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Despite a challenging job market for recent graduates, Sydney Strecker (Fin’24) is grateful to be starting a new career this fall, offering hope and insights to those still seeking opportunities.

Sydney Strecker, a spring 2024 Leeds graduate, is no stranger to the tepid reception of recent college graduates in today’s job market. By many media accounts, from CBS News to Business Insider to The New York Times and The Denver Post, new entrants to the labor force are not exactly getting the welcome mat laid out for them at employers’ doors. A May 2024 declared: “The Class of 2024 is about to join a job market nearly as turbulent as their college years.”

Strecker feels fortunate that this September, she’s starting her new role as a business consultant with McKinsey & Company in Denver, something she attributes to both strategy and luck.

“I would say that I am lucky because the industry I’m going into hires early on. The internship I did my junior summer, I recruited for my sophomore summer, which was two years in advance of when I was going to start my job,” she said. “It’s definitely harder to recruit for consulting today, as hiring targets aren’t the same as two years ago when I was recruiting. It’s a lot slimmer. So, my heart goes out to students.”

Still, despite having secured a job, she isn’t immune to experiencing occasional bouts of anxiety. “I do feel the stress of it from time to time—if they are going to downsize … as the most junior person in a firm, would I be one of the first to go.”

Being willing to pivot

The gloomy outlook aside, Strecker believes that even in a tricky job market there are positive steps students and recent graduates can take. She reflected on her own experiences of turning obstacles into opportunities.

Initially, Strecker planned to study medicine to become a cardiothoracic surgeon.

“A couple of weeks into my courses, I had this realization of ‘Oh my gosh, all I'm going to do is this.’ I wasn't scared of the schoolwork in medical school; I love being a student, and I thought it sounded incredible to be spending 15 years learning. But then I had this realization that I was just going to be doing the same procedure over and over for the rest of my life … I needed something that was more creative and would throw different situations my way.”

A professor recommended philosophy, and Strecker discovered that she loved the problem-solving involved. “But I kind of hit a wall again, realizing I didn’t really love the subject matter of philosophy,” she said, foreseeing that she wouldn’t enjoy having to debate issues like trying to argue the existence of God.

That led to another pivot: the decision to study business—one Strecker says she hasn’t regretted. She graduated with a major in finance and business analytics, as well as retaining her major in philosophy to benefit from the complementary skillset of a double major. “I think it’s one thing that really sticks out on my resume, and people always ask me about it.”

Leveraging opportunities and experiences

Another pivot came in Strecker’s sophomore year. She wasn’t having luck finding internship opportunities and felt insecure about her skills. She decided to explore whatever experiences were available that could help position her more competitively.

Enter EESA, the Global Seminar for Entrepreneurship & Empowerment in South Africa. Through the program, participating students from CU, University of Notre Dame and the University of Florida are matched with students from the University of the Western Cape, and together they are assigned to consulting teams that work with a range of entrepreneurs in South Africa.

“You have to re-center to explore what the business school offers and what CU offers, and then leverage those experiences that you can put on your resume,” said Strecker. “I will promote the EESA program for the rest of my life. It’s about the wealth of experiences that you get from something like this.”

Strecker also credits the Leeds Consulting Group as an instrumental factor in her ability to recruit for a consulting career. “For me, the impacts are in the hard skills, but more importantly, the soft skills development that I’ve gotten,” she said.

“If I think back to my EESA experience, you’re put on consulting teams with students from different schools, and the teams are purposely organized to include diverse skills. Everybody on the team is different—you may be the only student in business, someone else may be a psych major or in international affairs.”

The challenge of bringing together different perspectives and backgrounds aids in problem-solving and crafting creative solutions, she found. “That was an incredible learning experience, and I could speak to that in an interview. It mimics real life and what companies are looking for in new hires.”

“You have to re-center to explore what the business school offers and what CU offers, and then leverage those experiences that you can put on your resume.”

Sydney Strecker (Fin’24)

Taking advantage of career resources

Strecker also pointed to the value of Leeds’ career advising in helping her secure internships and ultimately her job. “Jess Baumgarten [assistant director of Career Development] spent countless hours with me going over resumes, cover letters, prepping for interviews and strategizing how I could network, finding who I should talk to. I don't think I could have done it without her,” she said.

Amanda Hansen, director of the Leeds Career Development Office, said that Leeds students can access career development resources from their first year through graduation and beyond. The staff’s experienced career coaches assist with job search strategies, provide tips on optimizing resumes and cover letters, and act as a support network. The office has been carefully monitoring trends and launched a webinar series over the summer to help 2024 graduates with resume writing, using AI for job searching, and acing interviews.

“This year, we have found that recent graduates are having a harder time finding their first position after college. There have been so many layoffs, and recent graduates are competing with people who have years of experience and are applying to entry-level positions,” said Hansen.

“Networking and having a warm referral still seems to be the best way to get in front of a hiring manager.”

Amanda Hansen, Director of the Career Development Office

“Companies that used to get a handful of applicants are now seeing hundreds of candidates,” she added. “Networking and having a warm referral still seems to be the best way to get in front of a hiring manager. We encourage students to use our resources and the Buff network, and to reach out to alums for help.” It may also be an ideal time to research opportunities for a gap year and graduate school.

Looking ahead

Going through the job search process was daunting at times, Strecker said. She completed several rounds of interviews for a few companies, including behavioral interviews, for which she benefitted from prepping. She described those interviews as mini engagements in which the interviewers presented a problem, and she had to work alongside them to come up with a solution in an hour.

Strecker is excited about being at McKinsey in a role that will span functional areas and projects, exactly the kind of flexibility she hoped to find with a range of possibilities. “So, for three months I may be doing some sort of operations case for a manufacturing company, and then maybe my next project will be six months and involve evaluating a target market or a new product or service offering for a tech company. It can go anywhere.”

She returned to EESA this past summer as a program coordinator, hoping to share the benefits of her experience in the program as a student. While there, it dawned on her that she cares deeply about social entrepreneurship, particularly economic development and poverty alleviation. “I would love for my life to come back around to that at some point,” she said.

While students like Strecker can breathe easier after securing a job, New York Times Opinion Writer Peter Coy offered some hope to those still in the job search process. In his May 30, 2024, article “ he wrote that while analysts and industry observers may disagree about the specific reasons for the turbulent job market, including the fact that recent grads may have lacked training and networking while studying remotely during COVID, “The good news is that a lot of people are aware of the problem and striving to do something about it.”

Spring and summer 2024 graduates who are still identifying career opportunities are invited to participate in the next sessions of the Career Development Workshop series on Thursdays this summer at noon.