How to help your graduates secure better jobs? An industry perspective

Purpose – Many hospitality programs have developed their own career and placement services to assist students in job searching efforts. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that are important for the success of career and placement services offered by hospitality programs, from the industry's perspectives. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through an online survey from hospitality recruiters and human resources managers. Descriptive statistics were applied for the data analysis. Findings – Internship requirement was found to be the most important factor for the success of career services, followed by faculty industry experience and quality of student preparation for job/internship interviews. These were followed by reputation of the program and quality of educational curriculum and courses taught. Originality/value – The important implications drawn in this paper could assist hospitality schools to allocate limited resources to help create excellent career and placement services.