Good to Go: Strong Hires That Are Ready to Work

The results of a recent survey produced for the Association of American Colleges and Universities were conclusive: employers find that college graduates are not prepared for the workforce, even though the grads themselves believe they are.

Unfortunately, this development isn’t breaking news. Previous studies have yielded similar results. Worse, an exam known as Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus, designed to measure the intellectual gains of students from freshman to senior year, found that 40% of U.S. college students graduate without having developed the complex reasoning skills many employers require. The AACU survey, Falling Short? College Learning and Career Success, finds that 91% of employers say that a demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems is more important than a candidate’s major. The vast majority of employers–96%– value “problem solving in diverse settings.”

[Related: Ready to Work: What Companies Want to See on Your Social Media Profiles]

It’s been said that the conversation has shifted from getting young people to college to complete their education, to workforce preparedness.

Acknowledging this trend, a number of organizations have been addressing employer needs for strong hires. For example, Brooklyn, New York- based Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH, prepares young men and women for the technological workplace over a six-year period, and has realized a stunning success rate with a student population that hasn’t been screened or tested to gain admission. Open since 2011, P-TECH has not only been successful in getting most students to complete its rigorous coursework, some have also earned associate degrees. Three students have been offered full-time jobs at IBM, which collaborated with New York City Public Schools and the City University of New York to launch the school. (For more about the P-TECH model, how IBM is using it to develop its talent pipeline, and how the model is expanding across the country, see the BE Smart website.

Para-school organizations like #YesWeCode, operated by activist, CNN contributor, and former White House adviser Van Jones, and All Star Code, launched by former journalist and social entrepreneur Christina Lewis Halpern, provide young men of color with intensive computer science training, mentorship, and exposure to the tech space. Both organizations have partnered with major corporations to help students determine the requirements of employers (for more about these organizations go to BlackEnterprise.com).

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For more than 50 years, one organization has been driven by the mission to “match talent with opportunity.” These days, the role of SEO, or Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, in positioning diverse students for corporate careers, has become even more critical. SEO interns

receive 100 hours of customized training before their first day on the job–40 hours online and 60 in person, says William Goodloe, the organization’s president and CEO. “Students must score 90% on online courses to move to the next course,” he says. “Training is tailored specifically to the internship area” and may involve Six Sigma–the rigorous, data-driven process for eliminating defects–or instruction in market analysis or portfolio valuation. The interns are trained in hard skills such as Excel, PowerPoint and financial statement analysis, and soft skills such as relationship building and workplace courtesy. (Above left, SEO intern and Georgia Tech student Stacia Burke reads the Wall Street Journal.)

The organization must be doing something right: more than 75% of SEO interns receive full-time job offers from partner companies. “We align our recruiting, training, and coaching or monitoring with the needs of our corporate partners,” says Goodloe. “We also stay in constant communication with our interns and partners, and work intensely to minimize miscommunication, and course-correct if needed during the internship summer.”

SEO Career (its other programs are SEO Scholars and SEO Alternative Investments) recruits and trains primarily African American and Hispanic students from campuses nationwide. The organization maintains close contact with the employers, conducting regular meetings with the interns’ managers, as well as connecting with human resources and diversity professionals.

Goodloe admits to a few challenges in helping interns make the transition from campus life to professional environments, as well as making sure they understand technical competence, high performance standards, and corporate culture. Goodloe says SEO interns must realize that “in the professional world, 98% can be a failing grade. A manager should not have to double-check your spreadsheet to find the one mistake you made.”

He also stresses the need for college students to manage their course load and grade point average from day one. “When students apply for internships as a college junior, the first and second-year grades are what SEO and corporate recruiters focus on. It’s very difficult to recover from a 2.3 GPA semester.” Students need a 3.0 for admission to the program, but the average GPA of SEO Career applicants is 3.5.

It’s called SEO Career for a reason: for many companies, summer internships represent their pipeline to full-time entry-level hires, Goodloe says, but SEO takes pride in its long-term outcomes. More than 450 SEO alumni hold senior positions within investment banking, asset management, private equity, hedge fund, and venture capital firms.

One of those is 2012 Wharton School graduate Triston Francis, a firm management associate at Morgan Stanley. As a first generation college student Francis was accepted

into the SEO U. program, which prepares students for SEO Career. He wasn’t accepted when he applied after his sophomore year, but undeterred, he applied to SEO Career after his junior year and was admitted. On the final day of the 10-week internship in consumer retail investment banking at Morgan Stanley, Francis was offered a full-time job. The rising college senior hadn’t even graduated yet.

Did SEO prepare him for the workplace? “Definitely,” Francis says, although he says one way he would change SEO would be having the organization match its interns with nonminority associates and vice presidents. “Wall Street is still predominantly white and male. The SEO community is a powerful one and you want to leverage it, but you really need to extend beyond it to flourish.”

Still, Francis recognizes that it was SEO that gave him an advantage. “SEO gives you an understanding of how the workplace operates and teaches you the technicals, which translates into summer interns getting full-time job offers.” During the internship he and other interns met and heard prominent speakers like Carla Harris (an SEO alum) and Jamie Dimon. He was also privileged to meet directors on the Morgan Stanley board. Says Francis, “I’ve developed a lifelong bond with SEO.”

For more on SEO, go to www.seocareer.org.