Having been involved in economic development initiatives many years ago for the City of El Paso, I realize how challenging it is to recruit new organizations into a community. Companies consider so many factors: city infrastructure, employment base, education, transporation, tax abatements, and many other things. Cities like San Antonio were very innovative years ago when they focused on creating economic development opportunities around specific industries like healthcare before it was on anyone’s radar. Now the medical industry is one of San Antonio’s largest employers. Today I came across another innovative idea – this one being driven by higher education to rebuild urban communities. Legislation in congress called the “ Urban University Renaissance Act of the 21st Century” focuses on helping rebuild neighborhoods in urban areas around the country. What a great idea. The law would award grants to institutions of higher education to establish and maintain community outreach partnership centers and expand existing community engagement activities that address urban problems.  What better way to rebuild communities than by investing in education?

8/31 – Update

St. Mary’s in San Antonio is already following this approach. Read how. h/t  @StMarysU

It’s always great to see a 2-minute video that can summarize why employers need to pay attention to the Hispanic workforce. This video and the featured bilingual job fair is courtesy of AL DIA - a Hispanic news and  media company based in Philly. Enjoy!

Beyond.com just released results of a survey that provides interesting insights outlining some of the job search strategies used by today’s college graduates. Some of them are surprising. The study was conducted in partnership with the Wharton Small Business Development Center. Here are some of the highlights:

Graduating college students rely heavily on their university career centers…

Graduating college students prefer to use niche job sites over general job boards and social networking sites….

Most college students use social networking sites on a personal level, but are hesitant to leverage these sites for career-related purposes…

Seventy-five percent of students waiti to search for jobs until six months before graduation and are relying so heavily on their colleges to introduce them to employers…

Participants ranked online job boards among their top choices to find employment.  

Intriguing results particularly when it comes to college graduates NOT leveraging social media tools as a resource to either network and/or help find employment opportunities after graduation. The disconnect is a bit baffling given that college students are high volume users of Facebook and other social networking sites.

The Wall Street Journal has a quick interview with an MIT career center advisor discussing some trends and where MBA students might have better luck finding jobs. Job market still seems sluggish even for MBAs – unless they’re targeting very specific niche areas such as energy, technology, and some financial areas. Recovery is certainly happening but at a slow and uneven pace.

Serves a good opportunity to remind you that the 2010 National Hispanic MBA conference will be held in Chicago October 21-23,  at McCormick Place.

More students are choosing NOT to major in business , over 6 million (or 4.1% of) workers have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks (and still want a job), the economic downturn will change the everything having to do with “work”, we are  having debates about whether or not we need MORE college graduates, and when 1.2 million unemployed workers lose their unemployment benefits. Good news – 7/10 workers think they have the ideal job. : )

My job search as a graduating college student was a guidebook on how not to find the right career. Although I did have two job offers upon graduation, the one I accepted was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Looking back now, I realize that one of the many challenges I faced was my “non-traditional” background as a student. Unlike many of my peers in college, I was much older (27 when I graduated), had several years of work experience, and already had management experience in my young career. Rather than using previous experiences and background to my advantage, I tried going the “traditional” route of finding a job. Although my skills were appreciated, once in the organization, I was adrift in a corporate management program with little motivation or direction. It was a disaster. Today, non-traditional is a term that still describes Hispanic college students. While non-traditional students differ in many respects, one area of significant difference is the job choices they make.  From a Hispanic perspective, non-traditional students are more likely to be employed part or full-time while attending college and are more likely to accept an offer of continued employment from their college employer after graduation. Why? Stability of continued employment and potential of much faster advancement opportunities.  

Many Hispanic college students are non-traditional in that they have family or other commitments. This factor makes them less able to take the time to search for a new job when they finish their degree and more anxious to accept a job offer once they receive one. However, these factors also demonstrate that Hispanic college graduates make exceptional employees (i.e., previous work experience). Although I made full use of my college career center, non-traditional students are less likely to use any university resources in their job hunt. This primarily because career centers have inconvenient hours for non-traditional students or that the services provided are not appropriate for or marketed to non-traditional students.

