The recent economic downturn has many seniors worried. Job candidates from the Class of 2001 who are looking in the fields of finance, computer science and technology have seen major companies fire employees and rescind new offers.
A recent survey published in Time magazine reported that there was an 18.8-percent increase in hiring this year, far short of the expected increase of 23.4 percent.
Though University statistics on job acceptance rates will not be available until the summer, Assistant Director of Career Services Becky Ross said that the situation is not as bad as it seems. "[The job situation is] a little more hyped than reality. In certain sectors, businesses are buying others. But overall, this had not affected profiles," she said. "They haven't cut, say, 25 to 30 percent of employees."
Less than half a dozen students have informed Career Services that they have had jobs rescinded this year, Ross said, though ahe added that there may be more students with rescinded offers who have not asked the office for assistance.
Ross added, however, over half of those who lost their job have gotten other offers.
For example, JP Morgan and Chase merged recently, resulting in 5,000 job cuts and an elimination of seven to eight percent of the banking division.
David Choi '01 — an Operations Research and Financial Engineering major with a finance certificate, who will be working for JP Morgan Chase's investment banking division in the fall — said that he was not that worried about his position.
"Typically first year hires are protected," Choi said. "It would be a very bad PR idea to rescind offers. Reputation-wise, once you start doing that, you lose a lot of potential hires because less people will apply, and less people will accept offers if they know that a company has rescinded offers in the past."
Despite the economic slow down, some companies' recruitment processes were just as vigorous as ever. Jonathan Jessup '01, a computer science major, was hired by California-based Oracle, a business-to-business software company, as a Java developer.
"They flew me out to San Francisco for a few days, put me up in the Hyatt Regency and rented me a car so that I could check out the area," he said. "Once I received the job offer, I had 30 days to accept."
After the economic downturn, Jessup received a letter from the company. "[The letter said] Oracle is financially strong and that they are really looking forward to me joining the company."
However, he added, "People are definitely being affected . . . Intel is giving some students a 'Reverse Signing Bonus,' which means that students can keep their signing bonus and two months of salary if they do not show up to work. Cisco Systems is giving students 12 weeks of compensation if they rescind their offer."
Philip M. Viergutz '01 is an operations research and financial engineering major with a certificate in finance. He will work for Brown Brothers Harriman, a private merchant bank on Wall Street.
"I was not overly concerned about getting my offer rescinded," he said. "This was a private bank and they are fairly immune to economic downturns."
He added, however, that people close to him were not as fortunate. "My roommate got an offer very early on in the year with Sapient, an IT consulting firm. He got his offer rescinded in February and had to restart the job process. He eventually decided to do Christian missionary work in Venezuela for a year and then work in Texas for a consulting firm."
According to Ross, University seniors have not suffered any more than graduates at other four-year institutions.
"[The rescinding rate] is about the same. Certain companies recruit at Princeton, but it balances out because companies go to schools where they have had the best success in the past and cut out schools where they have had less success," Ross said.
She added that this is a cyclical process, but added that the University has an "incredibly strong reputation."
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