Knoxify

Spring Break des­ti­na­tions are all the rage in col­lege. Key West, Lake Havasu and who can for­get the infa­mous Panama City Beach, FL. But what about grad­u­at­ing seniors from the Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee? Nashville, Atlanta, Mem­phis and Wash­ing­ton D.C. are all good choices, or so they seem.

I’m talk­ing about career des­ti­na­tions now, not keg-happy sand pits.

As pes­simistic as I can be, I have always had my doubts about the influx of local busi­nesses indulging in on-campus career cen­ter activ­i­ties. One can only imag­ine just what oppor­tu­ni­ties await new grad­u­ates in the form of a job.

Are the stu­dents being sought after? Are the stu­dents the seek­ers? Are local orga­ni­za­tions dip­ping their hand in the edu­ca­tional melt­ing pot that’s in their backyard?

The lat­est data from Career Ser­vices at UT points to no as the answer to my last ques­tion. 21st Mort­gage is the leader for local busi­nesses that seek out UT grads as their future star employ­ees. After pass­ing big firms like PWC, E&Y and KPMG on the list, it’s not until you reach the Uni­ver­sity of Ten­nessee that another home­grown Knoxville busi­ness appears.

Why is this? Why aren’t Knoxville busi­ness lead­ers direct­ing more of their recruit­ing efforts at UT? Are they expect­ing grad­u­ates to seek them out instead?

Why is Knoxville los­ing so many great minds to cities like Atlanta, Nashville and Chat­tanooga? Are there local seats vacant that could have oth­er­wise been filled with a lit­tle effort?

There’s a regional brain-drain going on and baby boomers are not the cause.

Pho­tog­ra­phy by J Bradley