"Many students have less orientation towards reflection and more orientation towards résumé-building than students a generation ago," said Lawrence H. Summers, the president of Harvard. "I do worry. I do somehow wish that some students would smell the roses a little more and schedule fewer appointments."

] Yet two years of dismal job prospects, during a recession
] that cut about 2.7 million jobs from peak to trough, have
] imbued the current crop of seniors with an awareness of
] the economy's inherent instability and prompted them to
] be much more deliberate about their careers. A survey of
] college students conducted by the association earlier
] this year found that only slightly more than 10 percent
] of respondents ticked "don't know what I want to do" as
] their biggest obstacle to finding a job, compared with 22
] percent in 2000.

A generational shift in new graduates.