There's no doubt about it. New college graduates with computer science (C.S.) and information systems (I.S.) degrees, must think they've died and gone to heaven. The competition for new graduates from these technical disciplines is keener than it's ever been, and employers will tell you, it's been fiercely competitive the last couple of years.

Although a strong job market and low unemployment rate have provided a boost to new graduates from non-technical as well as technical disciplines, those with C.S., I.S. and E.E. degrees continue to be the most sought after graduates, said Camille Luckenbaugh, director of employment information for the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

In fact, anticipating the shortage of qualified technical graduates this spring, many employers -- hoping to get an edge on their competition -- began showing up earlier on campuses. "A lot of career centers we deal with said more employers came to their campuses this year and many recruiters who normally come in the spring moved their recruiting up to the fall," reported Luckenbaugh. Luckenbaugh says many schools were reporting full fall interview schedules as early as last September. "We heard of schools renting space in nearby hotels to accommodate all the interested employers," she said.

Local schools mirrored the national trend. "There was an increase both in the number of companies that came to recruit this year and the total number of interviews scheduled," noted Traci Martin, assistant director of the career center at University of Maryland College Park. "Many companies also came to campus earlier in the year to recruit." In fact, Martin added, "We're already scheduling interviews for fall '98 and spring of 99."

Jeanette Rousseau, employer relations coordinator for The George Washington University in D.C., also reports that employers came earlier this year. In fact, Rousseau said more employers came to GW looking for technical talent than in previous years. "It's part of a national trend," she noted. "Companies are visiting more schools to find the computer science and electrical engineering graduates they need."

Offers Higher

The situation has left a real scarcity of technical graduates for anyone recruiting this spring. In fact, Claudia Allen, in media relations for NACE, said, "Career center directors are telling us they're completely out of students."

As might be expected in such an intensely competitive recruiting environment, the average starting salaries for the most sought after candidates were markedly higher this year than last. According to NACE, computer science grads received offers averaging $40,843, an increase of 9.8 percent over last year's average while information systems graduates averaged offers of $39,476, an 11 percent increase over the previous year. The average starting salaries of $42,629 for electrical engineering graduates represented a 7.8 percent rise. Even liberal arts grads saw higher starting salaries.

"Across the board, for technical as well as non- technical disciplines, salaries are up," says Martin.

Besides better salaries, some attractive perks accompanied this year's bidding for new technical graduates too. "Almost 50 percent of 472 NACE members responding to a survey said they offered signing bonuses," reported Luckenbaugh. "The majority of companies offering those bonuses offered them to computer science graduates and others with technology related degrees." The reasons employers gave for providing the bonuses said Luckenbaugh, included attracting students to certain locales, attracting students with specific skills, and simply doing whatever was necessary to compete. Luckenbaugh also noted that companies who made limited time offers -- usually 7 days -- often made signing bonuses contingent upon the students accepting their offers within the designated time limit. Martin confirms there were some students at the University of Maryland who received signing bonuses if they committed to offers early.

Insufficient Numbers

"We're hearing from some of our career centers that more companies are coming to campuses requesting no specific majors, so clearly, the shortage of technical graduates is having a trickle down effect on non-technical graduates," said Luckenbaugh. "We have also heard from the people we talk to that companies who have started their own training programs are willing to hire students who don't have computer science degrees but who have the aptitude and interest to learn technology."

Martin confirms the trend. "We are seeing more employers this year leaving their preferred major unspecified," she says.

The same is true at GW. "A lot of companies are really considering other majors and looking more at skills," echoes Rousseau. "We've had a history of companies that have done that in the past, but today, more companies are taking that approach. A lot of companies are saying they'll look at any major, particularly if the student has technical skills. Maybe they've developed a Web site of their own or have a personal or hobby interest. Maybe they've had a part time job using their computer skills. If companies think someone has the skills and aptitude to learn, they're increasingly willing to hire them and provide additional technical training."

D.C.-headquartered Fannie Mae is one organization Rousseau points to in this context. This July, the organization is launching its University Systems Technologist (UST) program, aimed at recruiting and training non-technical graduates for IT jobs.

"For the last twelve years, we've had the Business Technologist Program (BST). For that program, we've recruited people who had three to five years of business experience but no real technical credentials," explained Cathy Mattax, director of the CIS (Corporate Information Service) business office of Fannie Mae. "For the first time, we're going after new undergraduates with no previous work experience. It's a pilot program for us since we don't even pursue new graduates from technical disciplines."

For the new UST program, Mattax said, "We're open to people from all disciplines--business, finance, math. We're also considering people with music, English and history degrees." The real priority, she said, are strong analytical abilities. "It could be helpful to have a background in analysis, but not necessarily in programming," noted Mattax.

Candidates being considered for the program take two standardized aptitude tests. "One assesses analytical skills and programming aptitude, and the other, a general behavioral assessment, helps us look at how they'll operate in a work environment," explained Mattax.

Those ultimately hired will be in the program for a three year period. "The first four months are intensive technical training -- everything from C programming to Sybase and Unix," explained Mattax. "Once they graduate from that, they are assigned to one of many possible positions in our CIS organization and the balance of their 36 months of training is done on-the-job through a series of job rotations." Mattax also pointed out, "These employees are given accelerated reviews every six months which enables them, if they're doing well, to move up to a competitive technology salary from the entry level salary at which they are initially recruited.

" What job titles will UST program graduates have? "They may end up as developers. There's also a possibility they could end up as data base administrators, in systems engineering, or in configuration management or testing," said Mattax.

When asked why Fannie Mae started the program, Mattax said, "We've been very successful in our BST program recruiting very good people, and since we know the market for seasoned professionals is tightening up, we wanted to see what the potential for growing our own talent at this level could be." Noting that the class size for the first UST program is likely to cap out at 15 people, Mattax said, "If the pilot proves successful, I anticipate we'll have one class a year."