International Journal of Business Marketing and Management (IJBMM) Volume 4 Issue 2 February 2019, P.P. 01-09 ISSN: 2456-4559 www.ijbmm.com
Factors Influencing Hiring Of Graduates for Information Technology Projects OmarHaddad1, Mohamad Saouli2, Bhaskar Sinha3 1
Argosy University, Orange, California, USA DeVry University, Long Beach, California, USA 3 National University, San Diego, California, USA 2
__________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT:This study focuses on determining a working ‘selection criteria model’ that will help Information Technology (IT) companies choose the right candidates to work on their IT projects in areas such as system design, requirement gathering and management, project management, systems analysis, etc. The studyanalyzesthe current perceptions in the IT industry and atuniversities that prepare students to seek careers in IT projects,bysurveying IT professionals and university professors, to better understand the selection process decision factors.This research will help candidates identify where the focus should be, such as the candidates’ Grade Point Average (GPA), academic standing, experience, and soft skills, such as working in teams, leadership skills, communication skills, and problem solving and decision-making skills. Thisstudy also addresses demographic information as well as the technical skills of a candidate that are important to companies. The university professors’ input and the IT professionals’ input regarding potential candidates can be integrated through university career services and consulting services as well as talent acquisition providers to define students’ criteria selection model for collaboration on IT projects between universities and the industry.Moststudies in the literature regarding university-industrycollaboration focus on the overall institutional capability and not on the candidates themselves.To define a working criteria selection model for university and industry collaboration for candidates to work on IT projects, this research addresses the research questions and identifies the dependent and independent variables.Mixed research design method wasused to conduct comparative and data analysis. The researchers used mixed closed and open-ended survey questions. Descriptive statistics is used to calculate the averages of the three main variables: student’s attributes, soft skills, and technical skills. The means were used to identify the top key attributes to identify and select graduate candidates to work on IT projects and identify the importance of those skills. An independent samples t-test was used to test whether or not there is a significant difference between a manger’s perception and a professor’s perception in selecting graduate students to work on IT projects. Keywords: Collaboration, employment status, employment type, experience, grade point average, information technology, professional experience, SPSS.
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Introduction
Developing a model for recruiting the right university graduate candidates to work on company IT projects is time consuming, costly, and may require multiple iterations to have a good and working model. Due to recent economic challenges and globalization, investing in multiple iterations to come up with a working model for the IT industry is expensive. As a result, companies are interested in having a model that works and requires limited resources to manage the effort due to the scarcity of the resources at hand. Consequently, there is a need for collaboration between industry and academia to improve graduate recruitments.The literature is replete with studieshighlighting the need for industry-academic collaboration in hiring skilled employees. Research institutions are forced to develop specific strategies of cooperation to respond to the challenges of increasing competition. The stronger the competition, the more crucial it is for research institutions to join forces with partners to reinforce themselves [1].University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) has existed for many years in the form of internships and faculty exchanges [2], but recent rapid changes in the business environments have triggered more attention among researchers to find ways to increase productivity and efficiency [3-5]. The rising cost 0f skilled labor, knowledge, and research has demanded strong partnerships between universities and industries [6].University and industry partnership simply requires the interaction and coordination of the two entities to develop innovative and creative solutions that are commercially viable. Such collaborations are crucial to technology advancements that produce socio-economic and life-saving benefits.
International Journal of Business Marketing and Management (IJBMM)
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