Graduates Ill-Prepared in Job Hunt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed Apr 26, 2017, 12:49 PM - Edit history (1)

That's the print title. Online:

Attention Class of 2017: Employers will (begrudgingly) hire 5% more new college grads this year! https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-college-seniors-are-falling-short-1493118000

Link to tweet

Where College Seniors Are Falling Short

Expected graduates are ill-prepared for the job hunt and many coveted positions, a survey finds

By Kelsey Gee

April 25, 2017 7:00 a.m. ET

Parents rejoice: 2017 is shaping up to be another healthy year for college hiring. ... The latest forecast from the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that employers expect to hire 5% more graduates than they brought on last year, the eighth year in a row that companies say they are increasing their college hires.

Yet a separate survey of employers and college seniors suggests that, when it comes to courting recruiters, the Class of 2017 has some homework to do.

This year’s job-seeking seniors are ill-prepared for the job hunt and many coveted positions, concludes a survey of roughly 400 employers and 400 college students conducted by iCIMS Inc., a recruiting-software company. Among other things, employers reported that one-third of all applications for entry-level roles come from unqualified candidates. ... More than 60% of employers in the survey said applicants ought to be more familiar with the company and industry, and must ask better questions in interviews. Plus, those employers say, three out of four applicants fail to send thank-you notes after interviews.



The mismatch extends to hard skills, too. Engineering, business and computer science majors are in highest demand, with at least two-thirds of employers seeking graduates in those fields, according to NACE. But fewer than half of the students surveyed by iCIMS majored in those subjects.
....

Write to Kelsey Gee at [e-mail]

@kelseykgee

[exboyfil]

1. My daughter graduates with a BS in Nursing in August

She was the only one to sign up for extra clinical hours this semester (80 hours). In addition to her program specialty hours, she will have another 40 clinical hours this summer. All of her hours including her program specialty will be in the ICU.

She is hoping to immediately transition to an ICU job in August. She has never had a job, but she did complete 75 college hours prior to high school graduation. She completed her BS in Nursing in four semesters (two summers and the Fall/Spring) immediately after high school. She will be 19 when she graduates.

I think they have a course for transitioning to a professional nurse this summer, but it might be a bit of a problem that she does not have a work history. She seems to get along very well with her ICU colleagues though, and has done fairly well in her classes (Dean's list last semester). For her age she is very mature (probably a lot more mature than most of her classmates).

The big thing in nursing, as in any profession, is getting that initial work experience. My wife was recently in the same hospital in January (for surgery), and we observed a new nurse who was attending my wife. My daughter was shocked at how little the nurse knew. My daughter had already covered most of her duties in her program at that point.

[exboyfil]

2. The important question is how many positions of each

major are looking to be filled. One large hospital looking for twenty nurses or ten small engineering firms looking for two engineers. It sure looks like, from this table, that nursing sucks as a career choice (which it definitely will if the ACA is eliminated). This is alarming because health careers are one of the big pushes for the new economy. So you spend four years tooling up for an occupation that no longer has employment options. Shame on you for not have a freaking crystal ball.


I can't get behind the pay wall. Does anybody have more information on this table?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. "I can't get behind the pay wall."

Yes, you can. Go in through the Twitter feed. That's how I got to the article.

More info? I do not have any, at least not right now.

You might be able to find it at the site of the people who conducted the survey.

You are right: the "percent of employers looking to hire" does not say how many openings there are.

Suppose there are 100,000 employers surveyed. 1.8% of them or 1,800, want to hire graduates in the health sciences. That could be 50,000 job openings, or 100,000 job openings, or who knows how many job openings. You can't tell from this. Also, are these private employers, or is the public sector included?

Thanks for writing.