You've spent countless hours perfecting your resume?? and peppered your schedule with interviews. Now what? College seniors, especially those majoring in business, are finding themselves in a quandary. How do you choose which company to work for? Should you take the first offer or should you wait for a better one? Will there even be a better one?
There's no denying it; jobs are in demand. Because of the unstable economy, workers are being forced to delay retirement. And with unemployment climbing, graduates are competing with jobless fathers of five trying to put food on the table. Taking these factors into account, accepting the first offer, or any offer for that matter, might seem prudent.
But in reality, the job market isn't really that bleak. More than 350 employers will travel to UW-Madison this year to conduct interviews. So even in this job market, young, bright, qualified UW-Madison graduates have the power to decide between companies A and B.
Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group's Ecopledge campaign urges students to take this opportunity to make nformed choices based on the environmental and health impacts of leading companies. Using http://www.ecopledge.com, Ecopledge identifies harmful impacts of companies in different areas of business, and challenges them to make single, feasible changes in their environmental policy. If they refuse to make this change, students from across the country will refuse to work for them. This hits the affected companies hard because they are losing many high-potential job prospects, and it allows students to use their choices to make positive impacts on our health and environment.
Do you want to work for a company that refuses to label its food as genetically engineered, despite the fact it has proven negative health consequences for consumers? That's what Kraft Foods is doing. Do you want to work for a company lobbying actively to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge while brainwashing consumers into believing they are an environmentally friendly company? That's what BP Amoco is doing. Or do you want to work for a company that uses toxic phthalates, a softener linked to cancer and kidney damage, in the production of its soft toys for children? That's what Disney is doing.
The best thing about using your career choice to positively impact the world is that it works. Already, students have used the Ecopledge campaign to convince Coca-Cola to increase the recycled plastic in its bottles from a measly .05 percent up to 10 percent. This victory worked as a catalyst for Pepsi which, after pressure from students, just recently announced it is going from .05 percent to 10 percent and possibly 15 percent in the next few years.
As graduation looms, you have many options. You can accept the first offer that comes your way, regardless of the company. Or you can visit http://www.ecopledge.com and become better informed about which companies do not place a high priority on the health of our environment or consumers. You can decide that being a \good"" company means being a steward of the environment and caring about the health of the buying public. You can decide where you want to work. You have the power to make your career choice a good one for you and for your world.
