Afaq Ahmed

Interesting! These authors wanted to know which aspects of the college experience give recent graduates a leg up in the job market. So they ran an experiment. In it, they sent 37,000 fictitious resumes to employers and randomized multiple aspects of the college experience. Specifically, they randomized applicants': -college major (Biology, Economics, Chemistry, Marketing, Anthropology, Psychology, or Finance) -college minor (History, Math, or none) -internship experience (social, quantitative, or none) -study abroad (in Italy, Argentina, China, Mexico, Japan, Dubai, South Africa, or none) -computer skills (basic, programming, data skills, programming and data skills, or none) They then observed who got the most employer callbacks. They found that in first positions: -Biology and Economics majors received the highest callback rate, particularly in occupations involving high intensity of analytical and interpersonal skills. -minors in History and Math did not help applicants get more callbacks. -Internship experiences that are social skills-oriented positively influence callbacks, yet this is not the case for analytical internships. -Study abroad experiences enhance callback rates, but where you do your study abroad matters! -Listing both programming and data analysis skills significantly boosts callback rates. "Our study provides a comprehensive characterization of which features of the college experience are more and less valuable during the high-stakes, first-job matching process."