The turbulent 2009 economy has not deterred college students and recent grads from pursuing their goals. In its fifth year running, the results of our annual Placement Survey shed light on some of the employment trends surrounding the Class of ‘09 and their plans for the real world.

More than 630 Gen Y’ers completed the 2009 Placement Survey (dubbed “Share Your Success with Experience”) between the beginning of June and the end of September, and 63% of respondents said “yes” when asked if they were on their intended career path. At nearly two-thirds in the middle of a recession, that’s good news.

So what about the other 37%? Some just had change of heart and others (16%) modified their career paths due to the economy. Forty-three percent of students chose jobs because it was their field of interest and other reasons that followed were advancement opportunities (12%), company culture (9%) and lack of other offers (12%).

What made certain young grads stay on their original tracks and others switch? Obviously, the economy is a major factor—even though we’re finally seeing the light as the recession lifts, students are still moving away from fields such as Finance, which is down when compared to the results of our 2008 Placement Survey. Interestingly, industries like Accounting have seen an uptick in hires. Also in the same vein as last year’s survey, Education was one of the top industries young grads are gravitating toward with 8% of the total respondent base.

We all know that internships help the next generation workforce get experience and exposure to help them decide which career path to pursue. Interestingly, in 2009, roughly two out of five grads (42%) told us they never held an internship during school. On the flip side, nearly three out of five (58%) held at least one internship and, in some cases, more than that. Of those who held internships during school, close to half (44%) landed a job in their desired field.

Now more than ever, there is a direct correlation between students who take on internships and receive jobs and those who don’t. Bringing on interns for full time entry level employment is a great way to fill your pipeline with the right kind of talent in the most cost effective manner. If you hired an intern (paid or unpaid) and they ultimately applied for a full-time position within your company, odds are you’d lean towards your intern vs. other candidates.

One last thing to keep top of mind as you are looking for entry-level employees is that those students who will be graduating in 2010 are looking for positions NOW.  Top candidates are not waiting to get themselves set up for life after college. Follow their lead: promote your internship programs and entry-level openings to help position your company in the right place in the Gen Y world.

To get more insight, check out our Gen Y Insights whitepaper – Internships Becoming a Very Effective Sourcing Strategy – for tips on how to use internships to bring on the best new hires possible.

For the fourth year in a row, Experience took the pulse of Gen Y as they set out to find their first jobs after graduating from college. Our 2008 Job Placement Survey, which ran this past summer from mid May through September, polled close to 650 young professionals about the jobs they landed after graduation. We covered everything from job functions to industries and from salary range to reasons for taking the job in the first place. Given our current economic climate, and especially considering a related independent study also released recently, we’ve found some pretty interesting things.

Looking at the outcomes of job offers extended so far in 2008, we found that the top 10 industries that placed candidates – seen above with relative percentages – represented nearly 60 percent of all industries. With some slight adjustments, three of this year’s top five hiring industries (Education, Finance/Banking and Accounting) were also in the top five in our 2007 Job Placement Survey. In 2008, we’ve seen an increase in placement in the Technology and Healthcare verticals, as well as jobs at Non-Profits and in Government.

When it comes to the roles that they play, new hires in 2008 topped the job functions list with Engineering at close to 9 percent. Following were Teaching/Education (8.3 percent), Accounting/Auditing (6 percent), Finance (5.9 percent) and Sales (5.2 percent). Analysts also appeared in the top 10, as did marketers, researchers, consultants and administrative staffers. Compared to last year, 2008’s job functions signal a pretty drastic change, as the top two functions – engineering and accounting – each dropped in half, from 18.8 percent and 12 percent respectively.

So what does all of this tell us? Well, let me put it to you this way: of the 650 Gen Y’ers polled, nearly a fifth of them took jobs in education. A good number 20-somethings are teachers or hold related job roles in education. While it’s pretty much a given that finance/banking jobs no longer rule the sphere, our respondents’ job placements have validated macroeconomic trends – and as a result, they’ve actively pursued jobs outside the finance and accounting industries and are looking into other sectors.

