For almost any college student, the number of career avenues is seemingly limitless.
For Dorothy Siemens, a University sophomore art and Japanese double major, her plans include moving to Japan and attending fashion school or obtaining a teaching degree to become a professor. Both plans are career paths that she realizes will not be very easy. @@Siemens: http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Dorothy+Siemens@@
“I’m probably going to have to build my way up,” Siemens said. “I don’t think I can just get the job that I want right away unless something really lucky happens.”
From a young age, some students are taught to follow the maxim that was once preached by motivational speaker Les Brown: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” However, a relatively significant amount of employers believe that the career expectations of many entry-level applicants may be a little too high.  @@http://getmotivation.com/lesbrown.htm@@
According to a survey of 375 marketing executives and 125 advertising executives by The Creative Group, a nationwide staff company, nearly 36 percent of all surveyed employers believed that entry-level job applicants had “unrealistic” or “somewhat unrealistic” job expectations. The survey also determined that 35 percent of employers surveyed believed a strong interview performance is the most integral part of the hiring process, while another 27 percent said that a strong resume is important in landing a job. Only 15 percent of surveyed employers believed that a strong portfolio was the most important part. @@http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/04/26/hows-that-sense-of-entitlement-working-for-ya/@@
Ester Frey, The Creative Group’s regional vice president for technology staffing services, said unrealistic or idealistic career expectations may arise from extravagant perceptions propagated by companies or acquaintances or a lack of research by job seekers about careers in their field.
“According to career theorist Donald Super, the young adult is in the life stage of exploration and, upon entering the workforce, is in transition,” said June Dressler, the associate director of the Career Development Center at Pacific University. “Career expectations can be greatly influenced by real world experience, so the applicants who have an internship or part-time job in their field of interest are likely to have more realistic expectations based on their experience.” @@Super: http://www2.careers.govt.nz/educators-practitioners/career-practice/career-theory-models/donald-supers-developmental-self-concept-theory/@@ @@Dressler: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/june-dressler/9/7b4/380?goback=.cps_1243976130554_1@@
University Career Center Director Deborah Chereck said students should not undersell themselves during an interview. She also said students should not oversell themselves, because presenting mistruths during an interview may hurt a person later when they are unable to perform certain tasks their job requires. @@Chereck: http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Deborah+Chereck@@
“In an interview, I think that it is most important for students to be very clear about the strengths that they bring to the table and the accomplishments that they’ve had in the past and be able to provide very specific examples to help articulate those strengths and be able to describe that accomplishment,” Chereck said.
Chereck said students should be looking at entry-level positions as a way of getting into a certain industry or company. From that point, students can then assess their future career path and find out what steps must be taken to get there.
“We’re delighted when people have notions of what it is that they’re looking for and what they would really like to be moving toward,” Chereck said. “Frankly, in this environment, we’ve been even more focused on looking at different options that students can see themselves doing and assessing what might the necessary steps be to get there.”
Chereck said entry-level jobs provide a market where students can wait for flat markets, such as the one presently occurring in the architecture industry, to recover from the economic recession. Chereck also said entry-level jobs allow students to take advantage of opportunities that will allow them to strengthen certain skills and prepare them for their future jobs.
“It’s challenged people to really rethink their business ideas and plans, so it’s been interesting and a little frightening for students,” Chereck said. “Where one door closes, another door opens; you just have to be prepared to walk through that new door. I think students want to believe there’s a linear path to get to where they want to be, but that’s just not the case, and it probably wasn’t the case even when the times were good.”
Chereck said newly matriculated students should align their career choices with something they are passionate about and are able to perform well. If these areas are not easily identified, Chereck said it may be difficult for students to find a satisfying career. Chereck also noted that students eventually do not always get jobs that align with their selected major, because certain jobs are open to a variety of different skills.
“I think everybody has an impression of what they would like to be doing when they graduate,” Chereck said. “Sometimes people’s ideas are more scaled up than what the reality is, but I like the fact that people have dreams and are moving toward something.”
Although Chereck said there are legitimate reasons for not taking a job — such as continuing education — she said students should be flexible with entry-level jobs and be willing to consider sacrifices, such as moving to a new job, commuting a relatively long distance or being available to work weekends.
“I feel like everyone is out doing a job search, so they need to learn how to find what factors of their job are most important to them,” Frey said. “There’s a myriad things that candidates have to think about when they look at a job outside of compensation. There’s a lot of facets that go into that, so I think it would be tough to say that people should take anything that comes along, because for every individual, it’s different.”