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Apr. 25, 2017 | HANOVER, MD | For media inquiries, please contact us at media@TEKsystems.com.
With the approach of university and college graduations nationwide, TEKsystems®, a leading provider of IT staffing solutions and IT services, today released the results of a survey revealing the top IT jobs for recent graduates along with the key factors hiring managers look at when considering candidates for entry-level positions. The survey was conducted in March 2017 and the results represent the views of more than 250 IT hiring managers across the United States.
Key highlights from the survey include:
Q: What skill sets provide the greatest opportunity for recent college graduates searching for entry-level positions? Select all that apply. |
|
---|---|
Job |
Percentage |
Applications developer |
60% |
Technical support |
54% |
Business/systems analyst |
52% |
Web developer |
48% |
Network/systems administrator |
39% |
Network/systems engineer |
37% |
Database administrator |
35% |
Quality assurance engineer |
27% |
Q: For most entry-level positions, which type of degree is most applicable for recent graduates? Select only one. |
|
---|---|
Type of Degree |
Percentage |
Generalized/traditional degrees (e.g., CIS, computer science, computing, software engineering |
83% |
Specialized/new age degrees (e.g., data analysis, human-computer interaction, AI, game development |
17% |
Q: When considering a recent graduate for a position, how important are the following factors? Stack rank from most important to least important. |
||
---|---|---|
Rank |
Factor |
Percentage (ranked 1 or 2) |
1 |
Work-related internship/experience |
86% |
2 |
Referrals/references |
50% |
3 |
GPA |
24% |
4 |
School attended |
18% |
5 |
Extracurricular activities |
11% |
6 |
ROTC or Military Reserve Program |
10% |
Q: In terms of a hiring package, which factors do you consider most attractive to a recent college graduate when offering them a job? |
||
---|---|---|
Rank |
Package |
Percentage (ranked 1 or 2) |
1 |
Salary |
85% |
2 |
Workplace flexibility (i.e., ability to telecommute, flexible work schedule |
68% |
3 |
Healthcare |
26% |
4 |
Tuition reimbursement (on-going education) |
16% |
5 |
Retirement/401k |
5% |
Q: If a candidate were truly exceptional, how far above the budgeted salary would you be willing to offer? Select only one. |
|
---|---|
Percentage Above |
Response Percentage |
10% above |
46% |
5% above |
32% |
15% above |
15% |
20% above |
5% |
More than 20% above |
2% |
“The industry is still a seller’s market and provides a target-rich environment for recent graduates entering the landscape. However, new graduates should still expect to be offered the types of junior/entry level roles where they’re primarily being asked to maintain, update or fix currently deployed software programs,” said TEKsystems Research Manager Jason Hayman. “This is most likely why organizations are showing a heavy preference for generalized degrees over specialized, where in the future they can develop the skill set of a capable individual to fit their own specialized requirements. Newly graduated job seekers may be surprised that it’s not about the name recognition of an expensive school or a cutting edge degree that gets you in the door, it’s getting your hands dirty prior to graduation and making yourself a valuable member of whatever team or project you get the opportunity to work on.”
TEKsystems’ Jason Hayman is available for additional commentary. For more information about the survey, or to schedule an interview, please contact Nathan Bowen at nabowen@TEKsystems.com.
People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, an Allegis Group company, we understand people. Every year we deploy more than 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals–while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions and IT services to help our clients plan, build and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there.