Recruiting and Interviewing Benchmarks

UIUC Interviewing/Recruiting Summary 2006-2007

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

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• HireIllini
• Recruitment at UIUC
• Graduation Plans - UIUC Senior Survey 2006
• Use of Career Services
• Summary
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Appendix D
• Appendix E

The Recruitment and Graduation Benchmarks is a report produced annually by the Career Services Council at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Career Services Council 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.

One function of the Council 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. According to its mission adopted May 21, 2001, the Career Services Council is “a gateway for students to experiential education, post-graduation employment, and advanced degree work. The Council is a connecting and coordinating body that addresses policy and practice in matters of career service, employment, and post-graduate opportunities.”

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 Chancellor’s Senior Survey on the Undergraduate Experience at UIUC 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 Chancellor’s Senior Survey.

HireIllini.com

In 2006-07 the Career Services Council laid the groundwork for a marketing campaign to promote the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the preeminent place to recruit talent. With funding from the Office of the Provost for three years (2007-10), the following goals were established:

• Position Illinois as the preeminent source for recruiting talented human capital
• Impact economic stakeholders in the state, region, nation, and world by introducing employing partners to the vast opportunities for entry-level and experienced hires in all majors at the University of Illinois
• Ensure that current employers from specific disciplines know the wide-range of quality human resources available from other disciplines on campus
• Offer organizations a single online access point to the 25+ career services offices and affiliates in order to connect with unique talent across the entire campus
• Promote cross-campus hiring for employers with multiple-discipline human resource needs

During the first year the primary goals were to develop a brand identity for the campaign, design promotional materials, and establish a website “portal” or gateway to career services and recruiting at Illinois. After conducting market research with employers to determine recruiting needs and communication strategies, a strategic plan was designed for the marketing campaign. Templates using the new HireIllini brand were designed to provide flexibility in promotion for individual offices. The HireIllini.com website (www.hireillini.com) was created as a centralized site with links to career services offices and job fair calendars, as well as information about the University’s outstanding reputation and academic programs. HireIllini.com introduced recruiters to a higher level of service and collaboration within the Career Services Network, allowing for greater productivity for recruiters accessing talent across academic disciplines.

The campaign included a HireIllini e-card (http://www.hireillini.com/hireillini_2.html) to send to current and prospective employers as well as alumni and donors. A brochure that describes the Five Easy Steps for Recruiting at Illinois was designed and produced (15,000 copies). Brochures have been distributed by individual career offices and mailed to over 6,500 employers in the database of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and to over 2,000 members of the American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE). Flyers promoting HireIllini.com were distributed at the NACE national conference and full page ads were placed in program booklets at Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers conferences (Recruiting Trends 2006 and the annual conference in 2007). Currently, employer lists are being gathered from local and state Chambers of Commerce and Extension Offices throughout Illinois. The focus of the marketing campaign in 2007-08 will be targeting employers using the promotional materials developed this year.

To further research the needs, impressions, and satisfaction of employers as well as benchmark the current status of recruiting at Illinois, an electronic survey was sent to a sample of approximately 1,500 current employers connected with career services offices at the University of Illinois. Data will be used to benchmark current practice and assess the impact of the marketing campaign. Results will be summarized in 2007-08.

Finally, a master list of employers recruiting on campus was compiled in the Summary of Employer Relationships with Career Services Offices (see Appendix A). The summary will be used as a benchmark for future comparisons of recruitment activities and employer relationships as the HireIllini campaign takes center stage in the campus-wide promotion to increase recruitment of University of Illinois students and graduates.

Recruitment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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 postings, and student participants. Campus-wide totals and data for each of these areas by career services office may be found in Appendix B.

The number of student interviews increased slightly this past year with 30,174 interviews conducted on campus. While student interviews have not reached the level of 2000-01 with 34,591 interviews, increases show a steady upswing from the six-year low in 2002-03.

