student’s choice of major than any other person–more than parents, friends, other students, high school figures, academic advisors, etc.