What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 4 of 4

April 16, 2014 Leave a comment

Choosing a major can be stressful!

Choosing a major can be stressful!

Part 4 of “What’s Missing in the College Experience” – Where is your major leading you?

“Many people end up doing work completely unrelated to their major in college, but it still helps to know for what careers that major might matter when selecting a major or concentration. Students who really know the possible career paths with an undergraduate degree are few and far between at the time of major selection. Many students choose their majors in their sophomore year before they have much work experience at all. There would be many benefits to students if there was a consultant at the school keeping track of where their major may lead, career-wise, and what those careers meant in terms of average activities. Not only would students be making a more informed decision, but it would jump start the process of searching oneself to figure out what they really want to do before the big crunch at the end of senior year.” (Eli Lisseck ’13)

While I was at Mount Holyoke College as the Director of Recruiting and Employer Relations, I had the opportunity or working with many great partner recruiting organizations and some really wonderful students looking to make their mark in the world. One woman, in particular, that really ‘got it’ was a student that was interviewed and hired by, I believe, Paine Webber.

She was a history or psychology major, I can’t remember for sure, but the point being she was hired on by a pre-eminent financial institution after graduation in the liberal arts. Upon being installed on a team, one of her also recently graduated co-workers, had come out of a more formal business program as opposed to her degree in the liberal arts. Upon hearing of her ‘history’ or ‘psych’ major, he turned to her in a meeting and brazenly said, “what are you doing here?” Without missing a beat, she responded by saying, “to do the things you cannot!” A brilliant retort and was coming from someone that could articulate her liberal arts experience and how it would be a good translation to that financial working environment.

But for many, that transition and translation is not so easy.  College is a major expense in one’s lifetime but students who don’t follow their hearts by delving into subjects they’re most passionate about will ultimately hurt their chances of a successful—and satisfying—career in the long term, many college officials say.

For college students, declaring a major can be a stressful moment in one’s academic career. What do I major in? What should I choose? Now I have to live with this? These are some of the questions that plague thousands of newly minted college students each year, looking ahead, producing beads of sweat and who have nightmares of doing the ‘diploma walk’ only to head off the stage after graduation directly into an unemployment line.

For many, they view it as though they essentially are to say, ‘this is now what I am to do for life…’ While true to some degree, no pun intended, a major is really nothing more than saying I am specializing in an area of interest and taking the classes to support such. For someone who already has a career destination in mind; say they want to build bridges as an engineer or be a surgeon, they are lucky in that they are on a defined path and their declaration of major is more of a natural means to an end. The more difficult task is when one doesn’t necessarily have a set outcome in mind; no set path or destination, and choosing or declaring a major can be a pretty stressful addition as one feels they are essentially locking in by having to ‘choose their future.’

The good news is that, as stated above, a major is a focus and what, for many, is missing in their college experience, is a real, comprehensive understanding as to how that major is, or can be, translated to the working world and charting off on a career in the future. This is especially true when majoring in the liberal arts or humanities where the outcome can be a much more abstract path as is not necessarily a linear translation to a job or career.

Much of what happens in the classroom, and its success, is in how one, upon graduation, understands the subtlety, nuance and range of skills that are now to be articulated in a way that explains its relevance to a potential employer.

Most majors are elastic in that employers rarely ‘need’ a specific degree majored in, but instead a set of skills (both hard & soft), experiences and the ability to put them into motion. It is rare that a new hire is showing up at the door with a stand-alone skill. Employers look for a mosaic of such and future college graduates have such, but many do not know they have such and it is in this applied learning, this translation that can be the ‘make or break The college experience is too often limited in making that translation for students and many times the only discussion of such is schlepped over to the off-in-the-corner, stand-alone career services to make those connections evident.

This is a huge missed opportunity in that while these dedicated offices of careers and career transition do what they can, without the full ‘eco-system’ buy-in of the campus at large, the talk of transition from academics to career is usually too limited or late in coming and is missing a great opportunity to be as effective as it could be.

Much of what should or could be done during the college experience is a synthesizing of one’s academic studies at every corner of the respective campus, in a way that fully cross-pollinates, so that students have four years of not only academic intake, but four-years of transitional understanding of their academic history, both looking back and looking ahead? The college experience should, and can, be an artful balance of synthesizing interests, skills, personality strengths and acquired knowledge while at the same time acquiring tangible experience outside of the classroom.

