Recent graduates are showing signs of being high value hires to companies much earlier than other eras of employees, recent executive interviews show, inside the real estate industry. Employers believe that graduates have had a better education than previous generations… and the students know it. They believe that most students desire many attributes to their work environment, such as fast promotion and access to mentorship. They also tend to have better information technology literacy.
The article does a good job of advising students to go into graduate study early, before they settle into an entry-level analyst position with large investment corp’s. Leaving school to pursue advanced study may not neccessarily give you the advancement you expected, by leaving. The interviewees at Lehman said that students that did masters’ degrees part time had the best advancement rate, and that more schools create those industry partnerships with banks and high-visibility employers.
The striking trend for this author is the advancement of the notion that employers should use social networking sites like facebook and MySpace… Now there’s a generation gap.
Most young people don’t associate much substantial academic or career data with such sites. The only social networks that emphasize personal skills and life experiences are sites such as LinkedIn.
My angle is this: LinkedIn is for established industry people, where your professional background can be used as a networking platform. But what about all that work you did in college? The thesis papers, the homework, the presentations? If you had the ability to present your academics to employers like you can present photographs of your last vacation, new students could enter the labor market in an optimal way.
Founder's blog: Stefan Bund 