Recent College Graduates Research Articles

Survey shows graduates with disabilities as likely to be employed as peers

Findings from a recent survey determined that recent college graduates with disabilities engaged in career preparation activities and transitioned to a career after graduation as successfully as their peers without disabilities. The 2020 Kessler Foundation National Employment and Disability Survey: Recent College Graduates recorded answers from more than 13,000 respondents aged 20 to 35 who had graduated with an associate degree or higher in the last five years. Roughly one half of that sample were respondents who indicated they had at least one disability.

Digital Badges and Employer Interest

Digital badges are becoming more prevalent in the credentialing sector yet there is limited understanding of how digital badges influence the hiring process. The researcher conducted a type of field experiment called a résumé audit study. In the late Spring of 2019, the investigator applied to 1,848 unique entry-level jobs using one of three versions of a fictional résumé. One résumé displayed badges in business skills, another résumé showed identical skills but without badges, the third résumé was a control with no added business skills. The results show that a recent college graduate without a business degree significantly increases the likelihood of employer interest if digital badges associated with business skills appear on the applicant’s résumé.

‘What They Think vs. What They Know’ Students’: Employers’ Perceptions of Job Applicant Screenings

The employment outlook for recent college graduates is positive. However, processes by which employers screen applicants and students’ perspectives of those processes remains a worthy study. This is particularly salient for first generation college students (FGCS). This study examines the perspectives of the employment screening process from both employers and FGCS. The study results seek to improve the effectiveness of professional development knowledge that university career counselors provide to FGCS populations.

Patient Advocates for Low-Income Adults with Moderate to Severe Asthma: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Few interventions have targeted low-income adults with moderate to severe asthma despite their high mortality. To assess whether a patient advocate (PA) intervention improves asthma outcomes over usual care (UC). This 2-armed randomized clinical trial recruited adults with moderate to severe asthma from primary care and asthma-specialty practices serving low-income neighborhoods. Patients were randomized to 6 months of a PA intervention or UC. PAs were recent college graduates anticipating health care careers, who coached, modeled, and assisted participants with preparations for asthma-related medical visits, attended visits, and confirmed participants' understanding of provider recommendations. Participants were followed for at least a year for patient-centered asthma outcomes: asthma control (primary outcome), quality of life, prednisone requirements, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations. There were 312 participants. Their mean age was 51 years (range, 19-93 years), 69% were women, 66% African American, 8% Hispanic/Latino, 62% reported hospitalization for asthma in the year before randomization, 21% had diabetes, and 61% had a body mass index of 30 or more. Asthma control improved over 12 months, more in the intervention group (-0.45 [95% CI,-0.67 to-0.21]) than in the UC group (-0.26 [95% CI,-0.53 to-0.01]), and was sustained at 24 months but with no statistical difference between groups. The 6-month rate of emergency department visits decreased in the intervention (-0.90 [95% CI,-1.56 to-0.42]) and UC (-0.42 [95% CI,-0.72 to-0.06]) groups over 12 months. The cost of the PA program was $1521 per patient. Only 64% of those assigned had a PA visit. A PA may be a promising intervention to improve and sustain outcomes in this high-risk population if expanded to address factors that make keeping appointments difficult.

Relationship of Collegiate Resiliency to Early Career Success in Professional Sales

This research examines selection and training factors that influence the success of recent college graduates in professional sales careers. The outcomes of this research are positioned within the use of personality traits in the selection process when hiring sales professionals. The results suggest that for recent college graduates, indicators of resiliency are better predictors of early career success. Using comparisons between business and non-business majors, the outcomes show that early career success depends on indications of resiliency and extraversion.

To recommend or to regret the choice? Factors explaining student loyalty: evidence from the catalan university system

This study analyses the determinants of students’ loyalty and seeks to characterise the profile of recent university graduates. The empirical application considers the region of Catalonia, in Spain. Data come from the Satisfaction Graduate Survey elaborated by the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency. A total of 2,557 questionnaires were collected. Results reveal that satisfaction is a key determinant of loyalty. Other factors that explain students’ loyalty are entrance marks and academic preferences (university and academic degree). Also, a further examination of the students’ profiles reveals that three different groups can be identified: loyal and satisfied students who did not enrolled in their most preferred academic option (first choice), unsatisfied students, and a group of loyal and satisfied students. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Does Empathy Pay? Evidence on Empathy and Salaries of Recent College Graduates

This paper examines linkages between empathy and salaries of recent college graduates. While it has been suggested that greater empathy enhances performance because empathic individuals work well with others and are good leaders, it is also possible that they will be less productive due to lower motivation to compete for pecuniary rewards or because they are considered to be too accommodating. Also, more empathic individuals may choose occupations that are more socially oriented and less well paid. We find a large, significant negative relationship between empathy and earnings for both men and women. While we cannot pinpoint the cause for this strong correlation or reach conclusions about causation, we find that empathic individuals choose college majors and sectors of employment that pay less. However, gender, major, and sector together do not account for the full negative relationship between empathy and salaries. While it seems likely that preferences lead more empathic people to choose lower paying occupations, we cannot eliminate the possibility that greater empathy has a negative effect on productivity.

