"Seven years ago, Zephyr Industries had no problem recruiting qualified candidates from college campuses. This year, however, Zephyr has hired only three qualified interns, fewer than one-quarter of those hired in each of the three preceding years. This suggests that the company's recruitment efforts need to be revamped. Since a growing number of potential recruits learn of career opportunities via social media and online discussion boards, Zephyr should suspend its campus recruitment efforts and instead hire social media consultants."
Discuss how well-reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
My response -
The argument presented herewith is flawed since it fails to emphasize on the different possible reasons due to which Zephyr industries has not hired enough candidates from college campuses.
Firstly, the argument states that the company has reduced the number of intakes from college campus. However, the reasons for doing the same can be many, such as reduction in requirement of new interns in the company or company requiring experienced personnel rather than fresh college graduates. Other reason can also be that the company may be going through a rough phase and hence not speeding up its recruitment activities. In addition to the above, the attrition rate of the company might have gone down, hence it has not increased the recruitment.
Secondly, the fact that the company has reduced the number of intake from college can be attributed to the people involved in the recruitment panel that is currently visiting the campus and that which used to visit seven years ago. The mindset of the person in the recruitment panel can be a reason for less intake of college graduates.
Thirdly, college campuses generally charge a fee for visiting campuses in order to recruit the college's students. The increase in fees in recent years can also be a valid reason for decrease in hiring of new students from colleges, since the argument states that the number of recruitment from colleges has only decreased.
All the above reasons can be the possibly attributed to the less recruitment from college campuses. However, it can be safely derived that the company need not ramp up its recruitment effort. The argument is flawed since it is mainly the fresh graduates from college who are more active on social media and online discussion board, and if the company is indeed going through a rough phase or does not want to hire from college campuses it can be safe to justify the reason for less recruitment from colleges. The argument further goes to the extreme in suggesting suspending its recruitment efforts and instead hire social media consultants. The cost of hiring media consultants can be much higher than paying fees in college during recruitment. Moreover suspending the recruitment drives shall be a knee-jerk reaction overall, since best talent from colleges can only be hiring through campus recruitment which is a well known fact.
Overall, as stated in the above reasoning the argument has some serious assumptions and flaws that need to be addressed in order to make it reasonable.