In mid-March, Union College student Adam Cappel got the job offer of his dreams.
It came from Black Rock, a New York City asset management company. They wanted Cappel, an economics major, to analyze fixed-income portfolios. He'd get $55,000 a year, a $6,000 signing bonus and a bigger year-end bonus.
Cappel turned it down.
This fall, the 21-year-old from Oswego will be making $100 a week working with AmeriCorps, a network of national groups that perform services such as disaster relief, inner-city tutoring and building affordable housing. Cappel has signed on for 10 months.
“It's definitely hard to turn down that money, especially in such a bad job market,'' he said. “But at the same time I have to ask myself: Will I be glad I took that job?''
Cappel is one of a growing number of college students who are having second thoughts about their career goals. Many are going to graduate school or law school to ride out the recession. But others are looking to jobs that can offer something more than money.
“We attribute it to Sept. 11,'' said Rosemary Keane, a spokeswoman for the Peace Corps in New York City. Since Jan. 29, when President Bush announced he wanted to double the number of corps volunteers, the organization has seen a 39 percent increase in inquiries and an 18 percent increase in applicants over the same period last year, she said.
During that same time, AmeriCorps saw a 75 percent increase in online applications. Bush, who has pushed volunteerism in the wake of Sept. 11 attacks, said he hopes to increase the number of AmeriCorps volunteers from 50,000 to 75,000.
“It's really been a tremendous shot in the arm to have President Bush highlighting AmeriCorps in his speeches around the country,'' said Sandy Scott, spokesman for AmeriCorps.
Teach for America, which recruits graduates to teach in a public or rural school, this year received 14,000 applications, the most in the organization's 12-year history and almost triple last year's 4,946 applicants. Teach for America also is admitting a larger corps this year — 1,700, compared with 930 last year.
While altruism in the face of terrorist attacks may account for some of the increase, a lack of jobs also may be having an impact. Jerry Bohovich, a spokesman for the National Association of Colleges and Employers in Pennsylvania, said a survey of employers found a 36 percent decrease in college hiring at the bachelor's degree level in 2002, compared with the year earlier.
At Union, senior Neil Routman of Kansas City, Kan., a Boston finance job offer that paid in the $30,000 range in favor of teaching English in Korea. He also would like to join the Peace Corps and teach business skills to Muslims in North Africa.
Routman said Sept. 11 had a big impact on him.
“After going through that experience, it really makes you question your values and your time,'' he said. “What I'm trying to do is help form relationships and bonds between countries that should have relationships.''
Local college job counselors said they have noticed an increase in students interested in public service. When the University at Albany and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute co-sponsored their first public service job fair in March, more than 450 students attended.
“Students have also began searching their souls and looking for meaningful experiences,'' said Tom Tarantelli, director of RPI's Career Development Center. “Students are really thinking about their values and their contribution to people, to the environment and the planet.''
Marie Rabideau, associate director of the Career Development Center UAlbany, recalled one student who spent his first three years on campus talking about how he wanted to make a lot of money after graduation. After Sept. 11, he started talking about getting a job that would give him enough time to raise a family.
“We have had more students saying, 'I want to make a difference,' '' she said.
Cappel said the prospect of 70- or 80-hour workweeks is what made him think twice about the analyst job with Black Rock. But he still might go back into finance after his stint with Americorps.
“I just want to get the experience,'' he said.