A recent study reveals that three-quarters of university students value job security to be more important than pay and benefits, when choosing an employer. Conducted by KPMG, the global network of professional services firms, the survey polled university students at a Berlin meeting of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), a global non-profit group active on college campuses.

Given the current economic environment, this shift away from career thinking is not surprising. In addition, over 50% of respondents would be interested in working internationally immediately after graduation; they obviously recognize that overseas opportunities are valuable for success in today’s global marketplace.

Another effect of the global slowdown is their consideration of post graduate education immediately after graduation. Sixty-nine percent indicated they are now “more likely to study for a post-graduate degree than look to get a job”. Moreover, the KPMG survey revealed that due to the downturn most (67%) said, they were more likely to work for a public or non-profit organization than a corporate business.

According to this survey, other factors important to students when choosing future employers included “real opportunities to learn new skills and develop themselves personally and professionally”, “challenging and exciting work”, and “opportunities to work with and learn from talented colleagues”.

Students still believe “personal development and enrichment” are top priorities when selecting an employer. They also want to use their business skills to help their communities. Organizations like SIFE develop students’ drive for community involvement, leadership, and career initiatives.

The majority of the respondents (55%) said they “might stay” with their first employer for two-to-four years—probably another example of the effects of economic concerns. Furthermore, the social media platform Facebook as the one they use most regularly and most often tap when researching information about a future employer.

The eclipsing of training and development by job security is temporary to the economic downturn. When the economies of the world recover—as many are starting to do already—we expect a return to career pathing and training being of primary importance—results found in our research for the book “How to Become an Employer of Choice”.

• Plant Engineer, Lanxess Corp.
• Project Engineer, Georgia Pacific
• Operations Leader, Stryker Medical
• Reliability Engineer, PCS Nitrogen
• Sr. Process Engineer, Nisseki Chemical
• Process Control Engineer, ERCO Worldwide

The completion of these searches once again solidifies Professional Outlook, Inc. as the premier search firm in the United States specializing in the placement of Engineers for the Refining, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Food, Beverage and related industries, as well as Environmental, Health, Safety, and Human Resource Professionals in the Manufacturing and Chemical Industries.

Our firm’s mission statement is to be exceptionally competitive and to achieve retainer-style results on a contingency fee basis by making a thorough evaluation of our clients’ corporate culture and maintaining long-term relationships with a deep and highly qualified candidate pool.  If we can add value to you or your firm in any way, simply respond to this e-mail and I will schedule a conference call within 48 hours to discuss your needs.

After a year of searching for a Senior Process Engineer for our refinery, we decided to turn to Professional Outlook as another source of candidates. Professional Outlook provided several strong candidates immediately and continued to refine the candidates they were presenting for our review to better match the unique skill sets we felt were important. They ended up providing the right candidate and assisted with closing the deal. We are very pleased with their service and effort to tailor to our needs and will continue to utilize their services.

~ Ronald Colwell
PE, Montana Refining Company, Inc.

OCCUPATION PERCENTAGE OF GROWTH

• Biomedical Engineers 72%
• Medical Scientists 40%
• Biochemists and Biophysicists 37%

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, “As the economy stabilizes, some who had dropped out of the labor force because they couldn’t find jobs said they were searching again and landing more interviews than they had earlier in the downturn.”

NOW is the time for you to put great velocity in your job search. Don’t convince yourself to take the summer off because no one is hiring. That just is not a true statement in today’s job market. What is true is that many job seekers WILL decide to take the summer off – so you will have less competition right now than you will in the fall. Set up minimum standards for yourself and get ready to start booking interviews!

• Senior Inspector, Flint Hills Resources
• Environmental Engineer, Ascend Performance Materials
• Continuous Improvement Specialist, Health Care Client
• Process/Project Engineer, ERCO Worldwide
• Corp. Mechanical Integrity Manager, Enterprise Products (pipeline)
• Process Engineer, Marathon Oil

A note for Professionals:
The completion of these searches once again solidifies Professional Outlook, Inc. as the premier search firm in the United States specializing in the placement of Engineers for the Refining, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Food, Beverage and related industries, as well as Environmental, Health, Safety, and Human Resource Professionals in the Manufacturing and Chemical Industries.

A note for Employers:
Our firm’s mission statement is to be exceptionally competitive and to achieve retainer-style results on a contingency fee basis by making a thorough evaluation of our clients’ corporate culture and maintaining long-term relationships with a deep and highly qualified candidate pool. If we can add value to you or your firm in any way, simply respond to this e-mail and I will schedule a conference call within 48 hours to discuss your needs.

In Brazil, a full 60% plan to increase their head counts, while in the Asia Pacific region and in Canada, about half of CEOs anticipate doing so. Only 39% of US CEOs expect to add staff; most (almost two-thirds) will increase modestly (5% or less).

The most encouraging statistic is that worldwide, 81% of CEOs are confident of their 2010 prospects (up from 64%) and only 18% remain pessimistic (down from 35%). Moreover, 31% of responding CEOs reported feeling “very confident” of their short-term prospects—an increase of 10 percentage points from 2009.

Executives in developing nations were more upbeat than their counterparts from developed nations. While 80% of North American and Western European respondents were optimistic about growth in 2010, 91% of CEOs in Latin America and China/Hong Kong and 97% in India said the same.

However, looking ahead to the next three years, the results were even more impressive: more than 90% of CEOs polled were confident of growth—a large number of executives thinking positively!

In spite of all of this optimism, many respondents are still fearful of a protracted global recession (65%) and over-regulation (60%). In fact, more than two-thirds of CEOs disagreed with the notion that governments have reduced the overall regulatory burden, while 65% agreed that regulatory co-operation will help mitigate systemic risks successfully.

ExecuNet’s latest Recruiter Confidence Index data reinforces the PwC study: executive recruiter confidence is at an 18-month high and more companies are adding new executive jobs. Sixty-four percent are “confident” or “very confident” the executive employment market will improve during the next six months.

“Perception is everything!” Confidence is up and we will see more hiring worldwide. The United States will likely not lead this recovery.

Herman Trend Alerts are written by Joyce Gioia-Herman, a strategic business futurist, Certified Management Consultant, author, and professional speaker. Archived editions are posted at http://www.hermangroup.com/archive.html Copyright 1998-2007 by The Herman Group of Companies, Inc., all rights reserved. Reproduction for publication is allowed by permission of The Herman Group, Inc., and must include the following attribution: “From ‘The Herman Trend Alert,’ by Joyce Gioia-Herman, Strategic Business Futurists.