First e-business class set to graduate in May
BY RAUL MARTINEZ IV
Staff Reporter

Jose Castro could have graduated last year, but he decided to stay an additional year at TCU to take advantage of the university’s e-business program.

Castro is one of 70 students that will belong to the first e-business graduating class at commencement in May.

“When I saw that this was a new major, I knew it was something that interested me,” Castro said. “I knew that this particular business was growing and there would be many job opportunities.”

Because of the current state of the economy, some e-business majors are concerned because they have not received any responses from the companies they have applied to.

“When I entered in this program, I was not nervous about finding jobs at all,” Castro said. “Now that I am about to graduate and I need a job, I am worried.”

Castro said he thinks the shortage of job opportunities applies to all business categories, not just e-business.

“I think I would have had a better opportunity to find a job a year or two ago,” Castro said. “But now with everything that is going on, I think we are going to have to work a lot harder in order to find the job we want.”

Jane Mackay, director of the e-business program, said she is not concerned about students not being able to find jobs and internships, however.

“I know of a few graduating e-business majors who have already been offered jobs,” Mackay said. “I don’t expect students to have trouble finding jobs because this particular business is growing.”

Scott Hamilton, a junior e-business major, said other business majors currently have better intern opportunities because e-business jobs are not as widespread.

“I think it is more difficult to find an internship because a company is required to have a program set up for fostering our intern development,” he said. “The e-business program is still in its infancy and many businesses haven’t developed a program in order to give us that opportunity yet.”

However, the recent decline of Internet companies will not affect the e-business program, Mackay said.

“We are not worried about a possible decline in applicants,” she said. “We are more interested in high quality students than we are in the number of students entering the program.”

Raul Martinez IV
r.martinez@student.tcu.edu

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