Most Grads Don't Want Full-time Employment

Jennifer Kushell of YSN.com just completed her presentation at the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) annual conference in New Orleans. Her presentation was entitled, "What Students Don't Understand About You, Your Company, Your Opportunities -- and What You Can Do About It."

She had a lot of great tips and thoughts but two really stuck out for me:

• There was a lot of discussion about how an increasing number of students are accepting offers from one employer and later rescinding their acceptance in order to accept a later, better offer. This drives employers and college career service offices nuts and burns bridges for the candidates. Yet not one person in the room acknowledged that employers have been just as guilty by rescinding offers they've made to students who are then left without an internship to go to for the summer or, worse yet, a job to go to upon graduation. We need to remember that Gen Y are largely the children of Baby Boomers and that generation has done a very good job of counseling their children that they cannot and should not rely upon the good graces of their employer because the vast majority of employers have repeatedly demonstrated that their loyalty to their employees extends only so far as their profit motives allow. At the end of the day, the employers owe a fiduciary duty to maximize the wealth of their shareholders, not to provide employment to their workers.
  
• Only 49 percent of college seniors who are approaching graduation are interested in working full-time for an employer. Most see themselves owning a franchise, distributorship, or other business within a handful of years of graduating. This is good news for organizations such as Valpak but bad news for many and perhaps most of the traditional employers of college students and recent graduates. They either need to find a way to make their opportunities more entrepreneurial in nature or they will find themselves competing for an increasing shrinking candidate pool.