Post-grad employment easier for some

Mom was right, you should have become a dentist.

The Council of Ontario Universities has released a report, tracking 2008 graduates and found 83 per cent of graduates reported they were employed in fields related to their degrees.

“They’ve held up very well, even in the depths of the recession in 2008,” Bonnie Patterson, president of the COU, explained. She noted they did the report to both ensure the accountability of universities and measure their success.

Graduates with dentistry degrees had a 100 per cent rate of employment in their chose field and were making $98,333 two years after graduation. At the tail end of things, fine arts graduates were making $34,653, and only 89.9 per cent of biology and agricultural sciences students had jobs in their fields.

“I see there’s not a huge difference,” Sara Dawson, a career councillor with the Student Success Centre, noted. “That’s pretty good.”

She explained these results were actually much better than in previous years, with fewer students employed in their fields in previous reports.

“We see students from every faculty across the board,” Dawson explained. She noted many students had preconceived notions of what careers were available to them were actually limited. Students were not looking into other jobs which were peripherally related to their field.

Patterson noted the wage gap between medical graduates and arts graduates could be attributed to the amount of training required for the position. Because doctors and dentists had specialized training, spent time receiving practical training and spent more time in school.

Dawson explained other graduates were reliant on their ability to turn the skills they had received from other employment or activities to get them a job. “It’s about translating your past experience into a skill set for specific industry.”

She offered the Success Centre would be able to help students figure out what their transferable skills are, and how to market themselves. She noted students could get experience through internships.

She explained even graduates who were stuck in unrelated jobs were better off than their counterparts who were holding out for something related. “A person is employable if they already had a job.”