This week's Two Tip Tuesday video explores starting salaries disparities in our first destination survey data and two ideas for addressing this issue.
Resources
IUPUI First Destination Data Overview and Dashboards:
https://career.iupui.edu/outcomes/index.html
Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce Report:
The Unequal Race For Good Jobs
Discussion Questions
1) What are some common objections you hear from students when you encourage them to take on an internship? How can you respond to those objections? Here are some example objections:
I am in a full time load of classes and working 30 hours a week to pay my bills. I can't fit in an internship, especially an unpaid or low paid internship.
2) Where do you direct students who are looking for internship opportunities?
(Hint: There's an
internship overview page at career.iupui.edu and a great program for students from under-represented backgrounds: the
sophomore internship program which provides paid experience AND a $1,200 scholarship).
3) A common response we hear when we present these data is: Isn't it plausible that the income disparity is simply tied to choice of major? Discuss how that issue (clustering of students by demographic in certain majors) is separate from the experience and negotiation issues, and how this third issue (choice of major) is also problematic.
Additionally, use the dashboards to test this theory. If you restrict the data to just Business or Engineering & Technology majors (those schools collectively house our highest earning majors), do the differences in starting salary by race disappear?4) How might you encourage confidence in your students in their ability to negotiate (beyond pointing them to the EDGE module mentioned in the video). What other strategies might allow them to practice this skill and resist the urge to accept the first salary they are offered (which unfortunately is what over 3/4 of our graduates do currently).
