BYU grads finding jobs with ease

This year's graduates from Hawaii universities are enjoying unusual success finding employment, career counselors report.

Brigham Young University-Hawaii reports that among its April graduates who sought employment, 62 percent had jobs upon graduation. That's the highest placement rate BYU-Hawaii has ever attained in the three years since it established a placement office, said James Bieby, employer relations manager at BYU-Hawaii's career center.

BYU-Hawaii's rate was considerably higher than the national rate of approximately 50 percent reported by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the university said. BYU-Hawaii based its placement rate on surveys filled out by 95-98 percent of graduating students, Bieby said.

BYU-Hawaii is not alone.

Cynthia Inouye, employer liaison at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said she did not have placement statistics, but noted that UH sees few anxious students coming to the career services office looking for work.

Employers, meanwhile, are flocking to recruit.

Among those are companies such as Verizon Wireless, which Inouye said has been recruiting students to work in three new retail stores that the cell-phone provider plans to open early next year.

And the situation is perhaps even better for graduates of the UH College of Business.

"It's good; it's hot," said Toni Kruse, who runs the career center at the business school.

In fact, Kruse said, the B-school has about 700 to 800 employers offering internships for only about 175 undergraduate, graduate and MBA students per semester. At least half of the internships are paid.

"We have more jobs than we have students," she said. "It's a great problem."

Although Hawaii's economy no doubt plays a large role in the success of recent grads, BYU-Hawaii's Bieby said other factors are also at play at BYU-Hawaii, which has students from 76 countries to which graduates usually return.

BYU-Hawaii makes an effort to get recruiters to come out to Hawaii and visit the campus, Bieby said. Plus, he said, the university has a lot of highly motivated students.

"Really in the end, the students who succeed are those who put in a lot of extra effort," he said.