■ Current career status and future trends of Aoyama Aogaku

As the COVID-19 pandemic has moved to Category 5 and the increase in the job offer ratio for university graduates shows (1.50 times for March 2022 graduates, 1.71 times for 2024, and 1.75 times for 2025 / quoted from Recruit Works Institute's "Survey on Job Offers for University Graduates (for 2025 graduates)" in June 2024), companies and other organizations are more willing to hire, and the seller's market for new graduates is becoming even more pronounced.

As for the career and employment status of our graduates in the 2023 academic year (graduating in September 2023 and March 2024), 81.4% of the total will be employed, 9.3% will continue on to higher education, and the employment rate (the percentage of employed people among those seeking employment) will be 95.4%, which is 0.3 points higher than the previous year's 95.1%.

By faculty, College of Community Studies led the way with 97.6%, with all other faculties of humanities and science showing high figures of over 90%. The rate of progression to graduate school etc. was 9.3%, compared to 9.8% in the previous year, with the Faculty College of Science and Engineering accounting for over 70% of the total, and the majority of progressions were internal progression to Graduate School of Science and Engineering at our university.

In terms of the industries in which graduates have achieved employment, information and communications, finance, consulting, as well as the aviation, tourism, and service industries, which are enduringly popular among our students, ranked high in terms of the number of employments, as shown in the table.

In addition, company information sessions and job interviews are being held in both traditional face-to-face format and online formats. The "polarization" between students who are highly job-conscious and start their job hunting early and those who are late in their preparations has become even more pronounced in recent years. Under these circumstances, companies are making job offers at an early stage in order to secure excellent human resources who are a good fit for their company through internships, etc., while students, even after receiving job offers, continue job hunting until they are satisfied, and the trend toward "earlier" and "longer" recruitment activities is becoming stronger.

Furthermore, recruitment methods are becoming more "diversified," including not only mass hiring of new graduates, but also job-based (where the duties and place of work are clearly stated in advance) and offer-based (where companies directly approach the talent they are looking for) recruitment.

I don't imagine there will be any major changes in the way our students look at their jobs in the future, but there will be a demand for changes and flexible responses to them, such as bringing forward hiring schedules, early selection through internships, and the introduction of generative AI.

■ Selection for internships and other positions are separate from the main selection. Try the main selection process.

Some students misunderstand that "I couldn't pass the internship selection, so I'll give up on the main selection," or "If I can't get early selection from the internship, I won't get a job offer." At our center, we meet and talk directly with recruiters from many companies on a daily basis, but there is no company that fills all of its planned hiring numbers through early selection.

On the other hand, most companies say that they want students who did not pass the internship or open company selection process or did not apply to apply for the final selection process. Although companies want many students to apply and hire excellent students, it is difficult to accept many students for internships or open companies in August and September due to the facilities and manpower of the venue. In addition, companies do not only want to hire students who are early to prepare for job hunting, but also understand that there are students who focus on classes and club activities until the second semester of their third year, and may not be ready by the time of the internship selection process in June and July. Internship and open company selection processes are separate from the final selection process, so you should not give up and apply for the final selection process of the company you want to work for.

■ Support from the Career and Employment Center

Aoyama Gakuin University Career and Employment Center offers career and employment support through individual consultations and a variety of support programs to help each student make an informed career choice.

The three pillars of support are the provision of our university's unique career and employment information, the holding of career and employment support events, and individual consultations. In addition to supporting 3rd and 4th year students in their job hunting, which is commonly referred to as "job hunting," in accordance with the academic fields and characteristics of the Aoyama and Sagamihara campuses, we also focus on supporting students, including graduate students, to think about their future career paths from an early age and to foster a sense of vocation and work, by providing advice on how to spend their student life from an early age, without being too caught up in the category of their grade, and holding support events related to career development.

In addition, with the cooperation of the Aoyama Alumni Association, an organization made up of graduates, the University Division's Current Student Job Hunting Support Committee, and others, we also hold various events and seminars such as "Alumni Networking Cafes" and "Mock Interviews and Group Discussions with Alumni."

If you have any problems regarding your future career or employment, please feel free to use our center.

We conducted a survey of students graduating in March 2024. Here are some real messages from job-hunting students.

*In addition to the above, you can check out real messages from job-hunting students here. In addition, the "Job Hunting Guidebook for Parents of Students Expected to Graduate in 2026," which has already been sent to parents of third-year undergraduate and first-year graduate students, is also recommended for parents of first- and second-year students. Please click on the image below to take a look. In addition, we have issued the "Career Design Book 2024" to students.

*The years of employment, Position, activities, etc. of the people featured are, in principle, those at the time of the interview, unless otherwise noted.