In a perfect world, in the first four semesters, when wrapping up the sophomore year, if possible, this synergistic learning would make for a much better understanding of one’s choosing a major and how it ultimately can be a better blueprint for the transition to career and life after college.

Author-Box

Filed under Musings on the Job Search Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 3 of 4

April 10, 2014 Leave a comment

A stands for 'average!'

A stands for ‘average!’

Part 3 of “What’s Missing in the College Experience” – Everyone’s Getting A’s

“There has been an over-saturation of high grades in the academic world lately. I am not nearly the first to write about the subject; the phenomena has caught the attention of many school administrations as well. The truth is that, statistically, most people are average. Most people fall near the middle of a bell curve, but many college professors have been awarding a disproportionate number of A’s to students. The prevalent culture dictates that if you don’t have A’s across the board, you aren’t a good student. This plays heavily into an unrealistic expectation for students of how the world will react to them, and overall it hurts their levels of success in the working world.” (Eli Lisseck ’13)

I don’t think that it’s been any secret in terms how ‘academic creep’ has seeped into our educational institutions. It has certainly been not an isolated manifestation as democratization has worked its way into the fabric of many parts of society; trophies awarded for showing up, everyone on the field getting a ball, surveys (see below) really becoming a simple pass/fail response instead of recognizing shades of grey, etc.

In terms of academia, it has been an increasing trend creeping through the college campuses and taking over the academic culture in a slow, and steadily upward way. Even reaching the Ivy Leagues with the most recent, and perhaps the most publicized showcasing in the news being Harvard and how grade inflation, or the expectation thereof, has become the new rule. In Harvard’s case in particular, the ‘average’ grade is reported as being an ‘A’ with the median grade being an ‘A minus.’ Turns out one of the nation’s most ‘rigorous’ academic programs is also one of the nation’s most lenient graders.

Now how is this even possible you ask? In fact, it is, and should be, statistically impossible for if you were to look at a bell curve, there should be an appropriate distribution of each grade, A through F with the average award being somewhere in the middle near the C range. So, whatever the rumors were about C being average, apparently that’s not the case anymore.

Currently, as an A has become the new C on students’ transcripts, it brings the question to mind, what does earning an ‘A’ even mean anymore if they’re being given out like confetti? I wrote in a previous post about an increase in employer skepticism as they have the luxury in today’s economy to really put the lens of scrutiny on potential candidates in the hiring process. It has changed the hiring process in that there’s nothing really to differentiate a candidate today if you simply look at one’s transcript and academic history; everyone is stellar, spectacular and an A-level scholar. So when an A used to mean that a student was putting in the sweat-equity to earn that mark, now it is looked upon as merely an automatic, an expectation on the employer’s part, so, again, if everyone has one, what is its real value? And if it doesn’t reflect exceptionality, what does?

Further, according to a December Washington Post article, nearly 41 percent of undergraduates obtain a grade of A- or higher, while only 5 percent of undergraduates are receiving grades of C or less, nationally. Again, this is a statistical impossibility of the true bell curve’s measurement of students as a group and, what the grade inflation obviates is, that colleges are losing their grasp on how to gauge students’ work and the ramifications attached to that.

There is a two-fold factor that has contributed to grade inflation making its creep in our nation’s colleges and universities. One is mainly because employers want the ‘best’ students and so it stands to reason that they want to see A’s. If a student receives an A then they must be good. Secondly, in combination with this, generally professors want to help their students and in addition they simply want to be liked, which is perfectly understandable but in an overarching way, in helping, they are hurting.

For an employer who’s hiring on-campus, and A means exceptional, and that’s all they’ll see in the moment. They’ll just see that A, of that student, in that moment which, hypothetically, was awarded to that individual student for his/her perfect competence in Corporate Finance or something of that ilk. They are, or I should say were, unaware that the grade they coveting, could essentially be offered by any student they are to meet.

It reminds me of a recent (analogous) interaction I had when bringing a Volvo in for service. I had the work done, paid the bill and left. Afterwards, I was asked to complete a survey on my ‘experience’ as everything is now an experience. I agreed and the survey was a typical 1-10 sort, meaning 1’s get everyone fired and 10 is exceptional!

Or so I had assumed. In thinking about my ‘experience’ and also thinking it good; I’ll give 7’s & 8’s as I thought it fair and representative of their work. For reference, to me a 1 is either losing the car I came in with or breaking something, making it worse AND charging me for it, while a 10, on the other hand, would be when the work is done for free along with a paid trip to Tahiti!

