What a crazy past couple of weeks it’s been. The turmoil on Wall Street is certainly keeping me up at night, though I’m fortunate in the sense that I wasn’t one of the thousands of brokerage employees who lost their job in the ensuing collapse. In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, an article discussing the current market and its impact on recent B-school grads spelled it out plainly: a well-defined career path isn’t something you can bank on anymore. And like the current crisis, the need to reevaluate career paths extends well beyond downtown Manhattan.

Now more than ever, money matters and career choices go hand in hand. Take everything that goes with a down economy and add in the skyrocketing costs of higher education, it’s no surprise more and more college students and young alumni are grappling with school loans and their significant impact on BIG decisions… decisions like “what am I going to do for the rest of my life to pay off my debt?”

Earlier this month, Experience polled Gen Y on the subject of student loans and their role in forging career paths. In our Student Loans Survey, half of the respondents who indicated they were currently in school reported they are more likely to accept a job that offers higher pay, but less career satisfaction, in order to repay their student loans. Nearly a third of this group reported that their loan status weighed heavily in decisions to pursue a particular career. Of the college grads who took the survey, the vast majority – at 88 percent – said they have made sacrifices in their budget because of their student loan payments. They indicated these budget sacrifices have affected even common expenses like gas, rent and food – not to mention entertainment and retail shopping.

While it’s certainly a positive sign for our economy as a whole that college students and young grads are taking preemptive measures to deal with the financial ramifications of student loan debt, the reality that career satisfaction is sometimes put on the back burner as a result is unfortunate. But that’s just what it is: reality. As one survey respondent put it…

With all of this said, there’s a silver lining for recruiters who are competing to bring onboard budget-strapped Gen Y talent. Employers who have the ability to offer paid internships, scholarships, loan assistance initiatives and related benefits that ease student loan debt burden will only help them attract – and ultimately retain – the largest pool of qualified entry-level candidates.

The lure of “being someplace else” gets very strong in college. After several years toiling through school, the idea of finding someplace new, different, fresh and exciting can be very appealing. As an undergrad at Ithaca College in Central New York, I knew I needed a change of pace after graduation. I never wanted to see snow in May again! And eventually I got what I wanted – I moved to Boston in the late ‘90s and have been here ever since. I’ve even endured a few April blizzards, but that’s another story.

Last month, Experience launched its 2008 Hot Cities Survey and polled students and young grads on the topic of what makes a city desirable. But we also dug a little deeper and asked about factors on relocating both domestically and internationally. Gen Y told us some interesting things – things that should affect how employers are luring entry-level talent to not just their companies, but their cities.

New York City led the pack of most desirable cities, at 12 percent ranking it number one, followed by Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco respectively. Seattle/Tacoma, Atlanta, Boston and Charlotte tied the fifth place slot at a 5 percent response rate each. Other cities in the top 10 included Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Interestingly, a whopping 85 percent of Gen Y indicated they were interested in relocating inside the country, and 70 percent even said they’d consider moving abroad if presented with the right opportunity. By far the most popular reason for relocating was chasing career opportunities, but survey respondents also reported that the social/cultural scene, proximity to family, weather conditions and availability of public transportation were important considerations as well for a big move.

Given this information, it’s pretty clear that employers have the opportunity to attract a larger entry-level talent base by sourcing beyond their geographical boundaries. Candidates will make a significant move for a job, provided the “extracurricular” considerations add up. Recruiters must know what drives Gen Y as young grads make big moving decisions – and then they should use this knowledge to optimize their workforce development efforts. By promoting the aspects of living in a specific region in their outreach, employers can not only ensure they’re dipping into a larger candidate pool – they can positively affect their local, regional and even state economies.

Did you hear? In November we’ll be voting for a new President of the United States. And of all the election-related things we’re hearing about in the news on a daily basis, we’re constantly barraged with “oil this” and “gas that.” Seriously, I don’t think one day goes by without hearing about something related to energy. Just this morning I read that House Democrats have embraced a plan to allow for more offshore drilling. It’s a significant issue!

But what does all of this mean for employers in the energy arena?

It’s no secret that oil and gas companies are making lots of money. They’re also hiring lots of entry-level talent, especially in the back-to-school timeframe. Over the past few years we’ve even found that the key industry players have started their recruiting processes earlier and earlier in the fall season, as hiring for geoscience majors has become extremely competitive. We’ve also found that many of these companies have augmented their programs to include Gen Y-friendly hiring and retention initiatives. But are their programs working?

