Tue 4 Nov 2008
Collegiate Characteristics of the Self-Employed
Posted by Megan Dorn under Entrepreneurship
I read a paper recently by Chad Moutray of the Small Business Administration. In the paper he explores the relationship between self-employment and college education. Some of the findings are pretty interesting
The self-employed tend to:
- major in the social sciences rather than business, management, education, engineering, math or science
- have lower grade point averages than wage earners
- have shorter job tenures than others
The paper also found that traditional measures of academic involvement (internships, scholarships, etc.) or quality (tuition or classification of institution) had nothing to do with the decision to become self-employed.
The research was taken from the U.S. Department of Education’s Baccalaureate & Beyond data series, which tracks college students from the class of 1993.
I’m curious if you all think that this is a fair representation of entrepreneurs in their college years. In particular, do entrepreneurs really major heavily in the social sciences? That was the one I found the most interesting. Leave a comment and let me know.
November 4th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
People who can’t find jobs start businesses?
November 5th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Interesting post. My dad once gave me a book titled “Why Grades Don’t Matter.” It was a gag gift, but he knows what I’m about. While I don’t advocate failing grades by any means, it is amazing how unimportant great grades are to the self-employed. That makes sense on a practical level, since you’re not trying to differentiate yourself when seeking corporate employment. Personally, I think this has a lot to do with diminishing returns. Currently I’m at Terry. It’s good to have a “walking around” knowledge about accounting, for example, but as an aspiring entrepreneur am I going to spend the extra hours to try and get an A instead of a B? Or even a B instead of a C? Not me. I’d rather concentrate on networking and startups- overall using resources to my advantage. I’ll come out with an MBA like everyone else. What was my major at Wisconsin-Madison (a great but not Ivy League school)? English. With a smattering of liberal arts classes that made my business minor work for me.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for the plug of my paper. I am glad that you found it interesting. I will add your blog to
my personal blog’s links.