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Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE), this study aims to better understand the job preference of postgraduate students studying at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology-Institute of Distance Learning, Ghana and also rank the attributes of a job they deem important.

The research adopted a positivist epistemological design contextualised within a deductive approach and case study strategy. Primary survey data was collected from a stratified random sample of 128 postgraduate students with multi-sectorial career prospects. Sample students were subjected to a DCE in which their stated preferences were collected using closed-ended questionnaires with 28 pairs of hypothetical job profiles. Respondents’ preferences from the DCE data were then modelled using the conditional logit.

The research reveals that: salary in the range GHC 2,800.00 to GHC 3,400.00 ($1 = GHS 5.3); supportive management; very challenging jobs; and jobs located in the city were the top attributes that were significant and had the most impact in increasing the utility of selecting a particular job. Interestingly, jobs with no extra hours workload were not significant hence, had a negative impact upon student preferences.

This novel research is the first to use a DCE to better elicit preference and trade-offs of postgraduate students in a developing country towards varying job characteristics that have an impact on their future employment decisions. Knowledge advancements made provide invaluable insight to employers and policymakers on the key criteria that should be implemented to retain the best candidate.

This study analyses the future job characteristics that are preferred by economics and business administration students in three specific regions of Spain, Colombia and Ecuador, and estimates their willingness to accept each.

A discrete choice experiment (DCE) is carried out in these three regions. The econometric approach is based on the Random Parameter Logit model, which accounts for both the observed and unobserved heterogeneity by the use of socio-demographic variables and correlated random parameters.

The main conclusions indicate that the most important job characteristic for students in all three countries is the long-term career prospects at the company, while a permanent contract is one of the least important job attributes. Regarding the more specific conclusions related to each country, the Ecuadorian students seem to have a higher preference for training opportunities, given the strong relationship between the level of education and the job category. The Spanish students seem to value their commuting time more highly than the South American students.

To authors’ best knowledge, this is the first DCE-based study of economics and business administration students’ preferences for future jobs that has been conducted simultaneously in three countries on two different continents. Furthermore, this study presents fresh cross-country data that allow authors to compare student choices between South American and European countries. As a result, by focusing on the DCE approach, this study estimated the monetary amount that students from each country are willing to accept for each of the analysed job characteristics. Thus, this research fills a vacuum in the literature on student job preferences between three Latin speaking countries.

The purpose of this paper is to elicit young economists’ job preferences through the use of a choice experiment (CE).

A CE conducted at a total of five universities in Spain, the Czech Republic and Germany. After estimating a random parameter logit model, the monetary value of the willingness to accept a specific job attribute is simulated.

The most important job characteristic, consistent across countries and universities, is a long-term career prospect at the company.

This is the first CE conducted on business and economics students’ job preferences in three European countries. Using the same survey instrument allows for the comparison of students’ job preferences across countries and also between private and public universities.

Applying the institutional logics perspective to applicant attraction, this study investigates the level of uniformity among preferences for consulting job attributes associated with the institutional logics of the corporation, the profession and the family, and tests for the influence of anticipatory socialization differences.

The study uses a discrete choice experiment with 232 business students. A hierarchical Bayes approach to conjoint analysis uncovers part-worth heterogeneity and allows for subsequent cluster and regression analysis of the choice data.

The findings identify a dominant job-oriented preference type and a minor career-oriented preference type. Anticipatory socialization through personal prior work experience and the occupation of friends decreases adherence to the logic of profession and increases the relevance of the family logic. The parents' occupation has only a minimal influence on preferences.

The study provides attribute-based recommendations on how professional service firms can effectively address the complex expectations of potential applicants in their job ads for an entry position and underlines the role of intra-generational reference groups as important anticipatory socializers.

By testing individual socialization effects at the pre-hire stage and beyond the organizational level, the study fills a void in both the recruitment and the institutional literature.

This chapter explores the types and quality of jobs welfare recipients train for and mechanisms by which occupational gender segregation among low-wage workers persists. We report results from in-depth interviews with sixty-seven welfare case managers, employment service vocational counselors, job training administrators, and job training instructors in seven cities nationwide and short telephone interviews with one hundred and sixty-three students drawn from community colleges and other job training organizations where staff participated in the study. We look at gender-segregated patterns of referral to and enrollment in job training programs, female job training students’ interest in non-traditional training, and factors related to interest in non-traditional training. The results indicate that, while a minority of women in the sample are interested in any single non-traditional blue-collar job, a majority expressed interest in at least one non-traditional job, and 35% expressed interest in at least three non-traditional jobs. While women’s interest in non-traditional jobs seems limited, it is greater than that suggested by caseworkers’ perceptions and the pattern of caseworker recommendations and implies that reforms are needed in the welfare system to better tap women’s interest in non-traditional jobs and increase their enrollment in non-traditional training programs. Training is embedded in a larger system of gender-segregated labor markets that relegates women disproportionately to low-paying service and retail jobs. Improving opportunities for self-sufficiency for low-income women requires questioning and breaking down traditional gender norms that make women secondary economic actors.

The purpose of this study is to find out the awareness, attitude and career preference of commerce students (undergraduate (UG) and post-graduate (PG)) for the insurance industry in India.

