Local college seniors are getting ready to graduate in the next few days, and their chances of finding a job appear to be good, experts said.
Madeline Buitendorp is about to graduate from Davidson College.
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“After a long academic career to now have a job and be moving on to a new city, it definitely does feel like the start of the rest of everything,” Buitendorp said.
Buitendorp said she’s eager to walk across the commencement stage Sunday and start her dream job in Washington, D.C.
“A bit different of a job search than I was expecting,” she told Channel 9. “I was expecting, in some ways, to not have anything at this point in time.”
Jamie Stamey, with the career development team at Davidson College, said the job outlook for 2022 grads is an “A-plus.”
“They have expressed, you know, just the stress and the fear of what’s going to happen to them,” Stamey said. “But we’ve been really fortunate, as a whole.”
A survey by the National Association of College and Employers found hiring managers plan to bring in nearly one-third more new college grads compared to last year. The survey found that 18% of entry-level positions will be fully remote, and 40% will be hybrid.
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“We saw in 2020, certainly a kind of a flatline of employers,” Stamey said. “We didn’t really see a lot of new opportunities coming along.”
Virtual learning, remote internships and other COVID-driven disruptions have made it challenging for the class of 2022.
But Buitendorp is not looking back.
“I’m kind of excited to see what life outside of academia looks like and see what joining the workforce will look like for me,” she said.
(Watch the video below: Davidson College to no longer require SAT, ACT for admittance)
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