Correlates of Graduating with a Full-Time Job versus a Full-Time Job Consistent with Major.

This is an exploratory study that compares the correlates of securing a full-time job at graduation to securing a full-time job at graduation consistent with one's major. Results are drawn from a sample of 310 graduating business school seniors who filled out a Fall 2014 survey. Results showed three positive correlates to graduating with a full-time job: highest parent education level; average hours worked per week and an internship experience. There were two positive correlates to graduating with a job consistent with one's major: an internship experience and membership in a student professional organization (SPO). Implications, study limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed. (105 words) Keywords: graduation; full-time job; full-time job consistent with major, student professional organization ********** The job placement challenges faced by today's college graduate include the challenge of finding jobs consistent with one's major (Kavoussi, 2012; Wessel, 2014). Landing jobs that fit with one's major is important because job-major fit is linked to increased career potential (Arcidiacono, 2004). There is ample evidence that graduates are struggling to find jobs. Stone, Van Horn and Zukin (2012) found that fewer than 50 percent of college graduates from 2009 to 2011 secured their first job within 12 months of graduating, a steep decline from the 73 percent rate that secured their first job within 12 months for 2006 to 2008 graduates. Underemployment is most acute for those immediately out of college; 56% of 22-year-old college graduates in 2009-2011 were working in jobs that did not require a college degree (Wessel, 2014). There is an important distinction between upon graduation, having: a full-time job (e.g., as a bartender or salesperson) versus a full-time career-oriented job consistent with one's major (e.g., as an accountant for an accounting major or marketing analyst for a marketing major). To date there has been very limited empirical research investigating the correlates of jobs consistent with majors versus "just" jobs. Sagem, Dallam and Laverty (2000) found that "career preparation" including: an internship experience, participating in a student organization, and career- related work experience were each positive correlates to initial employment success (defined as securing employment appropriate to a baccalaureate degree within two months of graduation). Similarly, working with 2012-2013 graduating business student data, Blau, Snell, Campbell, Viswanathan, Aaronson and Karnik (2014) found that engaging in professional development activities had a significant positive correlation to obtaining a full-time job consistent with one's major ([r.bar] = .16, [p.bar] .05). These findings suggest that the post- graduation outcome of securing a full-time job is meaningfully distinct from securing a full-time job consistent with one's major (Stone, 1978). Less clear is which variables correlate with the difference. Blau and Snell (2013) draw from the student professional development theory and practice to outline a model that suggests that job outcomes are affected by distal (less direct) variables such as gender and parental education; college-related variables such as grade point average and hours spent on course work; and proximal (more direct) variables such as internship experiences and joining a student professional organization. Given these theoretical and empirical findings the goal of this exploratory study is to compare the distal and proximal correlates associated with two distinct post-graduation outcomes: securing a full-time job versus securing a full-time job consistent with one's major. Method Sample and Procedure To address this goal we use a sample of business students from Temple University, a large public university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. …