Recruiting and Interviewing Benchmarks

UIUC Interviewing/Recruiting Summary 2004-2005

(Recruitment and Graduation Benchmarks 2006-2007)
(Recruitment and Graduation Benchmarks 2005-2006)
(Recruitment and Graduation Benchmarks 2003-2004)

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• Recruitment at UIUC
• Graduation Plans - UIUC Senior Survey 2005
• Use of Career Services
• Summary
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Appendix D

The Recruitment and Graduation Benchmarks is a report produced annually by the Career Services Network at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Career Services Network is comprised of career services offices and affiliates at the University. In 1954, placement and career services became an official function of the University of Illinois with the adoption of a policy statement by the Board of Trustees that recognized the desirability of offering a coordinated service to facilitate the placement of its students and alumni in positions so that the maximum value of its education program may be realized both by graduates and by employers. A basic tenant of this policy is that the service is primarily an activity of the University as a whole and, secondarily, that of its constituent parts (May 15, 1954). Thus, the University affirmed its desire to maintain specific career services for students yet supported a coordinated effort of service to students, alumni, and employers. The tradition continues today. This report not only summarizes the work of individual career services offices but it also provides a summary of the efforts campus wide.

According to its mission adopted May 21, 2001, the Career Services Network serves as a gateway for students to experiential education, post-graduation employment, and advanced degree work. The Network is a connecting and coordinating body that addresses policy and practice in matters of career service, employment, and post-graduate opportunities. One of the purposes of the Network is to document the work of the various career offices on campus in their efforts to effectively and efficiently serve students, employers, and the university community.

The Recruitment and Graduation Benchmarks report is a compilation and summary of information collected each year from career services offices that have significant recruiting activities. The data is gathered each summer from the preceding academic year and the report is distributed in the fall. In addition, the report includes information provided by graduating seniors on the Chancellors Senior Survey on the Undergraduate Experience regarding their plans post-graduation. The Benchmarks report has a long history with some data tracing back to 1988-89. Special thanks to the many career services offices that contribute to this report and to John Ory, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, which administers the Chancellors Senior Survey.

Recruitment at UIUC

Career services offices are asked to report on full-time employment recruiting, internship/coop recruiting, and career fair participation for the previous academic year. They provide data on the number of student interviews, interview schedules, employer contacts, job/internship vacancy postings, and student participants. Campus-wide totals and data for each of these areas by career services office may be found in charts in Appendix A.

The number of student interviews continued to increase this past year (14.3%) with 29,294 interviews, a similar percentage increase as last year. While student interviews still have not reached the level of 2000-01 and the two years before, the increase shows a steady upswing.

In addition, the number of interview schedules increased significantly (55.5%). In fact, the number of interviews is greater than during the 2000-01 academic year. This means that more organizations are scheduling interviews, but interviewing fewer students than in 2000-01. On-campus recruiting is clearly rebounding from its lows of the past three years.

Student participation in campus recruiting efforts increased significantly (80.5%) during the past year (table below). This is in striking contrast to the decline in student participation the previous year. The 26,197 student participants far exceeds the average 18,000 participants from 2000-2003. The increase in student participation may be due to the enhanced efforts by career services offices to promote their services to students and to a wider range of students from freshmen to seniors. Several offices showed significant increases in student participation, including ACES, Biotechnology, Business, Chemical Sciences, Engineering, and The Career Center (details may be found in Appendix A).

This past year employers significantly increased their contact (89.4%) with career services offices at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The employer contact numbers are not unique thus one employer may have multiple relations with several career services offices. The number of employer contacts (4, 611) was even greater than the 2000-01 contacts (3,849). Engineering Career Services showed the most dramatic increase. See Appendix A for details.

The number of job and internship vacancies posted with the career services offices continued to decline. A primary reason for the significant decline this past year was due to a change in how vacancies were reported. For example, The Career Center no longer reports every position sent to the Center in Job Vacancy Bulletins (paper bulletins with multiple listings); only positions posted in its career management system were reported. Thus, there was a decline from 4,861 vacancies to 679 postings for The Career Center. Similarly, Education Career Services reported 4,279 actual vacancies in 2004-05 compared to 23,900 in 2003-04. Several offices reported increases in internship and job vacancies including ACES, Business, Chemical Sciences, Engineering, and ILIR.

A summary table of recruiting activity from career services offices reporting for 2004-05, including employer relationships, interview schedules, student interviews, internship/job vacancies posted, and student participation may be found in Appendix A. In addition, individual career office details for each category of recruiting activity (full-time employment, internship/coop opportunities, and career fair participation) is available.

Finally, campus-wide recruitment activity for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1988 through 2005 is reported in Appendix B. Relationships with employers are at an all-time high (4,611) with the closest years being 2000-01 (3,849 employer contacts) and 1999-2001 (3,744 employers). Student participation in recruitment activities is the highest ever reported (data only available since 1997-98).

Graduation Plans - UIUC Senior Survey 2005

The Chancellors Senior Survey on the Undergraduate Experience 2005 is administered each spring to graduating seniors by the Center for Teaching Excellence (John Ory, Director). In addition to questions about their undergraduate experiences, seniors are asked about their post-graduation plans. Of the 4,546 seniors sent the Survey, 2,453 responded, approximately a 54% response rate. See Appendix C for representation data. A full summary of 2005 post-graduation plans by college may be found in Appendix D. Following is a general summary of the results from respondents regarding their post-graduation plans.

