LABJ forum: Hiring New College Grads?

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Spring brings warm weather, flowers and a deluge of college kids hungry for that first real job. Recent graduates could be a boon to companies scrambling to fill vacancies in a tight employment market, but they seldom have any real work experience. So the Business Journal asks:

How good is this year’s crop of college grads?

Brian Dunn

Human Resources

Manager

Litton Aero Products

No matter what program you’re coming out of, there will be a significant learning curve on the job. I have done a little bit of interviewing people just out of grad school and have only one offer pending at this time. That’s partly because we have only a few entry-level positions. But the person we offered the job to did have significant laboratory experience. Being able to put theory into practice is far preferable to someone who just has a good GPA.

Merrilee Kaszacs

Branch Manager

The Culver Group

We’re recruiters, so we funnel a lot of new graduates to Fortune 500 companies. The people we interview are hungry, pretty aggressive, with a strong work ethic. We specialize in corporate sales, so it’s not like they need a particular area of expertise. Sometimes kids just out of UCLA or USC have expectations of grandeur as far as salary and benefits go. We have to kind of bring them back to the reality that they haven’t actually done anything yet in terms of real work experience. But there are others who are very realistic about what they can get.

Pat Duncan

General Manager

Holiday Inn Select Beverly Hills

We’ve been advertising on JobTrak (an online employment service for college students) for an executive secretary, just someone to answer the phone and type letters. The one applicant we had had no experience and none of the necessary skills. We had hoped to have more people applying. when I was coming out of school, I would have jumped at the job. I’m sure it has to do with the tight job market. In the meantime, we had to hire someone who had actually applied for another position.

Rochelle Ventura

Chief Field Deputy

Office of Councilman Michael Feuer

We want people who have not only gone to school, but people who have had jobs with public contact. Our two applicants so far were very well-prepared they had extensive volunteer work, experience with community organizing and they were political science majors. But they went off to Internet companies! Because of the tight employment market we’ve had less resumes than usual, but we just got more in and they look very good. One woman applicant just graduated from USC with a 3.6 GPA and she has already worked at three companies.

Phil Swann

Recruiter

Syska & Hennessy

I have had a good response from mechanical engineers and electrical engineers coming out of school. They seem smarter now; they’re definitely more computer-literate. We’re an engineering and construction firm, so we’re looking more for the pragmatic engineers rather than the academic types. Cal Poly Pomona and San Luis Obispo both have an applied engineering program and they’re good sources for us. We can’t do a lot of training because of our small size, so the Cal Poly engineers are more practical.

Lana Boisen

Human Resource Manager

Barkley Court Reporters & Transcription

The college kids are applying to our transcription management department, which is kind of a customer service job. I just got a really good candidate from UCLA today. He’s very sharp, eager to get out and learn, which is just as valuable as having concrete experience. College graduates just seem more enthusiastic and willing to learn things and try different positions. Most of the people I’ve seen in here who have gone to college seem like they have their act together a little bit more.

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