College students face pressure to get a job from the moment they step onto campus until graduation, impacting their mental health and life choices. From Cox to Lyle, career centers try to meet the needs of students searching for what to do after graduation.
Emma Barrett is a senior double majoring in psychology and political corporate communications & public affairs. She came to SMU without knowing what she wanted to do.
“I originally applied as an international studies major. I then decided to do political science, and then I switched again [to psychology], so I honestly had no clue what I was getting myself into,” Barrett said.
It wasn’t until the end of her sophomore year that Barrett officially settled on psychology and began carving a path toward law school. But the pressure to build her resume started much earlier.
“Most of my friends are business or finance majors, and they have to secure internships up to a year beforehand,” Barrett said. “I did feel a little anxious.”
Now, as president of SMU’s pre-law fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta (PAD), Barrett feels more confident in her path. Through PAD, she has networked with attorneys from various fields, helping ease some of the uncertainty about her future.
“I know people that are working at Goldman Sachs or have secured jobs already, and they’re my age. I’m like, ‘I should be doing more,’” she said.
Similar to Barrett, Julianna DeBock, a senior finance major in the Cox School of Business and president of SMU’s business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, also entered SMU’s business school uncertain about what to study.
“I felt like that was very different than a lot of the other people that I knew,” DeBock said. “I didn’t decide on a major until sophomore year.”
DeBock is about to graduate and said the stress of finding a job is relevant now more than ever.
“At the beginning of this year, I had a teacher who asked, ‘If you have a job, raise your hand,’” DeBock said. “That was terrifying because all the banking kids have their jobs by the end of the summer.”
Cox’s Career Management Center is dedicated to helping students find internships and jobs before graduation, and it helps take the pressure off students.
Brandy Dalton, the senior director for BBA and MS career programs at the center, leads eight teams of career coaches who help Cox students plan their future.
“We start our journey with the students on day one,” Dalton said.
Cox career coaching starts early due to the different industries that have increased their recruiting.
“We’re not just seeing it with investment banking and consulting,” Dalton said. “We’re seeing a lot more industries shift their recruiting timelines for internships even earlier.”
In addition to the stress that comes from looking for a job, there is also academic pressure. But, there is not one major or school at SMU that has it the hardest, it’s just different types, DeBock said.
“People who are in Meadows, like dance majors, they’re constantly in rehearsal,” she said. “Then there are people in Lyle, where it takes them two hours to do one problem, and they have seven a night. I just think that the stress comes in different forms.”
DeBock is right. Both dance and engineering students said they have their own pressures to worry about.
Hailey Mills is a senior majoring in dance and engineering, two different academic disciplines. She graduates in May with her dance degree, but will stay at SMU for another year to finish her engineering degree.
Mills said there is more pressure within Meadows.
“It’s almost easier to get an engineering job than it is to get a dance job,” Mills said. “There is not a paid internship position in dance. You are paying to dance.”
Senior dance majors like Mills travel to New York where they take dance classes, meet SMU alumni and take a career path class. Mills said the class taught them how to integrate their skills into the dance industry. She also said speaking with SMU dance alumni helped.
“Being able to meet with a bunch of SMU dance alumni and hearing all their different stories and what path they’ve taken, it helped settle that anxiety of, ‘Oh crap! I have to do something incredible when I get out of college,’” Mills said. “Thanks to the new alumni opportunity and senior dance trip, I don’t feel that much pressure to jump the gun straight out of graduation.”
A new Meadows initiative headed up by Timmie Hathorn, assistant dean of career success at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, takes a page out of Cox’s book.
Hathorn connects with freshmen to make Meadows Career Success counseling appointments to help students secure jobs before they graduate.
“It is a counseling appointment that is geared specifically to Meadows majors,” Hathorn said. “Students in those areas get to talk about career success and networking with alumni immediately when they are here in the fall.”
As Mills prepares to graduate this May, she plans to use her fifth year to combine her love of dance and engineering to make a career for herself.
“One of the things I’m working on is to integrate dance and electrical and computer engineering,” Mills said. “Ideally, I’d be designing the lighting for the show that I perform in.”
