JOB EXPERIENCES OF 2010 RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY BUSINESSMANAGEMENT GRADUATES: CORE ESSENCES
Keywords:
reflections, graduate employment, themes, tracer studies, job experiences, nominal group interviewsAbstract
Two hundred eighty-nine 2010 business management graduates of the Rizal Technological University, a state university in the Philippines were traced and their employment experiences solicited using the social networking site, the Facebook (FB). Using the descriptive research design, the data were used to portray the traced graduates’ employment profiles and capture their reflections to explore a wider array of dimensions and be able to give light on the graduate employment situation that would contribute to solving the government’s education and economic problems. One hundred eighty-six or 64% of the 289 traced graduates were found to have verifiable employment data. Out of the 186, 43 or 23% were working for banking and finance-related sector and 39 or 21% were in trading and merchandising. The study showed that most of the graduates were able to start a career path by gaining entry to prestigious companies. Five themes emerged from the 16 reflections: self confidence in performing assigned tasks, positive attitude, value of experience, traits developed in school and financial considerations. The themes that emerged reflected three core essences or factors that made them stay or contributory to their being retained by their employers on the job: financial or being able to buy what they want and help the family in the daily expenses; attitude, self-confidence and skills developed in school, as contributory to their work performance and retention; and experience, the main reason for staying on the job despite physical and emotional difficulties.
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