7-A

College students struggling to find jobs

Opportunity: College students are being declined full time jobs because of their lack of experience when in reality they just spent 4 years in college learning about the skills to use in their jobs.

- The Who: College students

- The What: they are unable to be accepted to jobs because of lack of experience

- The Why: college students work hard to go through school to become successful and have a job after and should not be declined because of lack of experience after 4 or more years of learning.

Testing the Who: This need is not just specific to college students there are other people that get turned down from jobs because of a lack of experience. What is specific to college students is the fact that they spend money and time to become more knowledgable to be able to become successful and get a job to then be turned down. Not all college students have this need because some may get jobs throughout the semester but this makes it harder to focus on school, and these jobs may not be jobs that give them the "correct" experience for their major.

Testing the What: the boundaries of the need is that college students are told they are not qualified or do not have the experience but they have the base knowledge of the subject and all they need now is specific instructions. Most companies just want someone who has done the job before and for them to simply replace the person who is going which, this will not allow new and fresh minds to join the company such as a bright eyed college student might do.

Testing the Why: Like I said before some college students have jobs so that they can say that they have gotten work experience, but these jobs usually do not provide experience towards their intended jobs. A range of jobs can be provided or internship for students that could provide sufficient experience for their major. 

Interview 1: In this interview I interviewed my father and asked when he is hiring for a position what does he look at most. He said that he looks at the character of the person first to see if they are capable of being a part of his team and then he looks at what his skills are and if he qualifies. He has had to deal with college students that have just gotten out of college and he usually enjoys them the most within the hiring process because they are excited to get to work rather than someone that has already been between jobs for a couple of years. 

Interview 2: In this interview I interviewed a senior in college. He has had multiple interview with companies that he has been excited about because it was what he wanted to do with his major but they turn him down because he did not have 3 years of experience in that specific field. This challenge of having to have 3 years of experience in college is something that is extremely hard to do which means that a college student would need to graduate and then have to start from the bottom of a company to then build his way up to the top and then work for 3 more years in order to have enough "experience" to work for the company he had originally applied for.

Interview 3: In this interview I interview a graduate student who was force to take a job that she didn't want because all of the other companies she applied to didn't want her because of lack of experience. She worked with Gainesville Health and Fitness for a year in their marketing department helping their team. She said that she thought working with this company would help her chances with jobs in the future. Once she graduated she thought she was prepared but the experience she had gotten was not enough to get her the job she wanted.

Interview 4: My 4th interview was a junior in college that is constantly worrying about how he is supposed to gain his experience so that he can get the internship that he needs in order to work for this engineering company. He said that even just an internship with this company needs at least a year of specifically engineering experience. I understand that companies want new employees to know what they are getting into but that is what school is for, to provide the information needed on engineering to then be able to work, then once within the job they specifically narrow your goals to this specific objective.

Interview 5: My final interview is a chemical engineer who has a senior. His senior year is consisting of classes as every college senior is but he is also looking for an internship. He said that there is no way that he can get a job right out of college because he does not have the experience that is required. Some jobs on their website say that they will not allow an interview unless they have a specific amount of experience. He was told by this company at career showcase that he can get an internship in order to gain enough experience time to be hired. Companies do not even want graduates to have a good internship or good experience they just want a specific amount of time that has been spent in order to be hire. 

After these interviews I now know of an opportunity that exist for these college students. All of these companies want graduates to have a set number of time that they have spent with another company and are calling it experience when in reality students are being forces to stress not only over school but also an internship or job so that when they graduate companies will allow an interview. This is an opportunity for companies to realize this mistake that other companies are doing and allow these undergraduate students to be involved in their company so that they can have this interested employees with learning attitudes which will help their company in the long run with better employees.