donsutherland1

Terpeast, I very much didn't want to create the impression that it is easy to move from school into the workforce for meteorology majors and apologize if I have created such an impression. I do remember the challenges you faced a few years back, as the job market was rapidly deteriorating. I believed then and still do that you deserved better and that any employer would be fortunate to have you on board. I hope all is going well for you.

I agree, at least to some extent. One of my friends works at a college career services office. She told me that many students skip the workshops/events that are offered beginning sophomore year and afterward and only show up during their senior year (sometimes spring semester!). At the risk of being overly blunt, if that situation is representative across many campuses, it shows a lack of urgency and foresight on the part of students to explore/develop career options at a time when extra preperation is essential. Waiting until the last year simply won't cut it. Others will already have made contacts, developed professional networks (and alumni can be helpful in that respect), had concrete internship/volunterr/parttime experience, etc., and will be at an advantage. Companies will tend to choose a candidate with somewhat of a proven track record than another applicant simply based on first or second-impressions from interviews. In the current climate where companies are even more risk averse than average and many are relying more on temporary workers, concrete experience and relationships are of paramount importance. Ultimately, a student who has demonstrated a capacity to work well at an organization e.g., via an internship, is at a qualitative advantage over another who lacks similar experience. Such experience is probably the best predictor as to how well that student will perform once employed, hence the risk of employing him/her is less than doing so for a student who lacks such experience. Finally, as noted previously, I don't minimize the challenges facing today's generation of college students. The difficulties getting into the workforce are deeply worrying. Nonetheless, an engaged student can increase his/her opportunities, and those increased opportunities can raise the prospects as to whether that student will be employed immediately upon graduation.

Tough competition in the meteorology field is not an exception, but the norm experienced in many fields (especially those susceptible to global competition). Moreover, unlike the meteorology industry (and one can broaden it to the physical sciences category, which includes even more opportunities and having the flexibility to capitalize on opportunities in that broader segment would be a wise approach) which is projected to enjoy moderate growth, there are actually industries where the absolute number of jobs is projected to decline. http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm The reality of the post-recession environment is that many fields have stiff or stiffening competition. There is a structural component to unemployment in a number of industries meaning that not every industry will recover to its pre-recession status and some of the job losses will likely be permanent. At the same time, the U.S. fiscal imbalances suggest that the spurt in the number of government jobs created in recent years is likely a temporary phenomenon. In fact, as fiscal consolidation ultimately has to be pursued (by choice or by financial/debt market realities in the medium-term and beyond), slow or negative growth in all categories of government jobs could become a reality. Hence, the private sector will likely account for a larger share of Met jobs than it presently does. Academia, might also, but public higher education institutions face immediate financial challenges that mirror those plaguing their state governments. What all that means is that today's college students will need to do everything possible to make themselves relevant/attractive, as entry into the job force immediately subsequent to graduation is no longer as seamless or assured as it was in the past, even for graduates from top-tier schools. This challenge confronting the current generation of college students is deeply worrying, as there is empirical evidence that graduates who have difficulty entering the labor force suffer from adverse long-term impacts (future opportunities are fewer, wage growth is less robust, etc.). Some older workers will need to make difficult choices, especially if they were/are participants in industries that are either declining or won't recover fully to their past extent. Highly educated people, in general, have greater latitude to adapt to job market challenges than those with lesser skills/credentials. Meteorologists/meteorology graduates fall into that category of highly educated people and they are eminently qualified for numerous related fields in the physical sciences that have strong job growth prospects. That doesn't mean things will be easy by any stretch of the imagination nor that their won't be frustration/heartbreak at times, but it does mean that things are not as bleak as they are in some other fields, notably the low-skilled, declining areas from which dislocated workers have little career mobility.

For another perspective, one can read the Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook (2010-11 edition): http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos051.htm