Job Deferrals Add Options For Students
More employers are allowing college seniors to put off a stable job for nonprofit work -- and in some cases, the recent grads can still pocket a hefty signing bonus in advance.In a bid to attract top talent in a tight job market, companies are letting college seniors interested in philanthropy defer job offers and spend two years teaching at underfunded schools with nonprofit Teach for America. The trend, which began with the investment banking arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. late last year, has spread to a host of large employers such as General Electric Co., Google Inc., and law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. An additional perk for recent graduates: some employers offering signing bonuses, such as J.P. Morgan and global management consultancy Bain & Co., give new hires the money in advance.
It used to be that college seniors had to choose between lifestyles: either live cheaply and work a nonprofit job or jump into a long-term career. Employers used to only approve deferrals for years at a time on a case-by-case basis. In the past few years, at many companies, such approvals have been rare.
Now, as employers are forced to woo top talent, more companies are allowing college recruits to have it both ways. The option to defer will help attract students who may otherwise choose nonprofit work over a full-time job, says Barbara Smith, head of U.S. recruitment at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., the investment banking division of J.P. Morgan Chase. "It definitely widens the pool of potential applicants on both sides," Ms. Smith says.
Our goal isn't actually to get our people to stay longer than two years, but rather to provide excellent, committed teachers for two years and to build a force of leaders who will work for fundamental change from within education and from positions of influence in every other sector.
We know Teach For America shapes the career paths of corps members, as evidenced by the fact that 60% of our alumni are working full time within education and that many more are working to take the pressure off of schools by improving the quality of health and social services in low-income communities. We think this is important because achieving educational excellence and equity will require long-term, sustained leadership within education. At the same time though, we think it's critical that many of our corps members do enter other sectors, taking with them the commitment and insight that comes from their Teach For America experience so that they can work for the kind of changes in policy and public opinion that are necessary for ed reform to take hold.
We have a couple of motivations behind the corporate partnerships -- (1) to tackle the biggest barrier we face in recruiting more outstanding future leaders, which is the perception that joining Teach For America limits career prospects; and (2) to ensure we're attracting more people who actually will end up in the corporate world. The partnerships take different forms -- in the case of JPMorgan and Google, for example, we're jointly recruiting, and people who get offers from both can defer the corporate offers to participate in Teach For America. Other partnerships involve offering incoming corps members summer internships between the first and second years of teaching and, assuming strong service, full time offers after their two-year commitment.
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Job Deferrals Add Options For Students
May 3, 2007; Page D3
More employers are allowing college seniors to put off a stable job for nonprofit work -- and in some cases, the recent grads can still pocket a hefty signing bonus in advance.
In a bid to attract top talent in a tight job market, companies are letting college seniors interested in philanthropy defer job offers and spend two years teaching at underfunded schools with nonprofit Teach for America. The trend, which began with the investment banking arm of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. late last year, has spread to a host of large employers such as General Electric Co., Google Inc., and law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. An additional perk for recent graduates: some employers offering signing bonuses, such as J.P. Morgan and global management consultancy Bain & Co., give new hires the money in advance.
posted by Whitney Tilson at 4:34 PM
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