While perusing the internet one day this week I came across an article entitled, "Are college students setting themselves up for future job failure?". Naturally my interested was piqued, and as I read the article I was somewhat surprised by the author's use of statistics. The statistics presented in this article came from a study conducted by Millenial Branding and StudentAdvisor.com and were published in The Student Career Development Study. This article claims that modern college students aren't doing enough to prepare for future job opportunities.
Statistics portraying various types of social networking among college students are used as means to justify the author's claim that college student are ill-prepared for future job opportunities.
According to this study:
- 95% of college students have Facebook accounts.
- Nearly 50% of college students have Twitter and/or Google + accounts.
- Only 34% of college students have LinkedIn profiles.
The first problem that I see with the presentation of this data is that it was taken from a relatively small sample size of 200 students. Given the very large population size of college students, it is unlikely that a sample size of 200 is representative of all or even a majority of college students. Furthermore, it is not mentioned whether this sample size was taken from a single university or from various universities. Whether or not these 200 students span in range from freshman to senior is also likely to have an effect on whether or not the student is actively preparing for future job opportunities. It is probably much more likely that a senior would think to make a LinkedIn profile as compared to a freshman or even a sophomore.
The more serious problem that I see with this use of statistics is the very broad conclusion that is formed from this very limited amount of data. In using only statistics related to which type of social media sites students most frequently use, it is hard to justify the conclusion that college students are setting themselves up for future job failure. In attempting to make a sweeping generalization such as the one presented in this article it is necessary to take into account many other factors that relate to future job failure. Perhaps the best and only way to back the claim that college students are setting themselves up for future job failure would be to provide statistics showing a strong relationship between formation of a LinkedIn profile and future job success.
Sources:
"Are college students setting themselves up for future job failure?". msn.careerbuilder.com. January 29, 2013.
Colleen,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article to read! I thought that you mentioned every mistake that the author made throughout your post. In my opinion, I find it quite ridiculous that a facebook or twitter account would even coorelate with one's future job opportunities (unless, of course, there was exlicit content found on their page). I think that one's future success comes from many factors (i.e. education, experience, competence, etc.). Thus, I agree with your conclusion, that one would have to show a true relationship between these internet accounts and job opportunities for college students.
Its amazing how many news stories like this there ARE out there. I'm sure you had no trouble finding one. It would seem that the person just had a conclusion in mind -- maybe they noticed social networking hurt a friend and wanted to see if it was hurting other people. Then they just went out and gathered numbers to 'support' their claims. Its rather sensationalist, and I your post illustrated just how sloppy some of these articles can get.
ReplyDeleteYour sentence "In attempting to make a sweeping generalization such as the one presented in this article it is necessary to take into account many other factors that relate to future job failure." Really hit the nail on the head. Great example!
I definitely agree with all of you, especially Colleen's comment that freshmen and even sophomores are going to be less likely to care much about the job market. I know I didn't really know what I wanted to do or even if I wanted to go to graduate school until last year (currently a senior). It wasn't until this winter break that I made a LinkedIn account for myself, and I'm not really seeing the utility of it yet. It seems more like a way to collect "connections" like Facebook collects "friends".
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