The number of interview schedules dropped to 4,169 from a record high of 4,731 last year (records are available since 1988-89). Career services personnel reported that employers have fewer schedules, but interview more students during their schedules. The numbers indicate that employers interviewed an average of 7+ students per schedule, which is higher than the 6+ students per schedule last year. On-campus recruiting continues to be strong and a primary method for employers to connect with candidates.

Student participation in campus recruiting efforts showed an increase of 5.9% during the past year which is lower than the 18.1% increase last year. Since 2003-04, student participation has increased nearly 122%. The significant increase may be explained by the enhanced efforts of career services offices to promote their services to a wider range of students (from freshmen to graduate students). Career services offices have seen a steady increase in student participation since the data was first collected in 1997-98 (details in Appendix C).

During 2006-07 the number of employers participating in career services was 7,753 (an increase of 24% from last year), the highest number of contacts ever recorded with career services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 2001-02, employer relations have increased over 315%. This significant increase can be attributed to coordinated efforts by career offices to expand and share employer contacts across campus. The employer contact numbers are not unique thus one employer may have multiple relationships with several career services offices, which is a desired goal of the Career Services Council. See Appendix B for details.

The number of job and internship vacancies posted with the career services offices declined to 11,306, a number similar to 2004-05. A primary reason for the significant decline in 2004-05 was due to a change in how vacancies were reported, particularly by The Career Center and Education Career Services. (See last year’s report for details). Several offices reported decreases in internship and job postings this past year including The Career Center, Engineering, Library and Information Sciences, and Journalism.

A summary table of recruiting activity from career services offices reporting for 2006-07, including employer relationships, interview schedules, student interviews, internship/job vacancies posted, and student participation may be found in Appendix B. In addition, individual career office details for each category of recruiting activity (full-time employment, internship/coop opportunities, and career fair participation) is available.

The above chart shows recruiting trends during the past ten years. Student participation has increased significantly in recent years with 32,775 student contacts reported by career services offices (data only available since 1997-98). This is probably due to career services involving more first-year students, sophomores, and graduate students in their career fairs and services. In addition, relationships with employers are at an all-time high (7,753) with another significant increase over last year. While the number of interview schedules dropped from the all time high last year, the number of students interviewed increased. Over 30,000 student interviews were conducted on campus with steady increases the past few years. Campus-wide recruitment activity for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1988 through 2007 is reported in Appendix C. Recruiting activities are a significant activity of the career services offices and benchmark data shows the importance of this work in serving students and employers.

Graduation Plans - UIUC Senior Survey 2007

The Chancellor’s Senior Survey on the Undergraduate Experience at UIUC 2007 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 4,961 seniors sent the survey, 2,737 responded (a 55% response rate). See Appendix D for representation data. A full summary of 2007 post-graduation plans by college may be found in Appendix E. Following is a general summary of the results from respondents regarding their post-graduation plans.

According to the 2007 Senior Survey, 53% of the seniors planned to work, 34% planned to continue their studies, and 13% were uncertain or had other plans. In 2006 seniors answered similarly with 53% planning to work, 35% continuing their studies, and 12% were uncertain or indicated other plans.

Of the survey respondents, 24% had confirmed employment, compared to 25.30% and 20.70% in the previous two years. This still does not meet the 26.4% and 30.8% confirmed employment in 2001 and 2000, respectively.

Following are the most popular occupations indicated by the graduates of the class of 2007 compared to the class of 2006:

Engineering again is the most popular occupation cited by graduating students. Financial Operations showed an increase for 2007 graduates as 8.4% indicated this as the type of occupation compared to 6.5% from the class of 2006. Education/Training/Library/Museum occupations were identified by 6% of the graduates compared to 4.8% last year. Agriculture, Farming, Fishing, and Forestry occupations moved to eighth on the list from twelfth last year while Management/Trainee dropped to seventh from second last year.

Slightly more graduates (23%) had confirmed plans for graduate and professional school which is similar to 2005 and 2004 graduates’ plans.

Below are the top graduate and professional degree programs in which 2007 graduates planned to enroll, compared to the classes of 2006 and 2005 (as reported by the seniors in each of the graduating classes). While law and engineering remained the top programs this year, medicine and accounting/finance exchanged positions with medicine dropping to the 4 th position. Veterinary medicine dropped from 5 th most mentioned graduate degree

program to 11 th on this year’s list.