How Do Online Degrees Affect Labor Market Prospects? Evidence from a Correspondence Audit Study

This article reports the findings of a correspondence audit study that examines how online bachelor’s degrees affect labor market outcomes. The study involves sending 1,891 applications for real job openings using 100 fictitious applicant profiles. The applicant profiles are designed to be representative of recent college graduates from established universities. Using random assignment to degree type, applicant profiles that indicate a traditional (in-person) degree receive nearly twice as many callbacks as those that indicate an online degree. Findings suggest that, at least currently, completing an online degree program would significantly limit the labor market prospects of typical college students.

Launching a Text Message Intervention to Assist Student Loan Borrowers with Repayment Decisions

Student loan debt has become a financial burden for many young adults in the United States. Previous research has found that many college student borrowers do not understand repayment terms and options. This multistate collaboration among Cooperative Extension Specialists sought to develop a way of supporting and informing recent college graduates on the process of student loan repayment. Text messaging was used as the intervention strategy. The purpose of this article is (i) to explain the process and methods of developing the student loan repayment text messaging campaign and (ii) present suggestions for someone interested in launching this type of intervention. Also, the article provides initial participation numbers across the nine land‐grant universities that were participants in the intervention.

Understanding the Well-Being of Recent College Graduates: Income is not Enough

ABSTRACTGiven difficult economic times experienced during the Great Recession and the years following, coupled with the rising cost of higher education, there is increasing pressure by federal and state governments, accreditors, college administrators, parents, and students to view alumni salaries as the key outcome of a baccalaureate degree. Supporters of a liberal education have decried the growth of the individualistic orientation of those who insist that the main purpose of a college education is to secure a high-paying job rather than personal well-being and civic participation. This article, focuses on a series of measures of college outcomes that are proxy measures for a “great job” and a “great life,” using data from a longitudinal study of sociology majors from the class of 2012. For the relatively small number of respondents answering the third wave of the survey, being a sociology major seems to have positive implications for early post-baccalaureate life. Further, respondents who find that sociological concepts and skills learned as undergraduate majors help on the job are often more likely than others to experience positive outcomes. In general, income from jobs is not the sole predictor in most of the multivariate models, although the sample of respondents may be biased toward those who care less about income.

Mass Attitudes and Discrimination Against Hypothetical Job Candidates in Japan: A Resumé-Based Survey Experiment

A substantial literature addresses the various forms of discrimination in the Japanese labor market, but little experimental work investigates these prejudices. Here, I present experimental evidence from a national survey of Japanese adults in order to assess both professional and social discrimination against hypothetical job applicants. Leveraging the prevalence of standardized rirekisho resume forms, I present respondents with a hypothetical applicant’s rirekisho, with key attributes such as gender, nationality, and schooling location randomized. Because adolescents living in regions affected by the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are now entering the labor market as recent college graduates, the experiment also afforded the opportunity to assess labor-market discrimination against individuals perceived to have been exposed to radioactive fallout (proxied by primary-school location). Three key findings emerged from the experimental trial: 1.) female applicants were universally preferred over male applicants, suggesting positive public attitudes toward increased labor-market engagement by female college graduates; 2.) there is no evidence of discrimination against individuals who were living in Fukushima at the time of the 2011 accident in this context; and, 3.) there is significant discrimination against non-Japanese applicants in both professional and social contexts, and the effect of Korean nationality is consistently negative and significant. Together, these results suggest some cause for optimism regarding the treatment of some potentially marginalized groups, while nonetheless provoking substantial concern for others.

The Lost Generation? Labor Market Outcomes for Post Great Recession Entrants

I study cohort patterns in the labor market outcomes of recent college graduates, examining changes surrounding the Great Recession. Recession entrants have lower wages and employment than those of earlier cohorts; more recent cohorts’ employment is even lower, but the newest entrants’ wages have risen. I relate these changes to effects of initial conditions. I demonstrate that adverse early conditions permanently reduce new entrants’ employment probabilities. I also replicate earlier results of medium-term scarring effects on wages that fade out by the early 30s. But scarring cannot account for the employment collapse for recent cohorts. There was a dramatic negative structural break in college graduates’ employment rates, beginning around the 2005 entry cohort, that shows no sign of abating. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Why do Women Ask for Less?

