Survey Of Business Graduates: The Where And Why Of Job Selection

Abstract

What are business school graduates looking for in their first job?  Are there differences between men and women in the relative importance of factors affecting the choice of an initial position?  These questions should be of considerable importance to employers seeking to recruit recent business graduates.

 To assess the relative importance of various factors on the selection of an initial job, questionnaires were mailed to all 1982 through 1984 accounting graduates of an AACSB accredited undergraduate business program.  Sixteen factors were listed on the survey instrument and participants rated these factors on a scale ranging from “not important” to “very important.”  Respondents were also requested to rank their top three factors.