Employment Check Redux: Do you have a job?
Mar 12, 2009
4 Comments
Last week, we polled 1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls, asking members of each class to let us know whteher, in this sour economy, they had jobs lined up for next year. The results are in. To the extent that the students who responded to our polling are representative of the student body at large, the results are sobering: a significant percentage of students at Boston College Law School have not yet secured employment for the coming year. Indeed, by our estimates (and with the previously stated assumption about the representativeness of poll-ees), almost half of all 1Ls are still looking for jobs. See the exact percentages after the jump.
- 28% of 3Ls at at BC Law do not yet have jobs
- 23% of 2Ls at BC Law do not yet have jobs
- 44% of 1Ls at at BC Law do not yet have jobs
These numbers lie in stark contrast to employment data of recently graduated classes. According to Dean Garvey the Classes of 2005 and 2006 had a 98% employment rate 9 months after graduation.
In addition, official data from Boston College Law School shows that 98% of the Class of 2007 has found employment 9 months after graduation. However, this percentage does not include an undefined number of “students not seeking employment,” a qualification that has not appeared in previous years. It is unclear whether students who have not found jobs for 9 months or more are deemed to be not seeking employment.
At the most recent State of the School event in January, Dean Garvey declined to provide employment statistics for the Class 2008, only offering that “even the best have been hurt by the economy” and that “many firms have gone other hiring routes.”
Who posted this article?
A couple of comments on the methodology of this poll:1) I’m not sure we know enough about the poll sample size to claim it to be representative. There were 116 votes as of this morning, for a 900-person school. Further, because the poll doesn’t require any login, we don’t know if these people are actually BC Law students, or that they haven’t voted more than once. Caveat lector.2) It’s unfair to compare the 3L employment stats now with the stats nine months after graduation. Many small employers won’t even consider applicants until they pass the bar, which won’t be known until fall 2009. For the Class of 2006, the employment upon graduation stat was 82.5% compared to 97.6% nine months after graduation. http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/index.php/1/desc/EmployGradI appreciate the thought behind this post, and know that many of my fellow law students are interested in these very numbers. However, the only group with any meaningful access to these statistics is career services. Until they have more transparency prior to a USNWR/LSAC publication, we’ll all be guessing in the dark about just how bad things are.
class of 2008?but this class seemed to have done pretty well: didn’t we rank the 16th on schools that fed its graduating classes into big law firms?
Not to mention the fact that even those people fortunate enough to have offers might see those evaporate or be delayed until Fall 2010 or whatever. Unless you’re going to your family’s firm or the government, you probably need to put an asterisk next to any "Yes" to this question.What happens if big firms pull offers? Then there will be a lot more people looking to fill a shrinking number of jobs at small firms (and I think it is a fair assumption that a lot of those people going to big firms have pretty solid resumes with which to bump themselves to the front of the hiring line.)Side note: Where is career services on this? Besides a brief mention of "heads up on bar deadlines" by Dean Wylie, what guidance have we gotten on things? No offense, but she could have told us "be sure to pick up your gowns or they’ll be wrinkled!" in an e-mail. You have all the 3Ls gathered in one room, why not take the time to address issues like -Health Insurance Options to Bridge the Gap Between School & Work-Bar Study Loans: The Ins & Outs of Applying, Getting Approved, etc.-Ideas for Short Term Employment between Graduation and Work-Bar Applications: We need references and lawyer sponsors??-Loan Repayment Options and SolutionsThis is just an off the top of head list and I know that there are some programs going on or yet to be scheduled which might cover this sort of thing, but in this economy and at this point in our lives, am I crazy to think the above topics deserve a little more front and center attention?
The ship be sinking…