Assignment 12A

Segment:

The segment I have selected for this assignment is upcoming college graduates studying finance or accounting. While my business concept would have customers with any kind of professional background, I expect my concept to be most appealing to this segment.

Interview 1:

My first interview was with my roommate who is graduating in December with a degree in accounting. He said he would ideally like to work for a big four accounting firm, but he is intrigued by working for a small business starting as an accountant and working his way up to an executive position, which is much tougher to do at a large accounting firm. Lately he has been struggling in his career search and would love if my service was available for him so he could receive professional help in his job search. He said he has looked for jobs online on sites such as Glassdoor and Monster, but it is hard to refine the search to opportunities he is both interested in and qualified for.

Interview 2:

I conducted this interview with a family friend who is a business owner. He said he does not search for new talent often because it is a small organization, but he likes candidates fresh out of college because they are usually more driven at the start and more likely to stay at the company long-term compared to those who have been int he work force for a while and hopped form one job to the next. He said young candidates are ideal, specifically in finance and accounting because they can be groomed for upper level financial positions like a CFO. Despite his business's affinity for entry-level talent, they have struggled to find it because the business does not have the name recognition of larger companies. He has went to career fairs to find entry-level employees, but he said his booth is often overshadowed by larger firms. They typically hire quarterly, so twice a year he hires at the same time as when university semester end: January and June.

Interview 3:

I interviewed one of the recruiters at the firm I interned with and she said finance and accounting candidates are some of the easiest to recruit and hire, but they are currently in excess. They are easy to hire because certifications such as CPA's are required and are easier to get up to speed than positions that require soft skills, such as marketing or sales. She said because there are so many candidates with finance backgrounds looking for work, they do not all get to work for Fortune 500 companies and would most likely take work at smaller firms if they need to. She said her firm does not typically recruit for entry-level positions, but when they do it is hard to find candidates unless they specifically contact the firm, which is uncommon.When they do look for recent grads, they search for résumés on job sites like Monster and very few recent grads publish their résumés here.

Findings:

These interviews confirmed my hypothesis that my business concept is appealing specifically in the field of finance. I found there are a lot of people in finance out of work because they do not know where to look and a lot of small companies that want entry-level candidates that are unable to successfully tap into the candidate pool. I believe it would be much easier to put small businesses and candidates in touch with each other with a recruiting firm and the use of on-campus reps.