CAREER & EDUCATION 1

Importance of Exploring the Job Market

An extended essay (research-based) presented to:

Professor Angelina R. Hernandez

in partial fulfillment of

the requirements in

English for Academic Purposes 2

(ENG11-A2)

By:

Kristine Y. Coscolluela

Herman Arnold C. Lopez

Jeanne Katherine Medina

Ken S. Osako

Lanz Clinton D. Valdez

September 2015
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Abstract

This paper investigates the overall perceptions from employers as well as to the employees

to the fact that school’s alma mater do matters for job hiring purpose. It attempts to answer some

raised questions about what might be the other factors and criterions that will increase or decrease

the chances of an employee to be accepted on a company he/she is ready to work for. The requisite

information included in this paper was obtained from an interview, a book, and a couple of online

articles that will basically answer the research questions. In conclusion to this paper, for some

companies, alma maters or the schools are very important. A lot of employers gives importance

and advantage to the applicant who came from a reputable school. Applicants from these school

receive much favor and advantage from recruiting employer on the thinking that they are more

competent than those who graduated from a non-reputable school.

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I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC

On this era of technological breakthrough; our country suffers thoroughly from

diversity of crisis such as socio-economic crisis, political crisis, as well as financial crisis.

Despite of all the crises, Filipino are still courageous to surpass every obstacles they have

in life. Even though there are companies that are affected by these crises, some of these

have job opening that offers new career opportunities to all graduate college students. Job

hiring holds the possible success in life, which someday it will help employee’s family to

rise up from their socioeconomic status, and use the acquired knowledge and skills. But in

job hiring is not easy as everybody do thinks. Preferences prevail when it comes to job

hiring. Employees are evaluated if they are suited for the specific position. Companies

today need workers that are well-educated and has a high average of their previous grades

and has a well-known school which the applicant graduated from. Research has shown that

when it comes to accepting applicants they base on the applicants grades. Some companies

base on the Alma matter of the school which the applicant graduated from, some say that

when you came from a well-known university you can have a high chance being hired.

Statistical records based on educational standard performance and popularity also comes

at play in determining the likability of a certain company towards the employee’s Alma

Mater. The group formulated this topic and raise some questions about what might be the

other factors and criterions that will increase or decrease the chances of an employee to be

accepted on a company he/she is ready to work for; since their Alma Mater, Mapua Institute

of Technology, is an example of a highly recognized university in the field of engineering

here in the Philippines; they are attaining to get answers from this topic so that they have a
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background idea on job interviews once they have graduated here at Mapua and ready to

be an interviewee themselves.

1.2 THESIS STATEMENT AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

A school’s alma mater in today’s generation is now a highly recognized job hiring

preferences for employers. The main goal of this extended essay is to learn more about the

overall perceptions from employers as well as to the employees to the fact that school’s

alma mater do matters for job hiring purpose. The researchers plan to tackle the topic by

answering the following research questions:

a. What is the importance of a graduate student’s alma mater?

b. What are the top universities in this country that most companies accept?

c. Why do companies hire applicants based on their school’s alma mater?

d. What to do if the Alma Mater isn’t one of the top universities?

e. Why is that Alma Maters are a subject of employer’s memo?

II. BODY

A number of studies has been conducted for a period of time and still emerged as

one of the top priority researches due to rapid changing and need of time. This section

tackles about the literatures and studies which may directly bearing to study at hand.

2.1 RELATED LITERATURE

Recruitment of newly graduates has grown little despite increased in employment

opportunities in some fields. Several issues related to employer practices of college

graduates have been investigated in the personnel literature. Duane F. Alwin (1974)

investigated the college effects on educational achievement as well as on the

socioeconomic achievement which are expressed in a socioeconomic stratification model

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that specifies the selection and recruitment into colleges. To represent the important factors

in selection/recruitment, several variables such as academic ability, academic performance,

socioeconomic status or background, commitment to college attendance, and educational

and occupational aspirations were included in the model. The data analysis focused more

on college effects seven years after high school graduation.

D. Brewer, E. Eide and R. Ehrenberg use the high school students’ choice of college

type which are based on individual and family characteristics. They estimated the outcome

using the data from the National Longitudinal Study, which permits them to determine the

college equality effects on wages and earnings.

