Many college graduates want to make it to the corner office, but they may need to brush up on the basics of adulthood — everything from being courteous to listening to others.
At least that’s what a survey released today by York College of Pennsylvania found.
The College surveyed human resource professionals nationwide and local business leaders to find out what employers were looking for when hiring and if graduates were indeed giving them what they wanted. The results, pretty crummy.
“HR pros and business leaders identified five primary characteristics of the professional they are looking to hire,” says David Polk, professor of behavioral science at York College and president of the Polk-Lepson Research Group in York, PA, which conducted the survey for York. “The research also found that a lot of college graduates nationally are not measuring up well in these areas.”
The characteristics they’re lacking:
· Personal interaction skills, including courtesy and respect.
· The skills to communicate, and listen.
· A great work ethic; being motivated and staying on task until the job is completed.
· Professional appearance.
· Self-confidence and awareness.
But one area they got high marks on was their desire for opportunities for advancement at work. That’s a great trait to have, but you can’t get anywhere if your professionalism is lacking.
When human resources professionals and business leaders were asked to rate the presence of professionalism qualities in freshly minted college graduates, they gave out low marks, notes Polk, who is also professor of behavioral science at York College. On a five-point scale where one was “very rare” and five was “very common,” none of the top five traits reached a mean rating of four.
Is this just a function of being young and having to learn this stuff out in the real world, or are we doing a bad job as parents preparing our kids for the world outside?
Most of those polls, 53 percent, felt levels of professionalism haven’t changed, while 33 percent believed it had declined.
Those who cited a decrease pointed to a young worker’s sense of entitlement for the job, changes in culture and values and lack of work ethic among new workers. Business leaders complained that many recent college graduates have a hard time accepting personal responsibility for their decisions or acting independently. Managers also said graduates seem to not have a clear sense of direction or purpose in the office.
What’s your take? Is this yet another survey bashing young people, or do we have a problem?
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I’d like to know if there have ever been survey results where people who are older favorably judge people who are younger. (The “Why, in my day…” syndrome seems to have always been around).
Yet on the other hand, the characteristics the business and HR leaders are looking for are not pie-in-the-sky, unrealistic expectations to have of young adults. And I don’t have any trouble believing that many new college grads did not make the grade (although I would have thought they would display more self confidence.)
I’m in my 40’s, raising two members of a generation still hunting for a name (Generation Z, the Internet Generation, and iGeneration are ones I’ve heard so far) so I find this topic VERY interesting.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I agree, Heather. It’s easy for the current generation to look at the next and think that they’re messing everything up. I don’t remember the exact source, but there’s a quote about the “next generation” being lazy, up to no good, out for trouble–all the stuff we may have heard from our parents or grandparents–but the quote actually comes from someone in ancient Rome or ancient Greece. It appears that not much has changed over the centuries.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I think the ‘purpose’ is clear, it is making money to pay off the student loans they are expected to pay off. It isn’t until the creditors and landlords are off ones back that they can take the time to ponder what they ‘want’ to do. Also I don’t know about other industries though, but in the corporate companies I have worked (technology) with, executives are in jeans, is HR expecting something more from those looking up to these people? Not to mention the COST of dressing ‘nicely’ combined with the payments I mentioned that youth is drowning in. I’d be willing to bet the wardrobe of most young people, if lower in quality than their co-workers will dramatically improve if the wages are fair after a few months to get their bills in order.