More than half of all recent graduates expect that it will take less than one to two months to find a full-time job. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Most of this year's college graduates expect to land a job rather quickly—but many are going to keep their current side gigs to make ends meet, according to Monster's Graduation Survey 2019.
Monster polled 350 18- to 26-year-olds graduating this year with either a bachelor's degree, vocational or technical degree, associate degree, master's degree, doctoral or professional degree. The survey found that more than half of all of the respondents (59 percent) expect that it will take less than one to two months to find a full-time job—and of those, more than a quarter (28 percent) expect it to take less than one month.
More women than men are confident they can get a job in less than one month (33 percent vs. 23 percent), and the youngest graduates, ages 18 to 20, are more confident than the other respondents, ages 21 to 26.
But that doesn't mean graduates are going to ditch the side jobs many currently have, according to the survey. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents (65 percent) currently have a side gig and of those, 30 percent say they plan to keep their side gig even after accepting something more permanent.
More than half of all of the respondents (47 percent) plan to target specific employers of interest, and slightly less (43 percent) plan to leverage networking contacts and other word-of-mouth channels. The third most-likely source (35 percent) are job boards, and as for social media, men are more likely to rely on Instagram as a resource than women (34 percent vs. 24 percent).
Starting salary and location tie for being the most important factors during the job search process (both at 32 percent), while lower on the graduates' list of priorities are company perks (14 percent), company mission/values (11 percent) and size of company (9 percent).
While most graduates are optimistic about their job prospects, many have some jitters about the actual interview process. More than half (55 percent) say they are feeling stressed about taking a job assessment to see if the job is the right fit and 51 percent are concerned about whether they are going to wear the appropriate outfit to an in-person interview. Interestingly, men are feeling more stressed about their attire than women (57 percent vs. 46 percent).
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Katie Kuehner-Hebert
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a freelance writer based in Running Springs, Calif. She has more than three decades of journalism experience, with particular expertise in employee benefits and other human resource topics.