There is a continuing need to understand the views held by non-traditional college students. During my experiences on the corporate and university side of college recruitment, there seemed to be a hesitation toward hiring non-traditional students and certainly little willingness to seek out those with non-traditional backgrounds. Data from the U.S. Department of Education indicates that non-traditional education is on the rise. With so many people pursuing their education non-traditionally, employers need to create more effective use of the full spectrum of workers that are available to them. Given a large number of Hispanics are considered non-traditional students, employers need to ensure that non-traditionally educated students have access to the full spectrum of career opportunities. If not, it will compound the lack of diversity in leadership and management positions that are already too often present in the workforce.

Business Week has a great article on the on-going challenges college graduates are having finding jobs in this current economic environment.  This paragraph captures the stunning reality:

Only 46% of people aged 16-24 had jobs in September, the lowest since the government began counting in 1948. The crisis is even hitting recent college graduates. “I’ve applied for a whole lot of restaurant jobs, but even those, nobody calls me back,” says Dan Schmitz, 25, a University of Wisconsin graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. “Every morning I wake up thinking today’s going to be the day I get a job. I’ve not had a job for months, and it’s getting really frustrating.”

Via the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a list presenting the types of jobs 2009 college graduates were most likely to be offered. Teaching positions topped the list, according to a new report published by NACE’s Fall 2009 Salary Survey report lists teaching, management trainee, financial/treasury analysis, consulting, and sales positions as the top five jobs offered to 2009 graduates.

Teaching –  $35,496

Management Trainee  – $41,353

Financial/Treasury Analysis - $52,043

Consulting – $56,472

Sales – $41,577

Accounting (Public) – $49,437

Accounting (Private) – $45,859

Software Design & Development – $63,798

Registered Nursing – $45,229

Project Engineering – $58,570

The under-representation of Hispanic Americans in the Federal workforce has been an issue for a few decades. Almost 40 years ago, President Nixon supported a “Sixteen Point Program” intended to assure equal Federal government opportunities for Hispanic Americans. The plan not only emphasized recruitment but upward mobility opportunities. Unfortunately, an increased representation of Hispanics in Federal government has not kept pace with the increasing Hispanic population. Several challenges have attributed to this gap: geographic concentration of Hispanics, qualifications, education, and citizenship requirements.

Jorge E. Ponce has been a long advocate for increasing Hispanic representation in the Federal workforce. He has penned a great commentary on the issue and shares some personal experiences. In order to address the discrepancy found in the Federal workforce, government agencies must continue to aggressively increase the hiring of Hispanic Americans annually. Implementing effective training and career advancement programs that will retain AND promote more Hispanic Americans need to be either reviewed or implemented. Finally, agencies must be held responsible for employing these strategies aimed at increasing Hispanic representation.

The last 15 years have seen significant changes in the recruitment advertising area. When I first began in the recruiting field, print ads dominated the industry. By 2000, job seekers jumped online to websites like Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs. As we near the end of the first decade of the 21^st century, another transition has occurred. Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Craigslist are emerging as strong competitors to traditional online job boards. That’s why it’s not surprising that job board postings and revenues  have dropped significantly over the last few years. Yes, much of it can be attributed to the economy, however, a lot more can be attributed to the declining benefits of online board experiences. Whether it’s the excess of advertising, quality of job listings, or registration requirements, job seekers are disenchanted by their overall experience. Employers are now skeptical as well. As a former director of recruiting, job boards produced less than significant response rates with the quality of candidates average at best. Many of the candidates I contacted were actively being recruited by other organizations, thus resumes came from a shared pool of candidates. Not effective.

Companies like Jobs2Web.com are literally reinventing online recruiting. The company describes itself as an interactive recruiting partner. They develop and implement innovative technologies and services to enable organizations to attract, capture and communicate with the increasing number of interactive job seekers. Certainly, the company is not the “silver bullet” online recruiting source, but Jobs2Web does make the make a viable case for reallocating resources from job boards and more toward interactive recruitment strategies. Check out a great podcast with Jobs2Web founder Doug Berg via Total Picture Radio.