Spotlight for Career Services Professionals, January 4, 2012
by Kevin Gaw, Ph.D.
This issue’s student learning outcome (SLO):
Students learn how to present themselves effectively during an on-campus interview (OCI).
What to measure and why:
The scenario: Your assessment report states that 60 percent of students who attend your career center’s interview and job preparation skills workshops either will likely or will definitely proceed to the next step of the interview process, as rated by interviewing employers. Sound good?
This SLO was generated knowing that career centers contribute directly to the skill sets of students who participate in job preparation workshops. It was also developed knowing that career centers nowadays generally do not engage in actual placement, which is the purview of hiring managers from the off-campus organizations interviewing the students. We know we do have a role, however, in how students can present themselves during the interview, increasing their chances of moving forward. And finally, it was developed in recognition that career centers must still demonstrate to stakeholders some nuance of “placement” while also showing that students are learning how to interview and present themselves to employers—a tricky combination.
Actions that prompt student learning:
Attending interview preparation/skills workshops and applying the learning is what this SLO is all about. This SLO focuses on the cumulative effect of learning skills as a result of participating in career center workshops (job-search skills, interview preparation activities, résumé writing workshops, and more) and having the effect of these skills rated by actual employers who are interviewing students during OCIs. In other words, the more a student participates in interview preparation workshops and activities, the more likely he or she will advance in the hiring process, as rated by recruiters.
Method of measurement:
Two survey tools are used for this SLO: the student interview preparation form and the employer evaluation form. The student interview preparation form is a checklist of specific career programs that contribute to interview skill development and presentation skills. Students complete the form when they check in for their OCI. (Note: For multiple same-day interviews for an individual student, copies of the completed form are made after the OCI event.)
The recruiter completes an employer evaluation form immediately after each interview, for each student he or she interviews. Students and employers never see each other’s forms; they are collected separately. Career services staff pair the student forms with the employer rating forms at the end of the OCI event. The paired forms are entered into a statistical software package (e.g., SPSS) or Microsoft Excel, and pooled across multiple OCI events (aggregating data by semester and by year, for example). Be sure to code by OCI event as well, as this allows for “day of” analyses.
Analysis
There are two basic ways to analyze this SLO. The first is to record the frequencies of the employer ratings and convert these frequencies to percentages. This will produce the percentage statement that is the scenario that leads off this article. Then graph the student participation (frequencies or percentages) with the employer ratings.
This table, using real student participation percentages and real employer ratings, demonstrates the “power” of this assessment tool, as it easily shows the effect of student learning. One can even calculate the correlation coefficient, using participation or hours of preparation, further enhancing the tool’s power.
The interpretations for the data graphed below are:
- The more a student participates in interview preparation activities, the more likely he or she will advance in the hiring process; and
- Sixty-one percent of students who attend the career center’s interview and job preparation skills workshops will likely or will definitely proceed to the next step of the interview process.
How much is enough?
Our office has the bar set at working to ensure that 75 percent of students who participated in our interview preparation workshops will be rated by employers as either “likely” or “definitely” with regard to proceeding in the interview process. While some may feel this is high, we deliberately set the bar high as a stretch goal. Last year, we hit 61 percent. By refining our workshop learning outcomes and improving our content delivery, we are working to achieve 75 percent this year.