The financial markets are reeling, some universities have found their funds frozen, and more professionals are retreating into MBA programs even as fewer emerge from them with their dream jobs. How are UVA’s finance-minded undergrads doing? Not panicked—yet.
Tom Fitch, assistant dean for the McIntire School of Commerce’s career services, says that with seven months till graduation, “over 10 percent of our current fourth year students are reporting that they have received full-time offers from their summer internships. Of those, approximately 8 percent have accepted already. As of today, I’ve heard of no rescinded offers.” However, internships this past summer appeared down versus last year, when nearly two-thirds of commerce undergrads interned before their fourth year, and almost half of those interns eventually accepted jobs with their host company.
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"As of today, I’ve heard of no rescinded offers," says Tom Fitch, assistant dean for the McIntire School of Commerce’s career services. |
Prospects look scarier for this year’s graduates when you consider what else the class of 2008 did. Almost one-third went to New York City, and almost 40 percent of the class toiled in investment banking for an average compensation worth $85,000. Chances are those numbers won’t be repeated without a U-turn on Wall Street. Moreover, two companies that have imploded, Lehman Brothers and Wachovia, were tied for fifth place among companies offering the most jobs to UVA last year. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae also stood high on the list.
Fitch suggests that UVA’s McIntire School does buffer the potential blow. It recently held a “very successful career fair” and, before the drop in the financial markets, developed a program called Careers in Finance 101. That program now looks prescient, since, as Fitch explains, “it’s meant to provide information on jobs in finance beyond the typical investment banking role. We’ve had three sessions so far with three more to go.”
Brooke Bandy, president of the undergraduate Commerce Council, believes that the McIntire School’s prestige and efforts insulate students somewhat from the market carnage. She hasn’t noticed a change in recruitment by major companies. Indeed, on a recent Friday, Starbucks was full of young recruiters from Deloitte talking to students eager to schmooze for their own travel mug and possible employment offers.
Bandy herself plans to go into account management at an advertising agency after she graduates.
“While the current financial crisis is worrisome, it hasn’t affected my career plans,” says Bandy. “Many companies enhance their marketing and advertising efforts during economic downturns.” Her peers in the finance-heavy Sales and Trading student organization declined to comment for this article.
Bandy, meanwhile, can empathize with poor sales. When “monitoring my portfolio,” she says, “it has the majority of my savings for after college and watching the value drop has been stressful.”
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