As I mentioned in my Job Function Search Spectrum post from a few weeks back, employers in 2008 (and for the foreseeable future) should consider positioning their companies and their entry-level opportunities to a larger, more diverse Gen Y audience.

The numbers don’t lie. Finance and banking opportunities for young talent are dwindling, and the market is only getting tighter for young grads. Though employers are most definitely feeling the pinch all around, the glut of entry-level workers represents tremendous opportunity to move beyond industry lines and hire the best candidates possible for their job functions. And in this competitive landscape, job seekers must consider branching out as well.

As a marketer with a Bachelor of Science in television/radio, I often find myself curious when I hear colleagues, friends and even family ask just what exactly what does someone “do” with a communications degree?

Back in the day, as a Park School of Communications undergrad at Ithaca College, I “did” a whole lot. I managed the college radio station my senior year. I interned full-time in publicity and promotion at a major record label. And in addition to my academics, I participated in a number of other activities, covering everything from joining a creative advertising team to handling crisis PR, and from being a DJ to booking bands at music clubs.

All of this experience played a role in setting me on my career path. After a couple of years working professionally in radio, I ultimately earned a master’s in marketing communications and officially launched my marketing career. And though this is my story, it’s heartening to see that communication/media students and young professionals today are pursuing familiar roles.

In dissecting the Experience Network member base, our Gen Y candidates who have selected communication/media as a major in their personal profiles have indicated interest in a variety of job functions. PR and marketing – my bread and butter – account for nearly a third of the top dozen functions. Also in the mix are writing and event planning (at 10 percent each); creative/design/multimedia (9 percent); advertising and broadcasting (at 7 percent each); and sales (6 percent).

While it’s true that communications as a major isn’t always as clearly defined as accounting, computer science or engineering, it’s a major that produces candidates for all employers in all industry verticals. It’s also interesting to note, in looking at my post from last week, that marketing, HR, management and sales fall in both the top 12 communications job functions – but also the top 10 overall functions, as searched by Gen Y candidates over the last three months. Functions like PR and marketing align with what’s traditionally defined as communications. However, when looking at the communications majors who are interested in careers in HR, sales and so on, these candidates – with solid writing and verbal communications training  – might be fertile ground for positions that don’t typically align with their area of study.

Communications majors are everywhere. And in our current corporate climate, which frankly spotlights the significance of strategic communications as a business tenet, employers must continue to seek effective “communicators” as businesses navigate an evolving economic landscape.

Early last month, Experience launched the Talent Insights blog with a post covering the busy fall recruiting season. Specifically we took a look at page view trends on the Experience Network, and in the process we learned a few interesting things about our members.

This past week, again in the spirit of learning more, we took a close look at Gen Y’s career searches on Experience.com. And again we found a few interesting things, especially considering the current economic turbulence (to put it mildly) we’re all working and living through.

Take a look:

Over the summer of 2008, Experience Network members searched for entry-level jobs covering a wide span of job functions… more than 90, in fact. The top 10 job functions searched by Gen Y, as identified above in the pie chart, accounted for nearly half of all of the searches. And as you can see, jobs that are financially related accounted for exactly half of the top 10.

I wonder what those candidates are thinking now?

Looking at the graphic, it’s clear that the accounting/auditing and finance functions alone accounted for nearly a third of all job searches. Chances are some of the opportunities at financial institutions that were open even a month ago are no longer available due to the turbulent economy and the havoc the conditions are wreaking on Wall Street and beyond.

There’s a silver lining with all of this, though… in a Lindsey Pollak blog post from a couple of weeks back, she referenced a story in the New York Times that discussed a website – Leave Wall Street and Join a Startup – that’s dedicated to helping displaced banking professionals (and the thousands of other “non-banking” employees, like software engineers, who worked at banks) find new opportunities in technology startups. On an interesting and related note, the IT/Systems job function placed seventh in our Top 10 list, accounting for 7 percent of all searches.

In the final quarter of 2008, employers outside of the banking and investment arena – especially those who are seeking business and financially-minded Gen Y talent – now have a unique opportunity to position their companies and their opportunities to a wider job-seeking audience. Go get ‘em!