Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
The job-search resource that yielded the largest difference in use between first-generation students and their non-first generation classmates was soliciting the guidance of parents and/or relatives, according to results of NACE’s Class of 2016 Student Survey.
More than two-thirds of non-first generation students used the guidance of parents and/or relatives as a job-search resource, while slightly more than half of first-generation students did the same.
This is not surprising. Given the fact that parents of first-generation students have not earned bachelor’s degrees, this no doubt narrows first-generation students’ ability to make use of this resource in their job search.
Other types of personal networking that were highly used by both first-generation and non-first generation students were faculty members (59.4 percent of first-generation students, 57.1 percent of non-first generation) and friends (74.4 percent of first-generation students, 76.2 percent of non-first generation).
Additional differences among the groups existed: First-generation students used resources such as virtual career fairs, articles in newspapers/magazines, and ads in publications/magazines significantly more than non-first generation students. On the other hand, non-first generation students tended to use on-campus employer representatives and on-campus career/job fairs more often to aid in their searches than did first-generation students.
NACE’s Class of 2016 Student Survey was conducted February 16 – April 30, 2016; more than 23,000 students at colleges and universities nationwide took part, including 5,600 graduating seniors. Among graduating seniors, 5,013 self-identified as either first generation (1,925) or non-first generation (3,088). First-generation students are defined as having a parent/parents who does/do not possess at least a bachelor’s degree. The Class of 2016 Student Survey was sponsored by Enterprise.
Survey participants can access a full copy of the report through MyNACE. Highlights from the Class of 2016 Student Survey are available at www.naceweb.org/surveys/student.aspx.
Figure 1: Student's use of job resources
Resource |
Used |
| First Generation |
Non-First Generation |
| Career/job fairs |
64.9% |
69.2% |
| Employer websites |
94.2% |
94.9% |
| Employer representatives on campus |
52.2% |
56.1% |
| Employer information presentations on campus |
49.7% |
51.2% |
| Employer recruitment brochures (print) |
42.9% |
42.0% |
| Ads in job-search/recruitment publications/magazines |
53.7% |
46.7% |
| Trade/professional associations |
32.1% |
29.4% |
| Virtual career fairs |
25.9% |
19.0% |
| Career center |
57.6% |
58.4% |
| Faculty members |
59.4% |
57.1% |
| Friends |
74.4% |
76.2% |
| Parents and/or relatives |
55.4% |
67.7% |
| Alumni |
43.7% |
47.4% |
| Articles in newspapers or magazines |
31.3% |
25.2% |
Source: Class of 2016 Student Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers