Student awareness and satisfaction with career services, job recruitment, and academic preparation

Abstract

This research study sought to investigate the current level of student (a) awareness of and satisfaction with the Career Center services, (b) awareness of and satisfaction with the Hewlett-Packard Company's recruitment efforts and programs at Colorado State University, (c) satisfaction with academic preparation and student/faculty relations, and (d) perceived impact of diversity at Colorado State University. Additionally, this study further sought to investigate the relationships of age, ethnicity, and gender with the aforementioned variables. Specifically, the study used a stratified random sampling of clusters/classes of Colorado State University students during the Spring semester of 1999. Of the 740 surveys administered or distributed, 547 students returned their surveys in usable form. The study findings demonstrated demographic variability in the participants. A large majority of the students were Caucasian/Euro Americans. Over half of the respondents were female, seniors, and between age 21 to 25. The findings indicate a low level of awareness of services provided by the Career Center and that the Career Center has low visibility. Responses to satisfaction items probably indicate lack of awareness rather than low satisfaction with the Career Center services. The study findings demonstrated an overall positive student perception of the Hewlett-Packard Company. Yet the findings show a low level of awareness of Hewlett-Packard's recruitment efforts and programs at Colorado State University. Satisfaction with Hewlett-Packard's recruitment efforts and programs was shown to be moderate. The study findings indicate the level of student satisfaction with academic preparation and with student/faculty relations to be moderately high. Perceived impacts of age and gender were found to be low, whereas perceived impact of ethnicity was found to be moderate. This research found a significant relationship between age and satisfaction with academic preparation and student/faculty relations. Additionally, a significant relationship was found between gender and perceived impact of diversity at Colorado State University. No other significant relationships were found between any of the variables.