A survey of Generation-I, four year college grads between 22 and 26 years old, finds that they have little professional or geographic staying power. The study, fielded by Braun Research and funded by Adecco Group, was a telephone survey of 507 recent college grads.
There’s plenty of research surrounding the validity of self-reporting, indicating that it is only moderately trustworthy. Still, a nationwide survey like this, can serve as a “pointer.”
Intriguing findings:
Only 3% of recent grads said they’d expect to stay at any given job for more than five years. A job offer with higher pay, from a dream company or in a dream city would result in a move for more than 50% of grads. (I’ve always recommended that staying in the same job more than 3 years is nonsense and usually unwise. So I’d want to know what the survey meant when grads were quizzed about staying at any “given job.”)
A striking 91% of recent would only continue working at a job they didn’t like for up to a year. In fact, 1 in 5 would only stay for three months before leaving a job they didn’t like. Salary, benefit and perk cuts, along with work that doesn’t fit their interests are killer reasons for these stats.
Recent grads expect to stay connected to personal life—even at work. Certain activities will prevent grads from taking a job that they might be otherwise interested in. The list of important connections is highly reflective of the technology bent of the generation.
- 23% wouldn’t stay if personal phone calls are prohibited.
- 20% wouldn’t stay if they were not permitted to check personal emails.
- 15% wouldn’t stay if they were not permitted texting.
- 12% wouldn’t stay if they were not permitted to visit social media websites.
Nearly 30% of recent grads report that their parents are in some way involved in their job search process—and in some cases, very involved.
- 13% use parents’ personal network.
- 11% parents locate job listings for grads
- 9% parents rehearse job interview.
- 8% parents forward resume or cover letters for grads.
More than half of recent grads report that parents help pay living expenses. The assistance is significant.
- 32% of parents help with cell phone expense.
- 21% of parents help with food.
- 20% of parents help with health insurance.
- 17% of parents help with rent.
- 17% of parents help with utilities.
- 13% of parents help with student loans.
- 12% of parents help with transportation.
Students who graduate from college and are in that 22 to 26 year-old group are a very select group. It suggests that parents are very supportive of a huge proportion of college grads. I’m curious to know what you think about these statistics?
Flickr photo: U Chicago graduation