In the 2005 survey, 52% of the seniors planned to work, 36% planned to continue their studies, and 12% were uncertain or had other plans. In 2004 seniors answered similarly with 51% planning to work, 35% continuing their studies, and 14% were uncertain or indicated other plans.

Of the survey respondents, 20.7% had confirmed employment, compared to 17% and 16.9% in the previous two years. This still does not meet the 26.4% and 30.8% confirmed employment in 2001 and 2000, respectively.

The same percentage as last year (23%) had confirmed plans for graduate and professional school.

Following are the top graduate and professional degree programs in which 2005 graduates planned to enroll, compared to the class of 2004 (as reported by the seniors in each of the graduating classes):

Graduating seniors with confirmed employment are asked to name their future employer on the Senior Survey. Following are the results for the past 3 years:

Caterpillar, the Armed Forces, and Deloitte and Touche continued to be among the top five employers. Teach for America has shown a steady increase as an identified employer during the past three years, moving from tied as 14th, to 7th last year, and 3rd in 2005. Accenture has returned as a top employer in 2005 with an absence the past two years. Microsoft also appears in the top ten for the first time. Other consistent top employers include Hewitt and Associates and Cerner Corporation.

For the first time this year career services offices were asked to identify the names of the top five employers

• that hired their graduates and number of hires (if available), and
• in regards to recruiting activity (interviewing, job postings, and resume referral) in their career office.

Here are the results of this survey:

Surprisingly, only four employers were duplicated among the career services offices on the list: University of Illinois (3), General Electric (3), Caterpillar (2), and Flowserve (2).

Use of Career Services (according to Graduating Seniors)

By special request the following question was asked on the Chancellors Senior Survey in spring 2005 for the first time, "Did you use career services?"

An astounding 68% of the graduating seniors that responded indicated that they had used career services. This number far exceeds expectations and demonstrates a strong usage of career services on campus. The table below reports results by the college of the graduating senior. For graduating seniors in the Business College, 89% responded "yes" to the question and 73% of the seniors in Engineering responded with a "yes."

Summary

Career services offices have shown an increase in student interviews, interview schedules, student participation, and employer relations during the 2004-05 academic year. Most significant is the increase in student participation and employer contacts. This increase is due to the extensive efforts by career services offices to serve a range of students and cultivate employer relations. These increased contacts with students and employers will reap benefits in the future. If the economy continues to recover and on-campus recruiting increases, as expected, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be in a favorable position to capitalize on the enhanced opportunities for students and recruiting strategies of employers.

Post-graduation plans of 2005 graduating seniors are similar to the graduating classes of recent years. Confirmed employment was greater than the past two years, but still not as high as 2000-2001. As on-campus recruiting improves, it is expected that confirmed employment will increase for future graduates. Confirmed graduate/professional school plans remain about the same as previous years.

The number of graduating seniors indicating use of career services (68%) is significant and indicative of the value of career services at the University. While there is only one year of data supporting this broad use of career services, future surveys will hopefully substantiate the extensive use. The widespread use of career services by students on campus will strengthen on-campus recruiting by employers, increasing post-graduation opportunities for students.

Appendix A

*Does not include "Other Fair" participants because not all are UIUC students

*Engineering represents totals; not able to breakout FT/Intern recruiting from all schedules

*Engineering only reported full-time employment data; not able to breakout FT/Intern recruiting from all schedules

Appendix B

Appendix C

The Chancellors Senior Survey on the Undergraduate Experience at UIUC

In 1989, a task force appointed by the Chancellor created a questionnaire to be administered to all graduating seniors at UIUC. The results of the survey, the Chancellor said, "will be useful in responding to requests for information on how our students feel about the educational experience they have had as undergraduates here and in identifying problems on campus which need our attention." The survey was administered in 1990 through 1993 and from 1996 to the present year.

Beginning in 1998 the Senior Survey has been administered electronically. In March 2005 an e-mail message regarding the Senior Survey was sent to all seniors on the May graduation list. The e-mail message from the Chancellor asked students to complete the survey posted on a university Web-site. Ten days following the initial e-mail message a follow-up message was sent reminding students to complete the survey. Survey respondents were entered into a lottery with a single prize of two free airline tickets valued at $500 each. Of these 4,546 seniors, 2,453, or approximately 54%, responded. Similar to past years, the respondents were roughly representative of the graduating class by gender, ethnic origin, and academic affiliation as indicated below.

Care should be taken in interpreting the results of the survey because the small number of respondents in some sub-categories makes the results statistically unreliable. This summary presents highlights of the data following the general order of the survey.

Appendix D

UIUC Senior Survey, conducted by Center for Teaching Excellence, John Ory, Director (reported by graduates)

Percentages do not equal 100% in some cases due to rounding and missing values.

UIUC Senior Survey, conducted by Center for Teaching Excellence, John Ory, Director (reported by graduates)

Percentages do not equal 100% in some cases due to rounding and missing values.

UIUC Senior Survey, conducted by Center for Teaching Excellence, John Ory, Director (reported by graduates)

Percentages do not equal 100% in some cases due to rounding and missing values.

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