A Comparative Analysis Of Student Job Placement In Management Information Systems: An Exploratory Study

Due to the recent economic recession and the significant reduction in Information Technology (IT) expenditures of corporate America, job opportunities have become very scarce for college graduates, especially in the field of Management Information Systems (MIS). Both MIS students and faculty have to start finding ways to improve the full time job opportunities for students by helping students do better in their studies and GPAs, adding internship experience, obtaining more majors, taking extra technical courses, etc. in addition to their regular course work. However, little research has been conducted to investigate the relationships between these factors and a full time job opportunity in this field. The current study intends to explore those important issues by conducting a survey among more than 200 MIS seniors in three big universities in USA. The implication of the survey findings is discussed in the final section of the paper. Introduction and Literature Review he shortage of full time jobs for college students is evident in almost every field in recent years. The U.S Labor Department forecasts 18 million graduates will be competing for the 14 million collegelevel jobs in 2005. As former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich pointed out, 80 % of these jobs will require some vocational (on-the-job) training [22]. It is not surprising that students and their families are increasingly concerned about undergraduate preparation for employment after four years of increasingly expensive tuition [6]. The job market situation for the new MIS graduates is even worse than other areas due to the unexpected phenomenon in the field such as dramatic corporate IT budget cuts and the offshore outsourcing trend. There is an urgent need for conducting a field study to investigate the job placement problem in this field, especially under the current economic conditions. An intern experience is defined as a structured and career-relevant work experience obtained by students prior to graduation from an academic program [14, 20]. Internship is known as an effective aid in improving job opportunities [6, 9, 14, 20, & 22] and has often been used by recruiters as a long-term strategy for maintaining a strong presence on campus during economic downturns and other periods of limited hiring [6]. The percentage of new hires that had internship experience has been steadily increasing [14]. As a matter of fact, respondents to NACE’s 1999 Employer Benchmark Survey ranked “offering internships and co-op” as the most effective technique for hiring technical talent. About 85 percent of respondents typically hire co-ops, interns, and/or summer employees from the same set of schools each year [11]. Colleges have responded to this industry demand. According to the American Counsel on Education, 9 out of 10 four-year colleges now offer some sort of structured work experience related to a student’s major or career interest [19]. T The Review Of Business Information Systems Volume 8, Number 3 40 Literature [9, 17] also suggests that college internships offer a variety of other benefits to students, such as reinforcing the skills learned from courses, having a better understanding of organizations and career focus, etc. In addition, an internship softens the shock of transitioning from the world of academics to the working world; provides students with a means of bridging the gap between career expectations developed in the classroom and the reality of employment in the real world; benefits universities in their corporate fund–raising efforts by creating personal connections [6, 9]. There has been no agreement about the impact of Grade Point Average on the first job employment. Based on the study done by Albrecht et al [1], 80.5 percent of all recruiters reported a preferred minimum GPA. In particular, business recruiters held true to their emphasis on grades: 77.2 percent reported a preference of more than 3.0. The results of the study indicate that employers value both high grades and high involvement in career development activities, although the value placed on grades is somewhat higher. However, the results of the study [15] indicated that no significant differences between GPAs of employed and unemployed graduates. In other words, based on the evidence of this study, the assumption that students with high grades have a better chance of obtaining employment is not valid. This study also found that there are numerous factors that could be valid predictors of success in obtaining initial employment. Another interesting finding was that involvement in campus activities was an indicator of success, but only for women. Other studies have examined the impact of internship, not on job placement but on academic performance and other areas. English and Koeppen [3] found that internship assignments made available to students in their earlier academic careers can significantly and positively affect grade performance. A similar finding was shown in the study done by Healy and Mourton [7]. Gault et al [6] studied the effects of an internship experience on career skill preparation and success by using recent business alumni of a mid-sized northeastern U.S. public university as subjects in the study. The results demonstrated significant early career advantages for undergraduates with internship experience. Advantages included less time to obtain a first position, increased monetary compensation, and greater overall job satisfaction. Although there have been many studies of employment opportunities for college students, none have focused on the field of MIS; most are somewhat outdated and do not consider the current economic condition. In addition, prior studies rarely controlled for potential confounds on full-time job offers, such as the nature of the internship, multiple majors, gender differences, the timing of the MIS major declaration. Further research is needed to examine how these various factors can be translated into job opportunities, particularly in the field of MIS. This field survey is designed to investigate the current MIS job market and the various factors that can affect MIS students’ job offers. The data collected from the participating students in the MIS senior classes are divided into two groups, one group with one or more job offers (hereafter called the job offered group) and the other group with no job offer (hereafter called the no job offered group). The factors addressed above, which potentially influence job offers, are examined between those two groups in an effort to find significant differences and unique patterns. The results of this study will provide useful information and guidance to students, teachers, advisors, and recruiters in conducting and preparing for job search-related activities in the field of MIS. Although the main focus of this study is the field of MIS, this research framework can be applied to any discipline.