Fortune is smiling on John Argentiero, and he can hardly believe it.

The double major in economics and decision-and-information sciences is graduating from the University of Maryland, College Park in a week and he has landed a job as a senior technical associate with AT&T; Corp. in Middletown, N.J.

One of the perks is that he'll be near his fiancee. Another is the company's health, dental and vision plan. The 401(k) is nice. But his salary blew him away. The 23-year-old will start at $53,800 a year.

"I yelled, 'Oh, God, yes!' " he said. "I expected around $37,000."

Argentiero, who will be designing features such as call waiting for AT&T;, is one of thousands of college seniors who had their pick of jobs this year. The booming economy and low unemployment rate are putting graduates, especially those with technology skills, in a comfortable position while company recruiters try to fill jobs.

The crunch for personnel has brought rising salaries, better benefits and more aggressive attempts by companies to woo students. College career-development coordinators talk of sky-diving trips, generous bonuses and wining and dining.

"Some of the larger companies are really going to extremes to get technical grads," said Camille Luckenbaugh, employment information manager at the National Association of Colleges and Employers. "They're offering concierge services and dry cleaning on the premises, all kinds of things. I saw a report of one recruiter hitting the clubs at night and handing out business cards to entice students to her organization. They're really trying to be unique in their efforts."

International Business Machines Corp. hired 3,000 recent graduates last year and is looking to hire another 3,000 this year. With traditional job fairs, IBM recruiters are trying to reach students anywhere they can.

They built a 20-ton laptop computer in the sand on a Florida beach last year to get the attention of students on spring break. This year, the company hired an airplane to fly over the students with a banner touting employment at IBM. Bathing-suit-clad students climbed into a virtual-reality machine and took a three-minute "ride," during which they went everywhere from an archaeological dig where researchers used IBM laptops to outer space where they witnessed a cooperative program with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

"It's really an arms race, so to speak. Companies are trying to outdo each other on campus, and we also take a comprehensive approach to relationships at schools by getting involved in student groups," said Maribeth Voss, program manager for IBM's national recruiting organization.

'Drive and energy'

While businesses want to hire the cream of the crop, they are considering those with less than stellar grades.

"We are definitely going a little deeper than we would have before," Voss said. "A smart company knows it's not only the students with a 4.0 [grade point average] that do well, but those who have proven themselves by working their way through school and shown they have drive and energy. Definitely companies are going a bit further than before."

Career advisers on campus say the hiring environment is more favorable than it's been in recent memory.

"Within the last five years we've seen a marked increase in the assertiveness of companies recruiting students," said LaVern Chapman, associate director of the undergraduate business career center at the University of Maryland, College Park's Robert H. Smith School of Business. "Nine years ago, the economy wasn't as sound and students were knocking on employers' doors. Now employers are knocking on students' doors and they [the students] love it, they absolutely love it.

"Think about it: You're 21 years old and you feel like you're in the driver's seat."

CreSaundra Sills, director of Loyola College's career development and placement center, said students there are "doing quite well."

"Regardless of their major, 70 percent find full-time jobs within nine months of graduation and another 20 percent go to graduate or professional schools," she said. "At any given time 4 to 6 percent are still looking, and the rest are traveling abroad and not looking."

Mini Nunna, recruiting service coordinator at the Johns Hopkins University, said the competition among firms on campus can be fierce.

"When companies call to schedule interviews, they want to know when the other companies will be there," she said. "There's a subtle pressure, for example, with Microsoft and Compaq who are obviously pushing for the top computer science students."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer and data-processing services is the fastest-growing industry for jobs, with 1.2 million in 1996 and a projected 2.5 million in 2006. The other fastest-growing industries are health services, management and public relations, transportation services and residential care.

'Very competitive market'

RWD Technologies Inc., a Columbia-based technology, training and consulting firm, is one of those rapidly growing businesses. It had 520 employees in 1995 and more than 1,000 this year. Employment at the firm is expected to double by 2004, said Shelley Grant, RWD's university recruiting coordinator.

"We're looking for engineering students and IT [Information Technology] students and it's a very competitive market right now," Grant said. "We recruit at 20 universities twice a year. If there's anything we can offer, it's that there's always room for growth here."

While students with degrees in technology, finance or accounting are especially sought after, advisers say liberal arts students are also finding jobs, although they may have to work a little harder to get them. Consulting firms and retail companies frequently target liberal arts students, with company officials saying they're often interested in students' attitudes and aptitudes more than in skills.

Take Kathleen Coffman, a psychology major who graduated from Loyola yesterday. She landed a position at Travelers Property Casualty Corp. in White Marsh, where she'll be working in the special liability department.

It's not the kind of job she envisioned when she declared her major, but as she got further along in college she realized she didn't want to be a therapist.

"Most people I interviewed with really seemed to look at people in every major," said Coffman, 21. "They train you anyway and they want someone who can learn and is motivated."

Siobhan Burke, who also graduated from Loyola College yesterday, with a degree in management information services, didn't want to take chances. Burke recalls when her brother and sister graduated from college with liberal arts degrees in the 1980s. Recruiters weren't beating down their doors, and both went on to earn graduate degrees.

"I remember thinking I should find a useful major," she said.

She likes the black-and-white quality of her field vs. areas such as English and political science that rarely have cut-and-dried solutions. As she'd hoped, her major served her well. Shortly before Christmas, she accepted a job with Andersen Consulting in Washington and turned down three offers. The jobs paid in the mid-to-high-$40,000 range, some with signing bonuses.

"I knew I'd be quite comfortable with any of the salaries," said Burke, 22. "What was more important was what I would be doing and who I would be working with."

Burke chose Andersen because she worked there full time as an intern last summer and liked the environment and the people.

Recruiting juniors

Many companies are offering internships for those reasons. They want students to get to know the business -- and vice versa -- and return after graduation. It's part of the get-them-early strategy.

"It's not college seniors we're recruiting anymore; it's college sophomores and juniors," said Anne Koenig, Deloitte & Touche's director of recruiting for the central Atlantic region. "We get access to students through a variety of mechanisms -- classroom presentations, career fairs. What we used to do for college seniors we now do for juniors, and we're looking for ways to attempt to work with departments and create business partnerships to help people understand the opportunities the [accounting] career provides."

Firms such as Deloitte face a problem. Beginning June 30, students who take the certified public accountant exam must have completed 150 credits -- or five years -- of school compared with the current requirement of 120 credits, or four years. The new rule makes the major less attractive.

"There's just a dearth of supply of students," Koenig said. "We are growing rapidly and that's only sustained by people."

'Feel so fortunate'

Although the problem of supply and demand means jobs for students, the situation is not without other pressures. Some companies try to force students into accepting jobs quickly by offering a big signing bonus for immediate decisions, with the dollar amount declining with each passing week.

After Burke accepted the job at Andersen in December, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"I just feel so fortunate," she said. "It's so nice to not have to worry about it anymore. It was not the funnest month."

Pub Date: 5/16/99