It certainly seems so. The top five oil and gas companies in the Experience Network had an average of 13 applies per job with a 5 percent conversion rate (from job search results to apply). And no surprise – the largest of the bunch, ExxonMobil, led the pack in search activity. The second runner up, ConocoPhillips, interestingly is the smallest company in our list in terms of annual revenue. Following ConocoPhillips in the Gen Y search activity rankings are Chevron, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, respectively.

Whether they’re seeking drilling engineers, equipment operators, field office managers, electronic technicians or any number of specific entry-level positions, oil and gas companies – to remain competitive and relevant in the eyes of candidates – must consider more than the compensation package and embrace innovative tactics to attract and retain Gen Y talent. These initiatives can include using internships as extended interviews, providing clear career growth paths (whether managerial or technical) and leveraging green initiatives and other socially-focused programs.

On an interesting and related side note, late last year Experience polled Gen Y job seekers on issues related to the 2008 elections. In the survey, we found that candidates put more emphasis on social issues than their worries about obtaining a full-time job. Of the issues identified, energy consumption was a top concern.

Earlier this year, the Boston Globe published an article on the habit of job hopping by 20-somethings. In “Job hopping an option for young people,” author Penelope Trunk made her argument that the best thing a Gen Y working professional could do early in his career is to move around, a lot, so he could figure out what he likes among other things.

When I first read this advice it seemed backward. It’s not in line with what my college career counselors preached. And it’s certainly the opposite of what my parents drilled into me when I was first starting out as a young grad. But… that was over a decade ago.

Experience issued a press release today covering our June 2008 “Life After College” study, which surveyed hundreds of young alumni who use the Experience Network to help manage their careers. We learned many interesting things in analyzing the results. Most notably, what Penelope wrote about last spring held true in our research: generally speaking, we found that Gen Y is always on the job hunt even when they’re happily employed.

Here’s a breakdown of what we found at a high level:

• 70% of young grads reported they left their first job within two years of their joining
• 43% of Gen Y are not in the career they expected to be in after college, either because they couldn’t find a job, or another opportunity presented itself
• 60% are currently looking for another job or career, despite the fact that 57% indicated that they are also happy at their current job
• 74% of recent graduates are in a career that aligns with their college major

Let’s face it… job hopping is not going to go away. But employers can be proactive and reduce Gen Y attrition rates by tailoring a few common practices to accommodate the needs of entry-level employees, including:

• Setting realistic expectations (sharing what it’s really like to work at a company, forgoing the polished corporate speak)
• Embracing new forms of direct communication (incorporating instant messaging, text messaging and other interactive media into daily communications)
• Promoting lifestyle benefits (bringing young employees together for meetings and training sessions that marry entertainment and learning; allow work-at-home flexibility, etc.)

What else are you doing to retain the Gen Y talent you’ve worked so hard to bring on board?

Welcome to our inaugural Talent Insights post! Every week, we’ll be providing employers, professionals in career services and career-seeking candidates with relevant and actionable data-driven insight, covering all things Gen Y, to help you do your job better – whether it’s setting recruiting strategy, helping others or looking for a new career.

With Labor Day behind us and the back-to-school recruiting season officially off and running, we thought we’d take closer look at the general assumption that college students look for and pursue job and internship opportunities most actively in the fall. As we sliced and diced our data on total Experience Network page views over the past year, we found out some pretty interesting things. The most significant observation: though the “fall is crazy busy” assumption did hold true, there was a substantial activity boost in early spring that we must consider as we plan for 2009 and beyond.

Starting with August 2007, and then tracking each and every month through this past July, you can clearly see there was a bump in Experience Network page views in the back-to-school timeframe. Interestingly, the most significant peak was not in the fall – it was in the middle of winter. Looking at the trends, nearly a quarter (24%) of our traffic came in between January and February 2008. This more than doubles the numbers from last December, and it’s a jump up from September-October 2007 (which represented 21% of our annual traffic over this time frame).

It’s pretty clear that following a two month downward trend leading into the holidays and winter break, students returned to campus recharged for the spring and most likely focused on their goals at hand: to either find internships for the summer, land full-time jobs by May and/or use all the industry content and career resources available in the Experience Network to help them find success.

There are probably a host of reasons why the page view ups and downs are what they are. Regardless, we can extrapolate the numbers to consider the bigger question: should employers seeking Gen Y talent recalibrate their efforts to better reach candidates when they’re most actively engaged throughout the year?

On that note, welcome once again and happy fall!