Wisconsin Builder

Like any momentous occasion, graduation generates an array of conflicting emotions.

On one hand, there's the anxiety of leaving behind the protective womb of college life before setting out into the wide world. On the other hand, those years of study and diligence meant something, and many grads approach the unknown with the hope and optimism that their learning will pay off in professional life.

But when the students step off campus, what will Wisconsin's construction Class of 2004 find? Is the job market going to treat them well?

That depends on what they want to do, where they're willing to go and how much on-the-job experience they take with them. For students who plan to work as estimators, engineers and project managers for contractors, the market seems robust.

Hans Timper, director of the Construction Program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, said his school's newly minted alums face a bright future. "Things are good out there in the real world," he said. "Our students tend to have multiple job offers."

Statistics for Stout's most recent graduates aren't yet available, but Timper said the Class of 2003 took home an average starting salary of $45,000. His students are venturing off into an assortment of occupations, from engineering to project management, for companies representing a wide range of industry sectors including residential, commercial and heavy and highway construction.

Mary Spencer, director of placement at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, said the prospects for her school's Class of 2004 also look rosy. Only 12 students graduating this year signed up for placement assistance, meaning the rest of their classmates had little difficulty finding jobs. And even those who needed some help won't need a guiding hand for long, she said. "There's not much of a problem at all," Spencer said.

And Jeff Russell, chairman of UW-Madison's Construction Engineering and Management Program, sounded a similar theme. "I'm not aware of students seeking my help to find jobs," he said.

The story gets more complicated for architects, however. Jim Shields, an associate professor at UW-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning, said the job market has been slow for at least three years. It bottomed out last year, but it's beginning to show signs of improvement. After polling students and colleagues at firms in the region, Shields described the mood as one of "guarded optimism."

"There's been a significant improvement over the cool 2003 period, which was pretty grim," he said.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the booming health-care market is providing the deepest well of job openings, and Shields said graduates willing to work on hospitals, biotechnology research facilities and clinics will find that job opportunities are relatively plentiful. At the same time, he said young architects view health care as "dull," and most aspire to be the next Santiago Calatrava, the designer of the Milwaukee Art Museum addition, and participate in design competitions for top-flight projects.

And what's true for new holders of master's degrees, like Shields' students, is proving true for graduates at Wisconsin's technical colleges. Dave Shonkwiler, dean of the Madison Area Technical College's Agriscience, Apprenticeship and Industrial Division, said there's not even one job opening for every graduate of his school's two-year architectural technology program. That compares much less favorably to MATC's Construction and Remodeling Program, whose graduates are seeing two to three job openings before them, Shonkwiler said.

Architects stand a much better chance of landing a job, however, if they've coupled their formal study with experience in the field, which Shields described as "critical."

"A lot of recent grads without experience are having problems," he said. "In every interview, [company hirers] say, 'Tell me about your experience.' Principals are cautious about hiring new people."

Even in the more welcoming world of project management, grads who have done internships with companies typically find job hunting a more pleasant experience.

Some schools simply encourage their students to spend months off campus working for a company, and others, such as Stout, require it of their students.

"It's considered something they should do," said Randy Rapp, an associate professor at MSOE and director of the school's Construction Management Program. "It gives both parties a chance to check each other out. Spending a summer or two doing what they're going to be hired to do, that gives them a leg up."

Waukesha-based consulting engineer Ruekert/Mielke has established a cooperative education program for project-drafting students with Waukesha County Technical College. The relationship has yielded fruit for the company, said Ken Williams, Ruekert/Mielke's chief financial officer who oversees hiring for the firm. "You get to test-drive somebody and see if you like them," he said. "[We have] hired a number of people through that program."

In the summer, Ruekert/Mielke also takes on a handful of civil-engineering students from UW-Platteville, Marquette University and other schools. Williams said he views the summer internships, during which the students are out in the field inspecting projects and reviewing construction techniques, as a nice “two-way street.”

Students get a valuable summer job, while Ruekert/Mielke gets to pick the cream of the crop when civil-engineering positions open up.

"I always say to summer students, 'This is a good opportunity,'" Williams said. "If we hired a new engineer, and they had never been out on a job site, we'll tell them, 'The whole first summer you're here, you'll be out on job sites.'"

Miron Construction Co. Inc., Neenah, is hiring one new graduate for its work force, a UW-Stout alum who's bringing internship experience with him, albeit from one of Miron's competitors, said Dean Basten, the company's secretary/treasurer, who heads up human resources. He said experience is mandatory, but it's also important to know what kind of experience the grad might bring. "Did they just do the minimum? Because a lot of students do more than they're required," Basten said. "We're a general construction company, so we look to see if they have general construction experience."

This year's graduating class is going mobile, some by choice, others by necessity. Timper's students at Stout are sticking close to home, fanning out across the upper Midwest, primarily in Wisconsin and Minnesota. About 25 percent of Stout's students typically leave the region, mostly because they want to get a taste of life outside their familiar surroundings, he said.

Wisconsin is also providing a home for most of MSOE's graduates, Spencer said. Nearly three-quarters of the 2003 class, the last for which data are available, stayed in Wisconsin, and the next most likely options are Minnesota and Illinois, she said. "We don't have a brain drain going on at MSOE," she said. "And if they leave, they almost always come back."

At UW-Madison, Russell said his students are best off if they're willing to start their careers in a major metropolitan market such as Boston or Los Angeles. Some of his students have found jobs with local contractors, but graduates with a more restrictive view of geography are having a tougher time.

"It appears the construction market is strong, and as long as they're willing to travel they can find jobs," Russell said. "It's not impossible to get work around here, but putting constraints on the search can make it more difficult."

As one of the nation's top 20 programs, UWM's School of Architecture draws students from around the country and the globe, Shields said. At one point a few years ago, the program had a student from every continent, and many grads prefer to head home to their native lands to start up practice, he said.

Of the 40 or so master's graduates each year, slightly more than one-quarter stay in the Milwaukee area, and those that stay in the Midwest usually go south, Shields said. "With experience, recent grads are not having a problem finding work in Chicago."

But wherever they go, grads should be prepared to confront more than just what they learned in the classroom, Williams said. "People can be and should be trained technically," he said.

What's more important are job skills applicable to most professions. Are the prospective workers good communicators? Are they conscientious about their jobs? Can they handle meetings without letting them spin out of control? Can they stay in touch with clients and bring in more business for their companies?

"We look for the people who can juggle all of these things," he said. Williams added, though, that this might be a little too much to ask of even the most sterling student.

To find out if the grads have what it takes, if they possess the cool needed to run a job site, Miron will apply a little heat, Basten said. "In our interviews, we try to put them on the spot, just to see how they handle the pressure under circumstances they haven't planned for," he said. "We have identified the schools that will have the basics we're expecting. We're looking for the intangibles beyond that."

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