Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities^*

Abstract

This study investigates the impact on first hiring outcomes of two main curriculum vitae (CV) characteristics by which graduates with a tertiary education degree distinguish themselves from their peers: degree class and extra-curricular activities. These characteristics were randomly assigned to 2,800 fictitious job applications that were sent to real vacancies in Belgium. Academic performance and extra-curricular engagement enhance job interview rates by 7.0% (CI 95% [0.3%, 13.7%]) and 6.5% (CI 95% [À0.5%, 13.4%]), respectively. We did not find evidence for these CV characteristics to reinforce or reduce their effect.

A signal of (Train)ability? Grade repetition and hiring chances

“…This may have to do with the fact that (i) the findings in previous studies could only obtain a causal interpretation under strong conditions, (ii) we focus on the treatment effects inspired by the employer side and (iii) we concentrate on the first phase of the recruitment process. In addition, our finding contrasts with the one presented in Baert and Verhaest (2018), who, with a similar experiment, found a significant positive effect on hiring resulting from student leadership and degrees of merit (distinction and great distinction).…”

What Do Student Jobs on Graduate Cvs Signal to Employers?

“…This effect is nevertheless independent of the effects of the other candidate characteristics, as vignettes were presented in a random order. 16 To put these findings in perspective, we compare the effect of student employment with the effect of having obtained summa cum laude (seen as a signal of hard skills, in, e.g., Pinto & Ramalheira, 2017, Baert & Verhaest, 2018 and with the effect of volunteering (seen as a signal of soft(er) skills in, e.g., Baert & Vujić, 2018). The effect of student employment is about two-thirds of the effect of graduating with summa cum laude for the hard signal of skills.…”

Employers’ preferences for IT-retrainees: evidence from a discrete choice experiment

“…On the contrary, Deming (2017) focuses on the growth in soft skill demand in the US labor market. Other work on hard vs soft skills includes Pinto and Ramalheira (2017), Deming (2017), Baert and Verhaest (2018) and Albandea and Giret (2018). In an increasingly polarizing labor market, the returns to skills is an important topic.…”