Assignment 7A

Opportunity: Recent college graduates in the United States struggle to find jobs they are qualified for after graduation due to the overflow of applications to jobs at major companies and a lack of resources, such as recruiting firms, necessary to find niche jobs that are being overlooked.

Interview 1:

I interviewed one of my former roommates who graduated recently. He was able to find a job with an accounting firm he had interned with the previous summer. He agreed that it is tough for college graduates to find a job because they often look for work at companies that are household names and these positions are often extremely competitive. He said the campus itself provides a lot of resources to help students get hired and that is how he found his internship, but it is not always enough for a lot of students. I asked if he knew about students seeking out recruiting firms to find work, and he said he thought that would be very uncommon and had not even considered it himself. he said he had not considered this because he associates recruiters with temporary work and most college students are looking for permanent positions.

Interview 2:

I interviewed my former boss from my internship at a major US recruiting firm. I wanted to talk to him because recruiters are experts in filling the needs of companies looking to hire with the ideal candidate for the position. He said that he does believe recent graduates are at a disadvantage for finding jobs compared to the rest of the workforce primarily due to hundreds of thousands of individuals simultaneously entering the job market seeking out jobs that require the same levels of experience. He used the analogy of a funnel to depict how only a select few end up with entry level jobs at Fortune 500 companies specific to their background and the others are often left working jobs they are overqualified for and could have gotten with just a high school diploma. I asked if his firm had worked with recent graduates and he said very rarely. This is because the company is rarely contacted by recent grads and an even bigger problem is the companies his firm works with often hire new graduates internally. He said the companies that would require assistance finding entry level talent are usually not partnered with recruiting firms due to their size and if they are, they do not hire nearly as many students as the larger Fortune 500 companies do.

Interview 3:

I interviewed a friend from college who is a second year engineering major. She agreed that it is tough for most new graduates to find jobs but not all. She claimed this is need is not as needed for certain majors and career paths. For example, students that are studying pre med or pre law often follow their undergraduate studies with graduate school, so this would not be needed for those students.

Interview 4:

I interviewed my father about this opportunity because he is an entrepreneur and a small business owner. His company uses a recruiting firm for some of their hires but very rarely do they hire new graduates or any new candidates at all. As a small business, there is not a lot of employee turnover and only ask their recruiting firm for new talent just a few times a year. 

Interview 5:

I interviewed one of the recruiters I was able to shadow for a few days during my internship last summer. She said the major reason why her recruiting firm as well as most recruiting firms do not place recent grads often is because most of the job placements she has to fill are temporary jobs. For the most part, recruiting firms hire mostly for temporary and contract work, so recent graduates are not getting this kind of help and are often left on their own to look for work.

After my interviews about this opportunity, I have learned that there is a need, but the need I described may need some tweaking. My third interview helped me recognize that this is not a need for all college students and may be more major-specific. This need is much more applicable to students with a business background compared to graduates with a STEM background. Furthermore, I originally believed that recent grads did not have enough access to recruiting firms due to students not understanding how to use a recruiting firm, but it may be the opposite. Most recruiting firms have not taken the time to establish a recruiting system for new graduates and could potentially require a completely different branch within firms to meet the needs of new grads. Additionally, many of the large Fortune 500 companies do not have problems finding candidates and do not seek out recruiters to fill these jobs. Smaller to mid-sized businesses would have to rely more on recruiters to connect them to candidates that would not find these positions on their own, but they would not have as many open positions as bigger companies. For this opportunity to be met, recruiting firms would have to obtain business from many more smaller firms than they would for a larger business.