Attracting Students to the Field of Logistics, Part 1

Practitioner and academic literature indicate a shortage of young professionals entering logistics, yet limited research exists to understand how to attract more students to the field. To address this gap, we compare survey data of logistics practitioner job characteristics to survey data of expected job values of undergraduate students from seven universities. Based on personality‐job fit theory, this study allows us to explore how to better promote the major and field to students as well as to propose recommendations to redesign logistics jobs to better meet student expectations. The results reveal that intrinsic job characteristics desired by students such as learning and seeing the results of their work are prominent in logistics jobs. However, other significant student expectations, specifically long‐term job stability and pace of promotions, are not prominent in logistics jobs. The results further reveal that promotional messages about the industry are most effectively communicated to students via family, business professionals, and presence on the Internet more so than by professors and college advisors. Ultimately, this research suggests strategies to increase the number of students both majoring in logistics and entering the professional field to address the workforce shortage.