Up-and-coming students: T’s, inverted u’s and m’s

By Michael Goul  |  Chairman, Department of Information Systems

On September 17, the Department of Information Systems hosted more than 50 companies and 400 students at the Fall Career Mixer. The mixer kicks off the annual recruiting season when many computer information systems and business data analytics seniors land positions at top local, regional and global companies, many juniors receive summer internship offers and sophomores get their first taste of talking about their future with potential employers. Interestingly, the more savvy recruiters are getting to know our students as sophomores.

They watch the students grow and learn through interactions at mixers like this, and then they make internship and job offers based on their longitudinal perspectives. Many of those companies field our own recently hired graduates in their booths to help recruit and to connect with up-and-coming talent. Our graduate students had significant success, too. Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) students are career advancers, many of whom are content in their current companies, but are earning a master of science degree to prepare for the next higher level. They find it interesting to test that next level up by talking with some of the best companies in the world at the mixer.

Both on-site and online platform students joined in this time around. Similarly, M.S. in Business Analytics students are finding that more and more recruiters are coming to campus to seek their special skills and knowledge. MBA students with newly minted information management and analytics expertise rounded out participation from W. P. Carey School graduate programs.

T’s, inverted U’s and even M’s

I am always hearing about our students being examples of T-shaped people, and that these T-shaped types are in big time demand now. The concept T-shaped people or skills is well-known — enough to merit a wiki entry. The vertical part of the T indicates depth in an area. In our case, that’s computer information systems, information management or business analytics. The top line of the T represents the breadth of knowledge and ability to work across disciplines that a solid business education provides. And nowadays we have more than just T-shaped graduates.

More and more are what I call the inverted U’s, or even M’s. Inverted U- and M-type graduates have two or more fields where they have depth, and they have solid business acumen to connect their disciplinary backbones. For example, an analytics student with a general business degree, work experience in supply chain management and who is now earning an M.S. in Business Analytics has more than one vertical; supply chain and analytics depth make them more of an inverted U with their business acumen rounding them out at the top. Some of our most ambitious and overachieving graduate students have depth in multiple disciplinary areas, and they take almost everything we have to offer while they are at the W. P. Carey School. They are our M’s.

Not adrift — now or after graduation

Recently there have been shocking accusations placed at the feet of higher education about graduates who are now in the workforce. These graduates are described as ‘adrift.’ Professors Richard Arum’s and Josipa Roksa’s research lays much of the blame on American colleges. “Many four-year universities attend to students' social adjustment rather than developing their characters, allocating resources toward what will attract teenagers to their campuses rather than what will help them learn. Campuses cater to satisfying consumer preferences instead of providing rigorous academics and connecting what students learn to the real world. Like students and aspiring adults, they argue, colleges and universities are also adrift.”

Bloomberg Businessweek paraphrased the study’s finding by saying that recent graduates now in the workforce have a ‘failure to launch.’

The Chronicle of Higher Education infers from the findings that while students may be graduating from college, many of them are transitioning only partly into adult roles. Education Week points out that while high schools (k-12) have been ramping up standards and have made schools and teachers accountable, higher education has not, but should.

Well, it was one study of one set of students by one set of co-authors, yet it is stirring up a frenzy.  Meanwhile, the evidence here in the W. P. Carey School is that our T-shaped, inverted U’s and M’s are doing very well - as are our recent graduates who are already back recruiting for their new employers. There was no failure to launch in evidence at this fall’s IS Career Mixer. In fact, I’d put these students up against the student T’s, inverted U’s and M’s from throughout the world. Many great companies already have, and the result is that they come here to recruit.

*Note: Special thanks to Angelina Saric and her ‘small but mighty' team for pulling off a fantastic Fall 2014 Mixer!