BusinessReport.com

When Katie Schech graduated from LSU last year with a degree in sociology, she didn’t have any concrete employment plans. Schech just knew that she didn’t want a job that involved retail or food.

More than 100 applications and several interviews later, she found a job as a project coordinator with Cost Segregation Services in Baton Rouge. Was she prepared for the work and its responsibilities? Yes and no.

“I definitely wasn’t prepared for having to be responsible for my actions,” Schech says. “That and the whole professional setting in general. There’s no class that I took that taught me anything like that.”

Predictions by the National Association of Colleges and Employers place a 17.4% increase on college hiring in 2007. But that comes with its caveats. A study by the Society for Human Resource Management, The Conference Board and others says new work force entrants with four-year degrees are deficient in written communications (27.8%), writing in English (26.2%) and leadership (23.8%).

Are these deficiencies being seen on the local level? Schech notices these patterns even as a recent addition to the work force. Some of her part-time co-workers were sending out e-mails to clients saying “Hey” instead of “Hello.” Her supervisor had to ask them to stop. “Do you really need to be taught that?” Schech says. “You send that to friends or family, not someone you’re doing business with.”

Al Barron, director of career services at Southern University, says most universities are dealing with communication issues. “It’s not just Southern, LSU or Louisiana schools,” he says. “It’s a nationwide problem.” Students, he says, write like they text message, with their own language and rules for spelling and grammar. “They haven’t been able to move in between the two.”

Both Southern and LSU have responded to the need to improve communication skills with workshops, presentations and courses. LSU’s Communication Across the Curriculum program started in fall 2005, certifying courses as communication intensive, which constitutes more speaking and writing. Lillian Bridwell-Bowles, professor of English and director of the CxC program, says communication has been labeled a crisis since World War II, when Gis returned to school unprepared for formal writing and speaking. These days, she says, students are communicating more than ever, albeit informally.

“They can’t develop an ear or eye for formal communication if they haven’t ever read it or heard it,” Bridwell-Bowles says.

Communication may be a problem with recent graduates, but it’s not the only one. Becky Girola, director of recruiting for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, sees weaknesses in confidence. Her company typically doesn’t hire recent graduates unless they’ve had experience or were involved in their internship program. Confidence comes into play as the younger, less-experienced employees compete against industry veterans.

Barron also says confidence is a key issue with new workers, and employers need to understand the new wave of employees. “This generation doesn’t take criticism very well, whether it’s constructive or not,” he says. “You have to really come at them with a sense of love and correction that we’re in this together and we’ll do it better.”

“Everybody thinks they’re special,” Schech says. “They get out into the real world and realize they’re not that special. I think our generation needs a reality check sometimes.”

Expectations can also be a problem with new graduates, in terms of salary and job duties. Girola says she’s noticed recent graduates expect a huge income when they start off, assuming they can be at the same level as their parents. Though Schech’s salary expectations weren’t out of the ballpark, she is still frustrated with her income. “When you aren’t seeing much of an increase from when you were in college to when you get out, it’s disheartening to wonder why you were in college.”

Barron says this generation needs to be told of job expectations repeatedly because they don’t want to get anything wrong. Or, he says, they might have aspirations, but haven’t figured out how to get there. “There’s no reality TV show that shows you the reality of what real work is about and how to get there,” he says. “It’s not celebrated.”

What of this generation’s strengths? Mary Feduccia, director of career services at LSU, says this generation can multi-task, put things in perspective and is fixed on being effective while at work. Girola sees ambition, drive and motivation to see the work pay off. And, of course, they’re tech-savvy. “They catch on to all the computer stuff we have,” she says. “When we work with veteran reps on new programs, they don’t want anything to do with it.”

With every generation come the pros and cons, but with this one there may be some work to do. “Companies are realizing they need to change a lot of the ways they’ve been accustomed to doing things,” Feduccia says. This generation wants a flexible work life, balance and benefits. “They’re realizing they don’t want to work their whole lives and have nothing to show for it.”

“Those are important factors in a job,” Schech says. “It wasn’t something I was thinking about after I graduated because I was thinking in temporary terms.” Whether or not temporary becomes permanent, Schech, like the rest of us, will always be a student learning the ways of the world.