Sunny Side Up: Student and new grad career news

Welcome to the first edition of Sunny Side Up, a weekly feature here on the TalentEgg Career Incubator which showcases bite-sized news and commentary about everything related to student and new grad careers.

Come on by every Wednesday to check out some of the most interesting stories from that week.

Want to see a piece of news featured? Fire me an email with “Sunny Side Up” in the subject line to cassandra@talentegg.ca or fill out the contact form over here.

Business grads: We’ll pay you to not come to work… yet

Macleans OnCampus – Thanks to the ongoing recession, Swiss bank Credit Suisse offered 20% of its next team of entry-level investment bank analysts $40,000 USD to defer their start-date to July 2010, instead of this summer.

Well, if you wanted 2009-10 to be your gap year, almost $50,000 CAD should do it. Has anyone heard about other companies doing this to weather the economic storm without alienating 2009 grads?

Screw winning the lottery – what would you do with a $50,000 year off after graduation?

Lower grades among university students correlated to Facebook use: study

Canadian Press – So, some researchers surveyed 219 students at Ohio State University and they found that Facebook users had GPAs between 3.0 and 3.5, compared to non-users who had GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0. They also found Facebook users only study 1 to 5 hours a week while non-users study a whopping 11 to 15 hours each week.

Although they say they’re not drawing a direct link between using Facebook and having lower grades, it’s been all over the news since the study’s results were released last Monday and a hot topic of discussion between social network lovers and haters.

Something that popped out was the study surveyed 102 undergrads and 117 grad students, but news reports don’t mention any division in the results. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the undergrads (who probably focus less on grades than seriously academic grad students) used Facebook, while most of the slightly older grad students either didn’t use it at all or used it significantly less.

And I bet they said the same thing about PONG in 1972. Just sayin’.

Work increases risk of dropping out

Globe Campus – A new study released last week by the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation found that while almost half of full-time college and university students work during the school year, even working less than 10 hours each week increases the chances a student will not return to school the following year. Working more than 20 hours a week almost doubles the risk of dropping out.

With rising tuition rates and the economy in the toilet, not working is not an option for many students. Do their grades suffer? Sure they do. My grades dropped into the C-minus range in second year while I worked anywhere from 20 to 35 hours each week at a clothing store making $8.50 an hour to cover my expenses.

However, I think this study underestimates students. Almost every student I know has had to work (or volunteer) at some point during the school year and, as far as I can tell, we all made it through – the TalentEgg team is a good example of students who succeeded despite working or volunteering and attending classes at the same time.

How do you balance working or volunteering with classes?

This article was written by Cassandra Jowett

Cassandra Jowett is TalentEgg's Content Manager. She joined the team as a student intern in the summer of 2008, and since then her heart has never really left the Egg Carton. Cassandra is a recent graduate of the Ryerson University School of Journalism, where she earned a Bachelor of Journalism with a focus in writing and editing for newspapers. She has also written and edited for The Globe and Mail, The National Post, t.o.night newspaper and other publications.