Substantial evidence suggests that women on average are either less likely to negotiate than men, or when they do negotiate, they ask for less. Following a pre-registered analysis, we explore different mechanisms suggested to explain this gender gap by sending out a survey to a large sample of recent college graduates in Sweden. We ask this sample of men and women whether they for their latest job made an explicit salary request and what the outcome was, as well as what their beliefs and attitudes towards negotiations are. As often found elsewhere, we first confirm that women ask for less than men on average. Second, we find that the gender gap is reduced by controlling for attitudes or beliefs. However, neither perceived social costs nor confidence matters for the gender gap. Instead, while men and women consider themselves relatively similar to an ideal candidate applying for the same job, they differ on average in their beliefs about the amount the ideal candidate should ask for. This latter variable is the only statistically significant mediating variable of the gender gap in salary requests. As our results are correlational they should be interpreted with caution, yet they suggest that interventions on the beliefs of what ideal candidates should earn could reduce the gender gap in negotiations.

STEM or Humanities? Toward a Balance of Interest Fit

Despite a growing number of studies demonstrating the importance of fit between interests and major/career, an increasing discordant rhetoric can be heard emphasizing either STEM or the humanities in education and work. We propose that perception of interest fit is more important than the domain itself per se. Analysis of a national data set of college graduates (N = 8,151) shows that interest fit accounted for more variance in well-being outcomes (work satisfaction, life satisfaction, and financial satisfaction) as compared to STEM or humanities education, and an equivalent amount of variance was found in personal income. Similar trends were found in a second data set of recent college graduates from a Midwest public university (N = 636). Even controlling for ability-related variables and personality, interest fit accounted for more variance in work satisfaction and life satisfaction, an equivalent amount of variance in financial satisfaction, and less variance in personal income. These results reveal that it is important to achieve a balanced approach to education and career guidance where individuals can be directed to careers that capture their interest.

Fearing Such a Lady: University Expansion, Underemployment, and the Hypergamy Ideal in Kampala, Uganda.

In Uganda, the cultural norm of hypergamy, which dictates that husbands should have higher economic and social status than wives, is pervasive and influential. Yet hypergamy has recently been challenged by women's gains in education relative to men and by an unemployment crisis leaving educated young men unable to find steady work. Using interviews with recent university graduates in Kampala, we investigate how highly-educated young adults navigate frictions between the hypergamy ideal and these recent transformations in gendered status. Some women reduce the salience of hypergamy by preventing their relationships from becoming serious, while other women intentionally perform the role of submissive housewife while preserving their autonomy. Men reframe their romantic circumstances to underplay their inability to achieve economic hypergamy, portraying educated women as undesirable and characterizing their partners as non-materialistic. These findings reveal how demographic and economic changes reconfigure relationship norms, gendered power dynamics, and family formation processes.

Towards data literacy competencies: Business students, workforce needs, and the role of the librarian

Companies are looking to harness the power of data, both big and small, to take their business to new levels. One major hurdle for companies seeking to become data-centric is facing a lack of data literate talent for hire in the current market of recent college graduates. This article establishes a conversation about data literacy in business education, discusses the role of the librarian in this work, and proposes a set of data literacy competencies that librarians could help incorporate into business school education, as has been similarly seen in other disciplines.

The Impact of Supplemental Instruction on the Performance and Attitudes of General Chemistry Students

The Impact of Supplemental Instruction on the Performance and Attitudes of General Chemistry Students

Career Outcomes Data From Social Media: Examining Quality in Current Practices

Social media websites contain information that can be used to assess career outcomes. Yet, questions remain about the quality of this data source. This study examined social media data collected from a large sample of recent college graduates (N = 3,094), considering how well those data represented the broader population of graduates and to what extent social media data matched survey responses on 5 employment variables. Results indicated that indiscriminately using social media data can lead to biased inferences about career outcomes. Specifically, social media data matched survey data in just 67% to 76% of comparisons. Despite these limitations, findings also revealed strategies to improve agreement between data sources, leading to more trustworthy inferences about career outcomes from social media. Results indicate a need to heighten practitioner awareness of data quality issues related to career outcomes data sources. A framework for examining data quality is offered, with suggested directions for future research.

The Price of Being International

This study sought to examine whether international master’s recipients (IMRs) who graduated from U.S. institutions have different early career outcomes in major and job match, annual earnings, and career satisfaction from their counterpart domestic master’s recipients (DMRs). By analyzing combined datasets of National Survey of Recent College Graduates, this study found that IMRs were 2 times more likely than DMRs to hold jobs that are related to their master’s degree. On the other hand, IMRs faced an 8% earnings disadvantage as compared with DMRs. There was no statistically significant difference in job satisfaction between IMRs and DMRs. The policy implications for postsecondary institutions and the U.S. were discussed.

The Internationalisation of a Public University Through International Internships. Students Opinion

This work studies the effects of international internships on the employability of recent graduates of a public South European university, the type of employment achieved and the relationship with the knowledge and skills acquired during the internships.A survey was conducted during the international internship and a new survey has been administered one year later in order to follow the situation immediately after the internship and after a few years in terms of employability. This survey includes different aspects such as: relationship between theory and current job, type of employment and labour contract, and soft skills used in the current work. The expected results show the relationship between the international internships and the graduate international employability.