| Cory Heyman
Johns Hopkins University
Getting a first job: Translating academic credentials into labor-market position
FINAL REPORT: This study examines the factors that affect early occupational outcomes for a recent cohort of graduating college students in the United States. Of particular interest is why differences in occupational outcomes persist by gender and race/ethnicity and whether part of the answer lies in the processes by which recent college graduates seek and obtain jobs. Research over the past two and a half decades suggests that social resources, such as personal contacts, offer young job seekers an advantage in early occupational placements. Since personal social networks tend to be bounded largely by ascriptive characteristics, such as race, gender, and socio-economic status, and the occupational structure in the United States continues to be skewed by these characteristics, success with job-search strategies that use personal contacts should also vary accordingly. The findings from this study, however, suggest otherwise for this population. There may even be negative associations between the use of friends and family in the job-search process and occupational success. Instead, factors such as the selection of an undergraduate major, grade-point average, and job-preparation experiences are most strongly associated with occupational success, factors that are not evenly distributed by social-structural characteristics. These factors also affect the construction ofjob-search strategies. Graduates who have the most marketable skills do not need to do more than participate in on-campus interviews and job fairs to acquire the best jobs. Undergraduate resources and job-search activities together, however, still do not explain all of the social-structural differences in occupational outcomes examined in this study.
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