Abstract
College of business students and representatives of employers likely to recruit them rated the skills "new college graduates most need to improve upon." Although there were high levels of agreement for most of the skills, students' and employers' ratings differed dramatically for "interviewing skills," "lose [the] sense of entitlement," and "realistic expectations." We coded individual differences from the student survey and recruiting strategy and industry differences from the employer survey and then used regression to explore how these variables influenced student and employer ratings. Essentially nothing that occurs on the college campus improved students' ability to identify the problems reported by employers. Rather, students' misconceptions (as defined by employers) were reduced only by getting older, getting real-world experience (from full time jobs and internships), and by having more highly educated parents. The implication is that an important blind spot has developed in the business curriculum.
Recommended Citation
Roth, Lawrence; Sebastian, Richard J.; and Ahmed, Sohel
(2012)
"Employer and Student Characteristics that Predict Disagreement About College Graduates' Skill Improvement Needs,"
Journal of the North American Management Society: Vol. 6:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/jnams/vol6/iss1/3