Despite some arguably unfair criticisms regarding Millennials and their various expectations for job prospects after college, it seems that this so-called “entitled” generation is working its ass off in college to establish good job prospects after graduation. According to a recent report on the state of college hiring, today’s college students are doing what they can to acquire some of today’s top job skills – so much so, in fact, that 53.4 percent of today’s college students and recent graduates haven at least one computer science class regardless of their college major. And the reason? To make themselves more competitive in today’s job market.
The 2015 State of College Hiring report was conducted by Looksharp‘s InternMatch, a website serving as the largest internship and entry-level jobs marketplace for college students and recent graduates. Based on data compiled from more than 50,000 students, the report looks at everything from what students and recent grads are doing to get hired, to the kinds of internships or entry jobs that they’re finding. Of the many things the report shows, it provides supporting evidence that students are expanding their knowledge base to classes not just within their chosen majors or academic tracks.
(Looksharp / InternMatch)
Even if students don’t plan on taking a job in computer science, programming, or engineering, college students nowadays do recognize the importance of having at least some knowledge of CS as a leveraging factor in helping them to acquire jobs or internships. According to the report, more than half of all college students and recent grads have taken a CS course, ranging from 39.7 percent of college freshmen to 60.1 percent of grad the students. What’s more interesting, students pursuing a business major are more likely to have taken one or more computer classes – with 68.6 percent of business students responding positively versus 33.1 percent of students in academic majors.
For recent grads or current students still looking for a way to expand their CS knowledge, consider checking out these 60 free computer science college courses you can take online. (While this seems odd to offer currently-enrolled college students with additional classes outside of their curricula, the State of College Hiring report found that 26 percent of students actually have previously taken online courses offered through platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and CodeAcademy.)
You can read the full 2015 State of College Hiring report here.
