Analysis of factors associated with success of graduates of Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts in obtaining first positions

Graduation date: 1979The objectives of this study were:\ud 1. To determine the job-acquisition skills used by the\ud 1976 and 1977 Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts\ud graduates of Oregon State University in obtaining first\ud positions.\ud 2. To assess the relationship between success of the\ud Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts graduates of\ud Oregon State University and selected variables.\ud 3. To make recommendations for Clothing, Textiles, and\ud Related Arts undergraduate curriculum in relation to\ud job-acquisition competencies.\ud Respondents to the branching-type questionnaire were 83\ud graduates (80.4%) of the 1976 and 1977 classes from the\ud Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts Department at Oregon\ud State University. Respondents' answers were assigned\ud weighted scores for success, sense of direction, and\ud geographic mobility. Additional information recorded included:\ud job-acquisition skills used, most helpful jobacquisition\ud skill used, and sources of information used by\ud the job applicant in acquiring first job; applicant's\ud attendance at Oregon State University sponsored training\ud sessions, grade point average, employment status, number of\ud interviews, number of job offers, length of time spent looking\ud for job, employer's primary business, and description\ud of position.- Data were tabulated and interpreted by means\ud of product moment correlation, chi square, and frequency\ud distribution.\ud Ninety -eight percent (N=81) of those (N=83) respondents\ud completed the questionnaire and were assigned a success\ud score. Almost two-thirds of the 63 employed and job-seeking\ud respondents stated they wanted to stay in their field\ud of training. The mean grade point average reported by the\ud alumnae was slightly above 3.00. Fifty-four percent of the\ud employed and job-seeking respondents attended only one session\ud on job-seeking skills while they were students at\ud Oregon State University. Ninety-seven percent of the jobseeking\ud respondents used one or more job-acquisition skills.\ud The most frequently used were completion of job-application\ud forms, participation in interview, compiling of personal\ud inventory, preparation of chronological rdsum4, preparation\ud of functional rgsumg, and inquiring of employer of available\ud openings. The average number of job-acquisition skills used by the respondents was seven. For the employed respondents\ud the median time spent seeking work was less than one week.\ud Forty-five percent of the respondents accepted the first\ud offer of a job. Sixty-eight percent of the employed respondents\ud were working in a job related to their field of\ud training. Nearly one-half (48%) of the employed respondents\ud were in managerial training programs or managerial positions\ud in their first job.\ud No significant correlation was found between success\ud scores and the number of job-acquisition skills used, the\ud number of sources of information used, geographic mobility,\ud or type of job-acquisition skill cited as being most helpful.\ud Significant positive correlation resulted between success\ud scores and grade point average and sense of direction.\ud There was significant negative correlation with the number\ud of types of training sessions in job-acquisition skills\ud attended. Preparation of a chronological resume, commercially\ud printing a resume, and writing a follow-up letter\ud were significantly related to successful employment.\ud The investigation provided data used in secondary\ud analysis of sub-sample groups to determine relationships between\ud selected variables. The number of job-acquisition\ud skills used did not significantly influence the length of\ud time spent by the job-seeker in obtaining the first job.\ud Where the job-seeker applied for work or the location of\ud employment did not significantly influence length of time\ud prior to accepting a job, the number of job offers, or the\ud successful employment of respondents. The respondent who\ud attended more types of training sessions and/or used more\ud job-acquisition skills participated in a greater number of\ud interviews before accepting a job offer. Neither the number\ud of job-acquisition skills used nor the number of types\ud of job-acquisition skills training sessions attended by the\ud job-seeker appeared to significantly influence the number of\ud job offers.\ud Recommendations formulated for the Clothing, Textiles,\ud and Related Arts Department at Oregon State University suggested\ud continued emphasis on the training in job-seeking\ud skills in the educational process, since a variety of skills\ud and information sources were used by graduates of the\ud classes of 1976 and 1977 in obtaining positions