Start Date
11-12-2016 12:00 AM
Description
For many European college students, Junior Enterprise (JE) is a popular part of the educational process that is designed to give them real life exposure to companies. Many students aspire entering the consulting field, and the JE experience becomes a way to signal their fit to potential employers. However, our analysis conducted on 768 different LinkedIn professional profiles shows stark differences between students who lack technical skills and those with strong technical skills. In particular, while higher IT skills are, on average, positively correlated with the individual probability of becoming a consultant, this positive effect is significantly moderated by gender, undergraduate major and role played within JE. Using signaling theory to explain our results, we find evidence that signals are not universal and, for some groups, high IT skills are more important than to other ones.
Recommended Citation
Pennarola, Ferdinando; Pistilli, Luca; and Dawson, Gregory, "From College to Consulting Through the Main Door: when IT Skills Make a Difference for Junior Enterprise Students" (2016). ICIS 2016 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2016/ISCurriculum/Presentations/5
From College to Consulting Through the Main Door: when IT Skills Make a Difference for Junior Enterprise Students
For many European college students, Junior Enterprise (JE) is a popular part of the educational process that is designed to give them real life exposure to companies. Many students aspire entering the consulting field, and the JE experience becomes a way to signal their fit to potential employers. However, our analysis conducted on 768 different LinkedIn professional profiles shows stark differences between students who lack technical skills and those with strong technical skills. In particular, while higher IT skills are, on average, positively correlated with the individual probability of becoming a consultant, this positive effect is significantly moderated by gender, undergraduate major and role played within JE. Using signaling theory to explain our results, we find evidence that signals are not universal and, for some groups, high IT skills are more important than to other ones.