Parents too involved in job search?
Graduates turn to Mom and Dad for job-finding help
By Sarah Sullivan, contributing writer
Posted on November 20, 2006

As parents assume a larger a role in job searching for their recently graduated children, some job counselors worry those graduates are losing out in the long run.

“In our office, we are concerned about the emerging role that some parents are taking in job-search matters,” said Lee Ward, director of JMU’s Academic Advising and Career Development Center.

“College students are at a developmental point where it is essential that they take responsibility for their education, learn to make their own decisions and take responsibility for the consequences of those decisions.”

Although unemployment rates have fallen, graduates are finding it harder to land stable jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent in October.

But according to the Center for American Progress, the unemployment rate itself is an inadequate measure of the availability of jobs. While the unemployment rate has fallen, the share of the working-age population with jobs has remained at levels well below those reached during the previous economic expansion of the late 1990s.

“The job market is always competitive, but parental interference in job-search activities probably hurts a student’s chance of landing one of those jobs more than it helps,” Ward said.

Jim Ballard, Managing Director of Wharton, Aldhizer and Weaver law firm in Harrisonburg who has experience hiring kids straight out of college said finding jobs relates back to college majors.

“Students who graduate with softer majors have a harder time trying to find a job,” Ballard said, who is a parent of a recent college graduate. “Students with harder and technical majors find it easier to get jobs.”

He added, “People won’t hire kids as a favor, but parents try to get their child an opportunity to interview with someone.”
Harrisonburg Police Department’s Human Relations Specialist Karen Musselman said since the job market is not as competitive in Harrisonburg, parents do not play as large of a role as they might elsewhere.

“Every now and then you see a parent come in with a student,” she said. “You see parents twice a year at the absolute most. It is very rare.”

Regardless of how often parents step in, job counselors and some students think the job search should be an individual task.

“I know that I won’t need my parents help in finding a job after I graduate. I feel confident that I can use my own means to find a suitable career,” freshman Amelia Seagle said. “Even if I did want my parents’ help, I think they would rather I be independent and find a job on my own.”

Freshman Kaity Hauter, however, said as long as parents are not present in the interview process, parents can play a role.

“Students are just taking advantage of their resources if they use connections,” she said.