Do Our Graduates Know What companies Are Seeking In An Employee, and, Perhaps More Importantly, Do We?

University marketing faculty teach and embrace a concept referred to as the Marketing Concept, which places an emphasis on customer needs as a central focus in managing the marketing effort. Understanding customer needs through marketing research is thus essential to the process. If college marketing programs are to prepare students for their customers, the companies that hiring these students, the question then follows: do college marketing faculty and college marketing graduates know what qualities employers are seeking? This exploratory study reports the results of a survey of employers who were attending a Career Fair at a Southeastern US state university which addresses this question.