In any case, shortly after seeing the 7’s & 8’s I recorded on the survey I received a call from the dealer’s “Crisis Team” to mitigate this catastrophe….

They asked me “what was wrong and why was I dissatisfied?”

I said “I wasn’t at all.”

They said “well if that’s the case, then we really aspire to receive 10’s on the survey.”

So, I asked, “if that’s the case, why did you not qualify that to begin with and if so, then what does the 1-9 on your survey really even mean?”

They told me that “anything below a 10 was a failure and they would seek to rectify such.”

That didn’t really answer my question so I again said, “essentially what’s the point of 1-9 then? Shouldn’t it just be pass/fail instead if you’re not allowing for an gradation in the evaluative process? I stated that I was happy with the work, it wasn’t a binary situation of either a 10 (happy) or everything else (sad). I wasn’t willing to just simply give 10’s and if you’re wanting to view this as a ‘failure’ then that is your option to do so.”

Getting back to the issue at hand, academics, the real solution, and the more difficult one, like the service issue I just reflected on, is to deflate the grade nationally across the spectrum. Allow for the shades in between a simple pass or fail structure. Faculty, managers, supervisors, whatever the case may be, must grade throughout the spectrum and be willing to give D’s and C’s for average work, and students must once again feel the need and work hard for the almighty A. If this is the case then the A can once again achieve something in it’s real meaning; being exceptional!

Author-Box

 

Filed under Musings on the Job Search Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 2 of 4

April 9, 2014 Leave a comment

Writing well is work.

Writing well is a process learned and re-learned.

Part 2 of “What’s Missing in the College Experience” – Writing competently and of quality is not scrutinized

“Outside of academia, you aren’t guaranteed an audience.  Writing is a crucial communication skill whether you are drafting a book or simply sending emails to anyone in a professional setting. College writing has a tendency to trick students into complacency when writing, because it is someone’s job to read their writing. A salaried college professor is tasked with reading your essay on common pool resources, but would your writing attract any attention without the financial incentive? I have found that writing for college and writing for work are two very different ideas because your writing is not guaranteed an audience in the real world, and piquing the interest of others with your passion for a subject is a skill that requires extensive practice.”  (Eli Lisseck ’13)

In my experience, this is an area where many of the institutions of higher-ed are falling short, but in saying so, many – if not all, will disagree. Much of this disagreement is based on the philosophy or expectation that when students arrive out of high school, their writing skills and basic understanding of grammar are to be in place and of a second nature AND at this stage, it is no longer the job of the curriculum to be teaching the basics.  With that being the case, when entering college, the foundation is, or should be, in place and the expectations that the students can engage and embrace the more advanced, esoteric and abstract requirements of the college-level academics.

While it sounds good in theory, in practice, this is not the reality. Many students coming into college are relatively unprepared for the expectations and demands of what college level output requires of them, or at least used to.  Sadly, the solution seems to be, instead of monitoring, policing and fulfilling the expectations of higher-ed, is to simply lower them. Writing, especially in the abstract, tends to be of less than quality and with that, basic rules of grammar, spelling and structure, all get lost in the process as there is no system in place that reinforces or critiques in a consistent and/or permeating way.

Having worked with many, many students over the years, I have seen the writing skills in decline and there are many factors to this I imagine. But there are two that stand out to me in significance over the years as I have been witness to this decline. The first being the most obvious; technology and its contribution to linguistic regression, as we now speak in fractured spits and spurts as opposed to complete sentences attached to complete thoughts behind such. The second, which has crept in at a slower pace but over a longer period of time is that the schools seem to not want to hold people accountable for the lack of quality or proper writing. I have heard many college faculty and administrators lament the writing skills of their very students, yet said students seem to fly through the ranks ultimately receiving their diploma for their ‘exemplary academic four-year toil…’

I’ve called out people on many occasions for the lack of quality in their writing.  The usual response(s) seem to be something akin to, “well it doesn’t really matter,” or “no one really looks for that.” I’ve even spoken with and questioned faculty about such, and while many have agreed that the writing is less than stellar, they will then go on to say, “I am grading for the message and content, not their grammar.” More than one has said, “It’s not my job to correct their grammar at this stage.” I get what they’re saying but I disagree with it. The common theme is that anyone who IS the audience for such output should be critiquing, as if it is not done so, is ultimately a disservice to the student and will only end up being magnified later in time.

