Faculty in the factory: Educators tour businesses to find out what companies look for when hiring
Educators tour businesses to find out what companies look for when hiring
By BILL MEDLEY
Courier & Press staff writer 464-7519 or medleyb@courierpress.com
Friday, August 11, 2006
DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press
Berry Plastics Human Resources Supervisor Mary Reese, left, guides a group of local college faculty and staff through the Berry Plastics factory on Thursday.
College graduates seeking a high-tech, high-paying job shouldn't discount the semester they spent counting change behind the counter of a dry cleaning business.
The key to a successful career after college is learning how to transfer those retail skills to any position, Mead Johnson officials told a group of college faculty and staff members Thursday.
The group n representing Ivy Tech, the University of Evansville, the University of Southern Indiana and Vincennes University n toured several Evansville businesses, including Mead Johnson, in an attempt to find out what those companies are looking for from college graduates.
One thing the companies are looking for is a diverse background from job candidates.
"A 4.0 is great, but someone who maybe doesn't have a 4.0, but has a more diverse background, that's great too," said Julie Katigan, associate director of human resources at Mead Johnson.
Katigan, who works with people from Austria and the Netherlands at the company's Evansville office, urged the professors and faculty members to "encourage students to get as many transferable skills as possible" through study abroad and other programs.
Mead Johnson, which is part of Bristol Myers, seeks out recent graduates who have overseas experience and a high-level of technical skills. Katigan said such a strategy works well for the company, which uses employees' experiences as a window into the consumer world.
"As a global company, we make and sell products in the Netherlands," Katigan said. "We need that customer insight."
At Berry Plastics, company officials said they also value diversity, as international perspectives become more important in a global economy.
Marcia Jochem of Berry's human resources department said the firm employs many highly-qualified area college graduates, but the company would like to see a more diverse pool to draw from locally.
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"We need help from you," Jochem said.
On Berry's "wish list" for area colleges, Jochem said, is the potential development of a packaging engineering program, such as those found at some higher education institutions in Michigan.
In addition to providing ideas to better prepare students, community tours such as Thursday's, "give me a chance to see how our institution is viewed by the community," said Roberta Hoebeke, assistant professor of nursing at the University of Southern Indiana.
"They really do need people with diverse backgrounds," she said of the companies.
Sandy Bailey, chair of Ivy Tech's business administration program, uses such tours to glean ideas to take back to the classroom.
"It's good to know what companies are looking for, "she said.
DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press
After a tour of Berry Plastics, it was time for the group to climb aboard the bus to take them to their next business.