The Career Office launches its Research Program
The Career Office at ACT, under the direction of Mr. Dimitris Diamantis launched, in Fall 2019 it’s Research Program, conducting primary research for exploring career-related issues.
In the period of October to December 2019 the Career Office shared a questionnaire with Greek recruiters and HR executives, 53 of whom responded, exploring (at a high-level) the career readiness of college students and young professionals. Though the responses where limited in number and we should be cautious about generalizing the results, still the niche respondent profile provided us with some very interesting insights.
The respondents were asked to share their overall experience regarding the interaction they had with college student and recent graduates in the following areas:
- The quality of their resumes
- The quality of their cover letters
- Their ability present succinctly who they are (elevator pitch)
- Their ability to build and cultivate professional relationships (networking)
- Their ability to perform during a job interview
- Their ability to negotiate a job offer
- Their clarity with regards to what they want from a specific job
- Their clarity with regards to what they looking for in their career
- Their drive, spark and motivation
- Their overall preparedness & readiness for employment
In the interactive graph below you can explore their responses:
Additionally, the respondents shared the key challenges they are facing when recruiting and working with young professionals. Although they wording was different for each one, we grouped together those whose meaning was similar, creating a list of the most common themes:
- Lack of awareness and understanding of the world of work: they overestimate their abilities and have unrealistic expectations, they are impatient, unable or unwilling to adapt to the work environment, lacking perseverance
- Lack of relevant skills (both soft and hard)
- Lack of motivation, engagement or commitment
- Lack of clarity with regards to their career path and career goals
- Lack of professional attitude and behavior
- Lack of prior experience (paid, volunteer, internships, or extra-curricular activities)