2.2 RELATED STUDIES

In 2005, Giorgio Brunello and Lorenzo Cappellari studied about whether Alma mater

matters for employment and earnings three years after graduation. They use the data from

national representative of Italian students. Data was collected, claiming that attended

college do matters. Several evidences also were recovered that going to a private university

or college pays off about 18% at least, in the early part of the career.

Another study was conducted in 2005, by Jennie Brand and Charles Halaby that

focuses on the potential outcome of attending an elite college for educational and career

achievement. The pair use the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. The purpose of the study is

to compare the estimates of regression to the estimates of matching methods in adjusting

for the “endogeneity” of elite college attendance. Attending an elite college has an

advantage towards educational achievement and occupational status. The findings suggest

also the wages are more mixed.

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Unemployment figures do exclude "disheartened" specialists who have surrendered

discovering an occupation and are no more searching for job; individuals imperceptibly

appended to the work power who presently are neither working nor searching for work

however show that they need and are accessible for a vocation and have searched for work

at some point in the previous 12 months; and the individuals who need to work full time

yet who settle for low maintenance work ("automatic" part-timers). These people are

checked in the underemployment rate, which is constantly higher than the unemployment

rate.

2.3 ANALYSIS

Based on the analysis of the related literature and studies, there are strong evidences

that emerges with significant economic return in attending an elite institution. There are

also evidences that going to a private colleges pays off about 18% weighted college wage

in the early part of the career. Attending an elite college has an advantage towards

educational achievement and occupational status. The findings suggest also the wages are

more mixed. They are even gross differences that were observed among the colleges on the

achievements of the students. But when these were adjusted for prior differences in

composition on recruitment factors, the initial differences were largely reduced.

III. CONCLUSION

Hiring an applicant for a job is very difficult task. Talking to people is not easy

especially to those people we do not know. Recruiting an applicant for a job, they usually

based their knowledge of the person from the resume they gave the recruiting employer. In

a short period of time, they have to make important decision. Some employers set some

rules on how they hired an applicant for the job. But we really do not know how they do it,
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why they chose that way and what they achieved through the recruitment or whether they

actually achieved their goals. For some companies, alma maters or the schools are very

important. A lot of employers gives importance and advantage to the applicant who came

from a reputable school. Applicants from these school receive much favor and advantage

from recruiting employer on the thinking that they are more competent than those who

graduated from a non-reputable school. But overall, most companies are still hiring for the

position because of their work experience, know how to communicate well and can express

themselves easily and effectively, enthusiasm, also interpersonal skills and most important

is some employers are still looking for their educational attainment. But also some major

problem may arise in hiring applicants, these were inability to express oneself clearly, not

enough preparation in knowledge and skills for specific position.

News forums, online news site, publicized the top universities that matter most to

employers. (1) University of the Philippines (2) University of Santo Tomas (3) Ateneo de

Manila University (4) De La Salle University (5) Polytechnic University of the Philippines

(6) Mapua Institute of Technology (7) Far Eastern University (8) Adamson University,

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (10) University of the East, Philippine Normal

University and Technological Institute of the Philippines.

IV. REFERENCES

 Alwin, D. F. (1974). College Effects on Educational and Occupational Attainments.

American Sociological Review, Volume 39 (Issue 2), pages 210-233.

 Brand, J. & Halaby, C. (2005). Regression and Matching Estimates of the Effects

of Elite College Attendance on Educational and Career Achievement. University

of Wisconsin Madison.
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 Brewer, D.T., Eide, E.R., & Ehrenberg R.G. (2009). Does it Pay to Attend an Elite

Private College? Cross-Cohort Evidence on the Effects of College Type on

Earnings. The Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 34 (Issue No. 1), pages 104-123.

 Brunello, G., & Cappellari, L. (2007). The Labour Market Effects of Alma Mater:

Evidence from Italy. IZA (Discussion Paper No. 1562)

 Rappler.com (March 24, 2015) Fresh Grads: Do employers care about where you

went to college? Message posted to http://www.rappler.com/life-and-

style/career/87798-fresh-grads-employers-companies-school-college-jobstreet-

2015.