Empirical Evidence on the Association between Characteristics of Graduating Accounting Students and Recruiting Decisions of Accounting Employers.

Abstract Employers of accounting graduates are apparently becoming increasingly selective in their recruiting decisions. A director of human resources at one large accounting firm recently described his firm's recruiting goal as being to identify "fewer and better professional accountants." Because of the apparent desire of accounting employers to become more selective in their recruiting decisions, this study shifts the research focus from the accounting graduate's point of view to the employer's. While previous research attempted to determine which factors influenced the recruiting decisions of students, this study examines the role, which student characteristics play in the recruiting decisions of employers. The study first identifies certain overall factors or groups of characteristics for a sample of accounting students who were interviewing for post-graduation employment during the 1986-1987 academic years. Associations between these overall factors and the recruiting decisions of accounting employers are then examined.