The following appeared in a memorandum from the president of Mira Vista College to the college’s board of trustees.

“At nearby Green Mountain College, which has more business courses and more job counselors than does Mira Vista College, 90 percent of last year’s graduating seniors had job offers from prospective employers. But at Mira Vista College last year, only 70 percent of the seniors who informed the placement office that they would be seeking employment had found full-time jobs within three months after graduation, and only half of these graduates were employed in their major field of study. To help Mira Vista’s graduates find employment, we must offer more courses in business and computer technology and hire additional job counselors to help students with their resume’s and interviewing skills.”

In the memorandum presented by the president of Mira Vista College, he suggests that there should be more courses related to business and computer technology as well as more job counselors so that more of their graduates get jobs. He takes a hint from nearby Green Mountain College, where there are more such courses as well as job counselors, more students have been able to get jobs in the last year. However, the president ignores that there are other factors also which help the graduates get jobs. A closer look of the argument given by the president exposes his narrow and irrational thinking.

The president is taking into consideration only the last year’s record of Green Mountain College, when 90 percent of their graduates could secure jobs for themselves. There is no mention of the percentage of students getting jobs in the previous years. However, there is no mention of introduction of new courses, or increase in the number of counselors during this last year. Therefore, these courses existed earlier as well. It is left to believe that in the previous years also there were more students securing jobs in the Green Mountain College than in Mira Vista College. However, there is no confirmation of this fact. It is thus possible that there have been more students from Mira Vista College getting jobs than Green Mountain College in the past considering the previous years. In that case, it is not due to the courses or more number of counselors that have helped the graduates of Green Mountain College to get jobs. There could be other factors that have been ignored by the president.

Further, the president takes an account of only three months after graduation when he says that 70 percent of graduates of Mira Vista College have got full time jobs. It is possible that in a couple of months there is an increase in the number of job placements of graduates of Mira Vista College. Hence, this is not an account of the success or failure of the type and number of courses offered at the college.

The president says that only half of the number of graduates who could get jobs were employed in their major field of study. However, there is no mention of the nature of jobs offered to the graduating seniors of the Green Mountain College. It is possible that more than half or nearly all the 90 percent of the students did not get job offers in their major field of study. The president only says that the graduates from Green Mountain College had got job offers from prospective employers. However, if these jobs were related to or based on the courses in business or not is not known from his argument. Moreover, the selection of jobs is a personal matter of students. It is likely that a student chooses a field other than his major field of study even after getting an offer for the same. Therefore, there is more to the comparison done by the president than what he sees, which can change the idea presented by him.

There are many factors that any employer seeks in graduating seniors before offering jobs to them. Apart from the courses they have attended, their attitude towards work, their dedication, personality, involvement in extra curricular activities etc. is also seen. An employer would measure dedication and willingness to work over the degrees held by an employee. Introducing more courses or employing more job counselors cannot help much to change the attitude and dedication of students towards work. Moreover, the president ignores other factors which are responsible for getting good jobs. Apart from the interviewing skills and qualification, there is a lot that depends upon the quality of education. It is likely that an employer looks into the academic record of students, or conducts a test to check their skills. In that case, it is the quality of education imparted amongst students which gains importance. However, there is no account of the quality of education imparted in any of the colleges.

Clearly, the president has ignored rational thinking in presenting his memorandum. He has ignored other factors which could have helped in securing jobs for graduates. On the contrary, his memorandum is solely based on the statistics of job placements available to him.