The stereotype among many job-hungry college students is that looking for a career in Indiana is going nowhere fast. Unfortunately, some recent trends indicate that this line of thinking might hold some merit.
According to a study sponsored by the Indiana Human Capital Retention Project, Indiana ranks 50th, dead last, in the creation of new white-collar jobs, especially those in information-related fields. Instead, a large proportion of Indiana jobs is concentrated in the manufacturing industry, and while much of this work is well-paid, the number of such jobs is shrinking nationally.
The obvious question is "Why?" While experts' responses to this query vary, one opinion seems universal: Low educational attainment among adult Hoosiers is scaring off potential white-collar employers.
Y-Press recently conducted roundtables with eight students attending in-state universities. The students discussed their career plans and how the condition of Indiana's job market might affect their futures.
Aaron Culp, 22, Aliya Khan, 21, Csilla Ludanyi, 21, Dayna Schocke, 22, and Rebeca Villarreal, 20, are students at Butler University. All but Aaron and Rebeca are from out of state.
Natalie Moore, 19, attends DePauw University, Chris Recktenwall, 20, goes to Purdue University, and B.J. Trestrail, 20, is at Indiana University. All are from the Indianapolis area.
Job aspirations
AARON: I'd like to get into government. I'd like a job where I get to work with people and I get to work with problems and problem-solving.
DAYNA: I would love to be Cokie Roberts on This Week on ABC News on Sunday mornings discussing political issues. The field that I see myself entering is international management consulting.
CSILLA: I'm looking at life from a little bit different perspective. I just got engaged, so I'm thinking more of my family later on, and I think one of the biggest issues is gender issues and can a woman have a career and a family at the same time.
REBECA: I'd like to be a child psychologist because I find that way I can help the children who have problems, reach out to them.
CHRIS: I like communications. My ideal job would be something where I would travel and maybe do like public relations or something with Internet companies around the world.
NATALIE: I've declared a double major in computer science and math, and I don't know what I want to do with that yet. I guess my ideal job would be for me to be my own boss.
B.J.: My major is business, and computer information systems will probably be my concentration. I'd like to be a big shot in a big corporation, perhaps chief information officer.
ALIYA: I'd like to end up working for the United Nations. My father is from Pakistan and my mother is from England. Because I was raised in such diverse childhood, it's made me want to become a political scientist and study people.
Indiana's job market
AARON: I'm from Indiana. I love Indiana. I don't know if I'll stay here or not, though. It's going to depend on what offers I get when I graduate.
ALIYA: Honestly, I just don't find Indiana challenging enough for what I want to do. I mean if I'm going into international diplomacy, Indiana is not the place to be stuck doing that.
REBECA: For child psychology, the outlook is very good, but getting into grad school is really, really hard. Basically you apply to 10 different schools and whoever takes you, you go there.
DAYNA: My intention is to go to the East Coast. That is where the major hubs for international efforts are.
B.J.: Just about anywhere you go, you're gonna find plenty of openings and job positions involving computers and technology. So Indiana definitely isn't missed out by that.
If I had the money and the opportunity when I was out of college, then I would most likely move out of state.
CHRIS: For what I'm going into, the job market in Indiana probably doesn't really have as much to offer as like California or some place where the bigger computer companies are located.
NATALIE: I was very happy to see Lilly's announcement . . . that they are spending somewhere around a billion dollars on hiring 7,500 people over the next 10 years to bring more (opportunities) into Indianapolis. I think that's very good news for us, especially since they were saying that half those jobs are working with technologies.
Indiana isn't the most exciting place in the world, but I think there are definitely good opportunities here.
What Indiana can do
CSILLA: The government's not working hard enough to make education important to the lower classes.
DAYNA: Increase parental involvement in schools.
NATALIE: I think a lot of it is the environment you grow up in. Living in Carmel, I think it was like 90 percent of our class went to college. It would be abnormal for me not to go to college.
CHRIS: I think that a college degree is extremely vital. Like my dad majored in forestry, and there's not a whole lot that you can do with forestry, but just because he had a degree, he was able to get a job with a sales company and from there he has done really well.
REBECA: College has definitely been the steppingstone to my career. I don't think I could've gone from high school to my career.
AARON: The best and the brightest only go where the best jobs and where the cutting edge is and where you can earn the most money. And, unfortunately, most of the time that's not in Indiana.
Government would need to try to find a way to bring those companies, like computer companies, here.
EDITED BY: Nick Blandford, 17.
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Katie Beyer, 17.
REPORTERS: Michelle Foisy, 13; George Jernigan, 12; Nora O'Connor, 12; and Matt Parkinson, 12.