Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities

Stijn Baert and Dieter Verhaest

No 11971, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigated the impact on first hiring outcomes of two main curriculum vitae (CV) characteristics by which graduates with a tertiary education degree distinguish themselves from their peers: degree class and extra-curricular activities. These characteristics were randomly assigned to 2,800 fictitious job applications that were sent to real vacancies in Belgium. Academic performance and extra-curricular engagement both enhanced job interview rates by about 7%. The effect of a higher degree class was driven by female (versus male) candidates and candidates with a master's (versus a bachelor's) degree. We did not find evidence for these CV characteristics to be substitutes or to reinforce each other's effect.

Keywords: hiring; extra-curricular activities; degree class; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I23 J23 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2018-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published - revised version published in: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2021, 83 (4), 1024 - 1047

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Related works:
Journal Article: Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities* (2021)
Working Paper: WORK HARD OR PLAY HARD? DEGREE CLASS, STUDENT LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES (2019)
Working Paper: Work Hard or Play Hard? Degree Class, Student Leadership and Employment Opportunities (2018)
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