The data were collected from 800 commerce students (400 male students and 400 female students) through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire had 18 items related to awareness, attitude and career preference for insurance. The reliability of the tool was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha. To establish the relationship between variables, cross-tabulation techniques that involved Chi-square tests were used. The conclusion was drawn based on probability values (p-value) taking the critical as 0.05 (Bivariate). The data was analyzed using SPSS.

The results revealed that commerce students-UG and PG were aware of the basics of insurance, irrespective of their gender and family income. The students have a positive attitude toward insurance, but lack awareness regarding career options in the insurance industry.

This study included only UG and PG commerce students of Allahabad University and its constituent colleges, hence its findings cannot be generalized for the entire country.

This study can be beneficial to insurance companies in framing their policies as India has a huge young population. There is a need to make the students in higher education aware of the benefits of insurance to cover any unforeseen economic loss and also to make them aware of the career options in the insurance industry.

The present study bridges the gap between existing studies regarding awareness, attitude and career preference of students with gender and family income. To date, no study has been done to find the awareness and attitude of students toward the insurance industry, neither in terms of their becoming prospective customers nor in terms of career preference.

The educational institutions in India have been experiencing new educational technologies (NET)-led technical change for the last two decades or so. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of NET (all possible forms of new technologies) and its impact on students enrolled in tertiary education institutions in India. The main objectives of the study are: to identify intensity of NET used by the students; to investigate whether use of NET is influenced by the financial nature of institution; and to examine the consequences of NET use.

This study is based on a primary survey of seven higher education institutions located in National Capital Region of India. The universities included are both private and public funded. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 201 students in these universities. Advanced statistical techniques have been applied for the analysis.

The study finds that the NET use enables students to communicate with their counterparts and faculty in a more effective manner. The use of digital technologies helps them to manage class activities in a better way. The NET use is found to be more relevant to engineering and science students which leads to better illustration of ideas and enhanced job prospects. The study finds that use of digital technologies is extensive in public-funded institutions. The significant contributions of NET use in improvement in learning are also found in the study.

The major limitation of this study is the small sample size. It was not possible to increase the sample of students due to financial constraint. It is recommended that future research with larger sample could prove the robustness of the findings. Another limitation is the coverage of students only. The future studies may include the analysis of teachers’ views on NET adoption and its consequences.

The present study is an original work of the authors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether communicating recent changes in the sales profession, shifting from a performance-focused model to a customer need-focused model, to job candidates by re-labeling job descriptions can increase job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs.

Two experiments using job candidates (undergraduate business students) were conducted at two public US universities to examine: whether job candidates use job title or job description to determine their interest in pursuing jobs and whether terminology used in the job description affects job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs.

Results show that job candidates’ interest in pursuing jobs are affected by job titles more than the actual job responsibilities. Further, job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs is affected by terminology used in the job descriptions, where customer need-focused (selling-focused) terminology increases (decreases) interest in pursuing a sales job.

Sales jobs have been recognized as one of the hardest job positions to fill. Results from this paper can help recruiters develop effective strategies to improve job candidates’ interest in pursuing sales jobs, especially the emerging social selling jobs.

Contrary to most extant research that investigates resistance toward sales jobs by examining job candidates’ idiosyncratic characteristics, this paper adopts a branding and consumer learning perspective and examines how job candidates’ interest in pursuing a job is influenced by their ability or willingness to process job information.

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the effects of active political engagement in port-of-entry jobs and employment pathways for graduate students in a post-communist context which is characterized by clientelism. The data are derived from a structured survey of a small local labour market where political clientelism is pronounced due to the strong network ties. Controlling for both demand and supply factors, the authors identify a profile for those who are more prone to engage politically in exchange for public sector jobs, which are in turn vulnerable to regime changes.

The authors use data from a sample of 191 students that records month-to-month employment states for three consecutive years (2012–2014). The method attempts to replicate an experimental design with repeated measures before and after the June 2013 government elections. The data is analysed using sequence analysis with optimal matching and difference-in-difference methods.

The analysis provides evidence of links between political engagement and selection onto different employment pathways under conditions of political clientelism. The pathways themselves are also shown to be differentially impacted by the 2013 election (positively or negatively). Together, these results are supportive of claims that jobs in Albania, particularly those in the public sector, are linked to the short-term presence of vote-buying. This is shown to be the case even for this sample of educated members of the labour force (i.e. university graduates). The analysis also finds evidence of accumulative disadvantages over time, in relation to subjective perceptions of life satisfaction, migration intentions, employability and success in life, as a result of active political engagement.

The study uses a unique data set and a novel methodological approach, sequence analysis. Occupational history calendars were used to capture quantitative information recording detailed work histories. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this innovative method has not been used before to measure the temporal effects of political engagement on employment pathways.

Recently, a great deal of interest has been shown in Britain and elsewhere to recruiting of MBAs and college qualified individuals to the firm. Older methods, such as advertising the positions and word of mouth advertising, have been supplemented by methods something like American recruiting practice. The Editors beleive it is of value to readers of Management Decision to learn of the results of some research which the author has completed on this topic, for if British firms do change to this system they might avoid some of the pitfalls that some U.S. firms have had to overcome.