SU official explains the changing “college-to-job” landscape

More aggressive student recruitment, advances in technology, and the need to prepare for the future earlier. We’re told the college experience is changing.

Salisbury University Career Services Director, Kevin Fallon tells 47 ABC that we are in the beginning stages of tremendous growth in terms of businesses finding talent on campus.

“They’re looking at students much earlier in the pipeline now because what they would like to do is start to build a relationship with a student earlier in their college career,”

Fallon says we are in one of the best job markets for college students since the 90s with companies competing intensely for top talent. And they’re doing it sooner, asking colleges to develop alternative programs for students so the students can work at the same time that they’re earning a degree.

If the trend continues, Fallon says students will have to tackle major career decisions earlier in their academic careers too, sophomore year, freshman year, even in high school.

Fallon says rather than overwhelming students SU is using it to help motivate them.

“We encourage them to embrace it and actually become excited about because it gives them the opportunity to do a lot more exploration,” says Fallon, “One of the things we try to do is to help students become furturists and understand the changes that are coming in the economy, new technologies on the horizon and how they might be able to build a career around them”

The scouting doesn’t stop in the classroom. We’re told companies are taking it to the smartphone. Fallon says we should expect employers to ask students to play games on their phones which measure character traits like leadership and empathy.

“How they participate in that game, they’ll get scored and ranked,” Fallon said, “Companies are going to get rich data on the students and be able to target the ones they want for their organization,”

We reached out to the director of career services at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Dr. Theresa Queenan.

She agrees employers are becoming more aggressive to find good talent, but only because there are not many positions to fill.

Dr. Queenan also agrees that students do in fact need to be prepared for the real world earlier now than before.