EMLT Bulletin 17 (July) - EN

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JULY, 2016

17

SO SI WH M C U GN Y EM IA P I IS IM B L C F NG ER L OR P FO O S U RT H B R CA AN IP Y RE O T ER UR ?

WHY IS SIGNING UP FOR SOCIAL CLUB MEMBERSHIP IMPORTANT FOR YOUR CAREER? Social clubs, students’ group, scientific, artistic and cultural development help students to recognize the contribution to develop their creativity, talents and leisure time. Every year in Turkey, thousands of university graduates join the labor market, and the standardizations of these graduates in labor market are decreasing their competitive power. In order to get a job, people with similar characteristics agree to work in any position/area outside of their career, they accept the pay differences and to change their country or city. So in order not to face this situation people should reveal their unique characteristics.

Gallup’s[1] Chairman, Jim Clifton’s book ‘The Coming Jobs War’ talks about determinations of unemployment: The number of qualified job seekers all over the world is 3 billion, while the number of quality jobs is only 1.2 billion. By quality job, here we mean full-time quality, continuity, and work of social security. Considering that the world's population increases rapidly with each passing day the concept of unemployment is not only unique to Turkey but it will be a bigger problem in all part of the world (Erkut,2012).

Student clubs is one of the most important parts of university life. Many students develop themselves during club activities. These activities may also play a more decisive role than the career diploma. The important thing here is the time the student spends in the club. It can be said that if a member joins a club just to build up his/her resume and does not participate in activities, he/she will not benefit from the club.

According to researches, students who attend activities or students who organized these activities showed more improvement than students who just come to meetings (Foubert & Grainger, 2006).

To look at social club as a kind of activity to network would not be wrong. Marmaros and Sacerdote analyzed the result of a survey done with graduates of Dartmouth college, students who were in association and organization while they were in school found higher paid and more prestigious jobs. In addition to this, they examined on what kind of method was used and what was done to find these prestigious jobs.

Accordingly, it is possible to say that the people who found prestigious jobs follow different methods from each other. However, some key statistics in the research is really stunning. According to the results: 26% of those who did not rely on a faculty member take prestige jobs versus 17% for those who do. But 44% of students using Career Services take prestige jobs versus 16% among those not using Career Services. Aside from this, using help from fraternity actually causes a 41% increase in the chance of obtaining a prestige job (Marmaros & Sacerdote, 2001).

‘Student clubs improve the management skills of students’ During the university education, the students should pay attention to be social and take every chance in order to experience real life issues. Education, job experience, foreign language skills are very important but how social and active they were during the recruitment process are distinctive criteria. Students who take responsibility in university clubs are able to express themselves better, susceptibility to group work, manage budget, take responsibility and determine vision. It also allows students to build and acquire the ability of team and to learn how team can contribute to work (Kaplan,2015).

As EMLT Project, in our bulletin this month we conducted a survey to find out the perspectives of students on the issues of how important social club is in their career life. The results of the survey we conducted are as follows: The majority of the students that was surveyed said that this was the reason why they became member of social club:

Why are you a member of a social club?

15 % For Socialization

2 % To Contribute to My Lessons 28 % To Contribute to My Career

4 % Because My Friends Are Member of The Club 10 % Because of the Activities 10 % To Develop Network

27 % To Improve My Skills 5% Other

Many said that clubs provide a different perspectives and have contributed to their career and thinking skills that will help them in the development of the education they have received in school.

Students participating in our survey said that unfortunately during social cultural events most club members do not participate. Aside from social cultural activities in clubs, students’ responses to the question of what other activities that can be found in the club are as follows: What are the type of activities in the club?

51 % Social Cultural

21 % Academic Encouragement 1 % Amusement 3 % Athletic 2 % Travel

5 % Artistic

8 % Group Service 2 % Hobby

Other questions we asked participants and answers about student’s clubs’ activities: What is your primary motivation while participating in activities of a club?

15 % The number of persons that will participate in the activity

4 % Because my friends choose the activity 44 % The skills that I could gain in that particular activity

2 % The date of the activity

8 % There has to be certificate or participant document

4 % The agenda has to be given

25 % To innovate ( new fields, new information etc) 1 % Other

Generally, students in social club want activities like travel, take part in sport activity, have fun as well as learning other things and activities to help them standout when they apply for a job after they have graduated. Of course, the results of this survey showed that the certificates of these activities are very important for the students.

Which activities you think are the most effecient in reaching your goal of becoming a member of a club?

42% In Social and cultural activities 32% Academic activities 3% Hobby activities

5% Athletic activities 6% Travel activities

6% Artistic activities

9% Community Service activities

In this month’s bulletin we mentioned how important these student’s clubs are while developing career map. Moreover, we shared students’ perspectives of social clubs in universities, their importance for university life, how social clubs contribute to students and what their expectations about these clubs.

Wish to meet you in our upcoming bulletin…

References Erkut, E. (2012). Kendisini farklılaştıran üniversite öğrencisi dünyayı da farklılaştırır. http:// erhanerkut.com/egitim/kendisini-farklilastiran-universite-ogrencisi-dunyayi-da-farklilastirir.

Foubert, J. D. (2006). Effect of involvement in clubs and organizations on the psychosocial development of first-year and senior college students. NASPA Journal, 43(1), 166-182.

Kaplan, P. (2015). CEO'lardan iş bulma rehberi, Habertürk yazı dizisi,. http://www.haberturk. com/gundem/haber/1065545-ogrenciyken-sosyal-ve-aktif-olmak-arti-puan-kazandiriyor.

Marmaros, D. &. (2002). Peer and social networks in job search. European Economic Review, 46(4), 870-879.

[1] Gallup; Founded by George Gallup in 1935 is a research-based, global performance-management consulting company.

The company became known for its public opinion polls conducted in several countries.

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