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Despite the Gloom, Many College Grads Still Think a Dot-Com Is the Place to Be By Beth Cox March 15, 2001 Let's see, the economy is tanking, dot-coms are laying folks off left and right and today's college students wouldn't touch a job with an e-commerce dot-com with a 10-foot modem cord, right? Well, the economy and layoff parts may be right, but not that last bit. In fact, a recent survey found that despite the current market conditions, 40 percent of the students polled would still be willing to work for a dot-com. That surprised me; I would have thought that today's students might be much more inclined to head over to a General Motors or General Electric than, say, an Amazon.com. But what surprised me even more was that 31 percent of the students in the survey by college job listing and resume site JOBTRAK.com, when asked "Based on current market conditions, would you still consider working for a dot-com?" said they were never interested in the first place. Maybe I've become a bit overly focused on this Internet thing, because I think the Web, and e-commerce in particular, are so inherently interesting. Scary, maybe, in terms of the economics, but interesting. All told, more than 1,000 college students and recent graduates were polled, of which about 29 percent said they were no longer interested in the dot-com world. But for many dot-com worker wannabe's, the challenge is still there. "The opportunity to work on a variety of projects and assume a significant amount of responsibility is still very appealing to college students," said Ken Ramberg, president of JOBTRAK.com. "Many students feel that if ever, this is the point in their career that they can afford to take a few risks. In addition, if the dot-com were to fail, students are still confident that they will be able to land a job at a more traditional company." Despite the slowing of the economy (I would call it the slamming-on-the-brakes economy) college students and recent graduates still feel that they are in the drivers' seat when it comes to finding employment. In fact, 30 percent of students expect to have four or more job offers by the time they graduate, according to the survey. "What is striking is that there is no apparent effect on the entry-level job market of the economic uncertainty that is pervading the country," said Richard L. White, director of Career Services at Rutgers University. "If there is any reality to the job slowdown, graduating seniors do not seem to perceive it." Said Ramberg: "We are continuing to see employers aggressively recruit on college campuses as the demand for new hires continues to outpace the supply of new graduates ... this is the result of the baby boom generation reaching retirement age at a time when the supply of new students remains relatively flat. Students continue to be in the fortunate position of deciding which job is best for them, rather than worrying about if a job will be available." Oh, to be a student again, with all the confidence and the optimism. But still, a word of caution might be in order. I guess if I were a new grad and interested in a dot-com career, I'd want to look pretty carefully at the company making the job offer. I'd look at the potential employer's profitability, if at all possible. Even if it's not a public company, I'd at least ask. I'd also go for the highest salary I could get, as these days I have a lot more reservations about dot-com stock options than I did back in 1999. JOBTRAK.com has formed partnerships with and provides private-label, co-branded job listing and resume databases for more than 1,000 college and university career centers, alumni associations and MBA programs nationwide. The company says that more than 500,000 employers have utilized its services to target college students and alumni for internships and full-time and part-time employment opportunities.