The Senior Survey also asked those students that indicated they will be attending graduate/professional school to name the school they will be attending. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was listed by 196 of the 543 respondents, followed by University of Illinois – Chicago, DePaul, Northwestern, Southern Illinois University, and Rush University.

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:

The Armed Forces and Caterpillar continued to be among the top five employers with Huron Consulting, JP Morgan Chase, and Teach for America entering the top five employers identified by seniors. Motorola and Deloitte dropped to the 6 th and 7 th positions, respectively, by seniors responding to the survey. New entrees on the top ten list include Epic Systems, KPMG, and Sargent and Lundy. Other top employers include CNA Insurance, Huntley Consolidated School District, Liberty Mutual, Lockheed Martin, Monsanto, and the United States Government. Several organizations were not on the top 20 list this year: Accenture, ADM, Sears, Target, LaSalle Bank, Ameriprise Financial, Bank of America, Kraft Foods, Procter and Gamble, United Airlines, and the University of Illinois. Financial and accounting institutions seem to be employing students at increasing rates.

This was the third year that career services offices were asked to identify the names of their top employers that (1) hired their graduates and (2) participated in recruiting activity (interviewing, job postings, and resume referral) in their career office.

Results of this survey of the career services offices:

The list indicates that ten of the top organizations that hire and/or recruit at UIUC career services offices do so at more than one office: Deloitte (3), University of Illinois (3), Anheuser Busch (2), BP (2), Caterpillar (2), Exxon Mobil (2), General Electric (2), Microsoft (2), Monsanto (2), and Motorola (2). Please note that this data is preliminary, based upon survey response immediately after graduation. Complete hiring numbers may be available from individual offices six months after graduation.

Use of Career Services (according to Graduating Seniors)

This was the third year the Chancellor’s Senior Survey asked students if they had used career services. Once again an astounding 73% of the graduating seniors for the class of 2007 responded that they had used career services. This is consistent with last year’s number of 74%. The three-year trend demonstrates strong usage of career services on campus. The table below reports results by the college of the graduating senior comparing the classes of 2005, 2006, and 2007. For graduating seniors in the College of Education, 72% responded “yes” to the question (an increase of 7% from last year) and 75% of the seniors in Communications responded with a “yes” (a 6% increase from last year). Fine and Applied Arts also saw an increase of 6% with LAS and AHS staying the same, each at 71% for both 2006 and 2007.

*Total responses - 2,656 (2007), 2,067 (2006) and 2,451 (2005)

Summary

Career services offices have shown an increase in student interviews, student participation, and employer relationships during the 2006-07 academic year. Most significant is the increase in employer contacts. Extensive efforts by career services offices to cultivate employer relationships continue and will reap benefits in the future. As the economy continues to recover and on-campus recruiting increases, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is in a favorable position to capitalize on enhanced employment opportunities for students and expanded recruiting by employers.

Post-graduation plans of 2007 graduating seniors are similar to the graduating classes of recent years. Confirmed employment continues to be strong, 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 (73%) is significant and indicative of the value students place on career services at the University. This is the third year that senior survey data supports this broad use of career services. The widespread use of career services by students will strengthen student candidacy for employment and graduate/professional school, on-campus recruiting by employers, and post graduation opportunities for students.

Appendix A

Summary of Employer Relationships with Career Services Offices*
July 2005 – June 2006

Total Number of Employers – 4,559

* Information collected from Career Services Offices summer of 2006 for period of July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006

________________________________________________________________________

*Total explained below

Appendix B

* Does not represent unique users across all offices

** Students may have participated in multiple activities; does not represent unique users

Appendix C

Appendix D

2007 Summary

The Chancellor’s 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 2007 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 4,961 seniors, 2,737, or approximately 55%, 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. Reprinted from 2007 Summary, Chancellor’s Senior Survey on the Undergraduate Experience UIUC, John Ory, Center for Teaching Excellence

Appendix E

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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