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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the career information sources used by university students and identify whether the use of the various sources differs across three generational cohorts. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administered to 322 students majoring in food marketing and related fields at 12 US universities. The results were compared to prior survey results from 1995 to 2004. Findings Students continue to use many of the same sources for career information, but use them more frequently. College professors/courses were the most fruitful sources, followed closely by career fair/company visit, job/internship, and family/relatives. Although career centers and counselors were used less frequently, their use is growing. Written materials are used the least, and their use is declining. Research limitations/implications The sample is limited to the food and consumer packaged goods (“food/CPG”) industry. It is also limited to US college students. Practical implications If organizations and recruiters want to reach and attract millennial students, establishing and fostering relationships with university personnel, especially faculty, is critical. Investing in course activities (e.g. guest lectures, case studies) and industry experiences (e.g. jobs and internships) is also important. Originality/value This is the first study to examine the use of career information sources across generational cohorts specifically in the context of the food/CPG industry. The results are bolstered by robust samples and the time-lag design.

This study examines whether job attribute preferences differ across three generational cohorts (i.e., cohorts of undergraduate students from 1995, 2004, and 2013). In 2013, we surveyed undergraduate students from several U.S. universities. We also obtained archival results from surveys administered to undergraduate students in 1995 and 2004. We found that salary/benefits, career advancement, and flexible work policies become more important across all three generational cohorts, whereas gender/racial equality increased in importance only from 2004 to 2013. Leadership showed no net gain from the 1995 to 2013 cohorts. Although most job attributes increased in importance, they largely have the same relative importance. Therefore, organizations should pause before making wholesale changes to workplace incentives and practices to cater to the new generation. To our knowledge, this is the first study to include U.S. millennial college students in the comparison of job attribute preferences across generations.

The limited empirical research on lateral cross-job retraining supports the idea that analysis of employee transferability of skills is related to retraining success in the new assignment. The present study extends this line of research by investigating retraining climate as an additional predictor of retraining success and as a moderator of the relationships between cross-job retraining time estimates and time to proficiency in the new assignment. Of the three climate dimensions studied, situational constraints (but not organizational support or supervisory support) exhibited the predicted direct and moderator effects.