Job market for new college grads looking rosy

SAN JOSE -- The job market for new college graduates is red-hot according to career counselors.

"I've gotten a few offers," said Bernice Webber, who will soon graduate from San Jose State University with a degree in biomedical engineering. She doesn't have a diploma yet, but she has a job if she wants one.

"People reaching out to me over LinkedIn saying, 'Oh, send us your resume, we think this would be a good fit,'" Webber said. "Primarily for consumables engineering, manufacturing engineering, so yeah, it's a good feeling."

She'll be part of a graduating class that will have some of the best job prospects in years.

"Last year we saw 28,000 job postings from employers. This year we saw over 56,000 job postings. That's a 50% increase," said Lisa Trikofski of the SJSU Career Center.

Trikofski says many companies listing jobs are right there at the top of many students' wish lists, including Cisco, Apple, Amazon, Google, Kaiser Permanente and the City of San Jose.

Starting salaries are also good news for many students, averaging almost $76,000/year for computer science majors, $74,000 for engineering students, and over $60,000 for business majors. Communications and humanities majors are in the mid-to-low $50,000s.

Software engineering major Alec Tang graduates next semester and has some companies already interested.

"They know that there's a lot of great products that come from San Jose State, up-and-coming engineers," Tang said.  

Students from other majors might not have lucrative offers, yet.

"I'm just applying and applying, just hoping I can make it here," said Lizeth Villarreal, who hopes to work for Pixar as a sound editor.

Jessica Gilles' dream job would be with Disney as an event planner. Both are juniors and brimming with energy and hope.

"There's more opportunities," Gilles said. 'Companies are hiring up again instead of letting them go."