Challenges Young People Face After Graduation

Just when you think all of your hard work is over after graduating from college, it is only the beginning.  As a college graduate, you now face new challenges including getting a job.  Check out the following infographic for more information. Continue Reading

Video of Omar Epps Sharing First Summer Job Experience

In the following video, Actor Omar Epps, shares his first summer job experience as a pizza delivery person.  Listen to what he learned about responsibility on the job, as well as on a personal level. Continue Reading

Video of Valerie Jarrett Sharing First Summer Job Experience

In the following video, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, talks about her first summer job as a clinic coordinator at a medical center.  Find out what skills she learned that help her in the White House. Continue Reading

Video of Gene Sperling Sharing First Summer Job Experience

In the following video, Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council, reflects on his first summer job as a ball boy for a college basketball team.  Listen to what he says about how people form opinions of you in the workplace. Continue Reading

Video of Arne Duncan Sharing First Summer Job Experience

In the following video, Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, discusses his first summer job at his mother’s after school program.  Learn how he helped to make the lives of young people better. Continue Reading

Video of Hilda Solis Sharing First Summer Job Experience

In the following video, Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor, shares experiences from her first summer jobs working with people.  Find out what impact these jobs had on her life. Continue Reading

Video of Jimmy Fallon Sharing First Summer Job Experience

In the following video, Late Night Host Jimmy Fallon talks about his first summer job at a grocery store.  Listen to what he says about hard work. Continue Reading

Video of Cecilia Munoz Sharing First Summer Job Experience

In the following video, Cecilia Munoz, Director of the Domestic Policy Council, reflects on her first summer job.  Find out what lessons she learned while working at one famous fast food restaurant. Continue Reading

Top Characteristics Candidates Seek in Employers

Philip Gardner of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute and Georgia Chao of the Eli Broad School of Business at Michigan State University collaborated on a white paper, “Important Characteristics of Early Career Jobs,” in an effort to determine what today’s young entry-level job seekers really want when they conduct their job searches. Because the job market is so competitive, employers have to be able to offer more than an enticing salary. Instead, Gardner and Chao suggest, offering young candidates strategic presentations of the companies they represent might prove more effective with this generation than “throwing money at them.”
A survey of more than 9,000 young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 found that the things young job seekers deemed most important were fairly consistent, regardless of ethnicity, gender or academic major. The overall results were as follows:

1. Interesting and engaging work                     88%
2. Good benefits – including health insurance         84%
3. Secure job                                                      82%
4. Opportunities for promotion                              81%
5. Opportunities to learn new skills                       77%
6. Location                                                         63%

The study broke the results down into comparisons between genders, among races, major courses of study, and socioeconomic background. What they found was that Caucasians tended to worry less about job security than did minorities, particularly African-Americans, who ranked flexibility and job security as very important. Asian-Americans ranked working for a prestigious company high on their lists. They also discovered that men ranked “chance for promotion” higher than job security or good benefits. The opposite was true for women, ranking good benefits and job security second and third, respectively, with “chance for promotion” fourth.

Continue Reading

Is Work Centrality As Important to Gen Y As It Is to Older Generations?

In a recent white paper, ”How Central Is Work to Young Adults?” written by Phil Gardner of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI) at Michigan State University and Georgia Chao of the Eli Broad College of Business also at Michigan State University, research was cited in support of the theory that today’s young adults don’t view their jobs as the primary focus of their lives, the way earlier generations did. Although work is important to them, they also care about having time to spend with family and friends, and doing things they enjoy like hobbies and/or volunteering.
Ten thousand young adults between the ages of 18 and 28 were surveyed. The results of the survey – done in 2005 – were compared to one done in 1982, offering these three statements:

• Life is worth living only when people get absorbed in work.
• Work should be considered central to life.
• The most important things that happen in live involve work.

Young adults in 2005 were more likely to disagree – either moderately or strongly – with these opinions than were their counterparts in 1982. The survey went on to break the results down into differences between genders and found that women were more likely to disagree with the above statements than were men – probably, they surmised, because women usually have other concerns like children and taking care of their homes.
In addition, the survey results showed that young adult workers with high or medium work centrality were less concerned with having entry level jobs with “low stress characteristics” like regular hours (no nights/weekends), and annual vacations of a week or more than they were with having jobs that were secure, provided interesting work for them to do, or had “success factors” like high income and opportunities for promotion.
Conversely, young adults with low work centrality were as concerned with having jobs with low stress characteristics as they were with secruity, interesting work, and success factors.
“Organizations that hire these young adults may benefit from a better understanding of this new generation of workers,” they concluded. Jus as employers are looking for entry level employees who are good fits, so are young job seekers looking for companies that are good fits for them, in terms of how what they want – but can’t articulate – compares to what employers provide.
Finally, Gardner and Chao say it’s necessary to do further research in order to fully understand the new generation of workers and effectively integrate them into the workforce.