On the average graduates spent two months actively seeking employment, applied with ten organizations, interviewed with four employers and received two job offers. The potential and obstacles for collecting data on the job search experiences of graduates are described in detail in the following two sections. Reliability and validity are questionable. Overburdened schools must be willing to participate. Schools collect data at varying times.
Schools sometimes use different questions.
The questionnaire to collect data was designed to reflect only responses of employed graduates. In reporting their data, some schools in prior years apparently included responses of unemployed graduates for additional items. However, despite these limitations, it should be noted that the strength of aggregated data is its cost effectiveness. This project was quite useful in looking at the potential and obstacles for collecting these data from schools of social work. While the program participation and comments indicate some interest in participating in this type of effort, a variety of mechanisms for collecting data and types of data collected suggest that compiling information nationwide is indeed challenging.