Although a majority of college students hope to get job offers before leaving campus, they don’t necessarily want to start working right away.
A recent college survey of 1,000 undergraduates finds that students want more than a week off before starting a post-graduation job. Just 11% of students overall say the ideal time to start a job is one week after graduation. One-quarter of students say a few weeks after graduation (25%), a month after graduation (23%), or a few months after graduation (26%) would be ideal.
While students don’t want to immediately start work, a majority do want to have a job locked down as early as possible. More than 6 in 10 (62%) students say they hope to get a job offer before graduation, compared to 18% who will start seriously looking for a job after graduation and 14% who are not sure. With the reality of job hunting while in school looming closer for upperclassmen, seniors are almost twice as likely as sophomores to say they will start the search after graduation (22% vs. 12%).
Those students who hope to find a job before graduation are fairly confident they will. Two-thirds (66%) of students who hope to get a job offer before graduation are confident they will, while one-third (34%) are not. But seniors are significantly less confident than sophomores (50% vs. 69%).
Half of Seniors Who Hope to Find a Job Before Graduation are Confident They Will
How confident are you that you’ll get a job offer before graduation?
After a stressful finals and graduation season, students want time to relax before jumping into the next phase of their lives. Roughly 4 in 10 students want to spend time with friends and family (44%), take time to relax (42%), and travel (41%) after graduation. Male students are more likely than female students to say they want to start working right away (31% vs. 18%).
Students are willing to make an exception for their dream job, though. More than 9 in 10 (94%) students say they would accept an offer for their dream job if it required starting right after graduation.
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Methodology: This survey was designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted in November among a sample of 1,000 full-time and part-time students attending colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
