College job search starts earlier than ever
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2013 09:43 AM

Earning a college degree is not easy, and neither is paying off the mountain of student loan debt that many individuals accumulate. If they want to put the knowledge and skills they acquired to good use soon after graduating, and start chipping away at that debt, students should consider taking a career test before their final year. That is because these days, the job search on many college campuses starts as early as fall of senior year.

At least, this is the case at many undergraduate business schools, where recruiters from Fortune 500 companies, consulting firms and banks are heading to campus early to hire the brightest talent before their competitors even have a chance, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

"They are trying to get the best and brightest, get there first, have the offers made and accepted with everything etched in stone," O. Ray Angle, director of university career services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told the news source.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, companies plan to hire 13 percent more college graduates in 2013 than they did in 2012. With this knowledge, and the fact that more employers are looking to hire earlier than ever, students should make sure they are ready to begin their job search as soon as they begin their final year.