Case in point being a student that I had the pleasure of working with during her undergraduate years and she was, in her mind, a competent and aspiring writer/communicator. Everything she had produced in college had been given praise and her writing was celebrated in her grades by faculty. However, upon graduation, her cover letters, the writings I saw, the very documents that were supposed to ‘brand’ her in the job market, that were supposed to tell her story and convey a positive impression on prospective employers, were woefully inadequate, both in foundation and style. Her writing, while ‘fine’ for the classroom, failed to make an impression on the audience she was hoping for outside of college. Actually, let me restate that; her writing DID make an impression on that audience. It happened to be a poor one in that her ‘new’ readers were indeed scrutinizing her materials and critiquing for grammatical mistakes and structure. They were looking at content and context with the evaluative eye of the red-pen and her materials were being lambasted for their poor quality, such that could never represent an organization she were to be interested in working for.

Our office of Career Services would get frequent calls from alumnae stating, “What is going on? The applicant’s writing is horrible? What can we do about it?” Frankly, at that point, the horse is already out of the barn, as it were. Being more an issue of image management and needing a reaction, we implemented a plan that every resume and cover letter forth that came through our office for recruiting opportunities was to be pre-screened and then ‘approved’ by our staff before being submitted to prospective employers. While this was done mainly as a service to appease the employer’s want of not being ‘embarrassed’ by the applicants of their own Alma Mater.  With the intent of heading off poorly written or ill-conceived letters and resumes, this became a pretty effective, for the most part, method in elevating applicant’s presentations. The fact that for many students, this, to use an over-used term, ‘teachable moment,’ the heightened lens of scrutiny, even labeled “harsh” by many students, was really met in our office for the first time on-campus, is part & parcel to one of the issues void in the academic mission – a willing, permeating, consistent and strong scrutiny for the students at every stage of their academic career.

Author-Box

Filed under Musings on the Job Search Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s Missing in the College Experience? Part 1 of 4

April 8, 2014 Leave a comment

"Help! Interest? Vested? Taxes? Huh...?"

“Help! Interest? Vested? Taxes? Huh…?”

Recently, while meeting with our intern, Eli Lisseck ’13, we were discussing his transition from four undergraduate years at Oberlin to the present, where he is now actively engaged in his job search.  I asked him, now that there is some time in the rear-view mirror, to look back and reflect on his four-years of quality education and its application to his reality today.  In this 4-part article, examining, what he thought, shortcomings to the college experience and my personal observations having worked in such for 20 years, we discuss these areas and talk about what educational institutions could do better in preparing students for transition to independence and adulthood.

When asked, he said; “one thing pertaining to the job search that I have observed changing recently is that it never ends. With communications technology rapidly advancing, even people currently at a great position always have the antennae tuned in for new opportunities, just in case. The relatively new culture of rapid job switching and constant job searching puts even more weight on crucial job search skills, and relevant life skills related, than has existed in the past.  There are a few crucial actions to consider, and steps to take, that I wish I had learned a couple of years earlier than I did.  None of these things are particularly difficult to begin doing, but practice certainly helps tremendously.  I hope that thinking ahead will give students about to graduate a head start compared to recent graduates such as myself who have had to pick these skills up as they became relevant, rather than being prepared.  What follows is a list of four ideas, in no particular order, that I feel would benefit students if they were incorporated into undergraduate learning processes.”

Part 1 of ‘What’s Missing in the College Experience’ – General Financial Acumen

“After paying incredibly high tuition for four years, a student should at least have an idea of how to succeed outside of school. Students are first and foremost trained to continue inside the academic world, but many students will not be academics forever. Colleges want successful alumni, and students want to live on their own, so it seems like some required class about finances is pertinent. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just the ins and outs of filing a tax return and how to budget oneself when planning around employment.  An astounding number of recent graduates will forget to budget for healthcare, utilities, tax withholding, and the like when considering their potential income, and struggle later because of it.” (Eli Lisseck ’13)

As supporting anecdotal ‘evidence,’ in an endearing sort of way, one student I had, who accepted a job offer and moved to NYC, related her experience to me that was both funny and inexplicable at the same time.  She was a graduating senior, and a savvy one at that, from Mount Holyoke College and was majored in Economics.

She got her apartment and had that secured at least.  On moving day, she was handed the key by the land-lord and started to move in all her belongings. Walking in she flipped the switch in the entry hall and the light did not come on.  So she flipped it several times.  Nothing.  After setting her stuff down and out of the way, figuring it to be a dead bulb she went and got a light bulb from another spot in the apartment and switched it out and flipped the switch again.  Nothing. Enterprisingly, she then went out and bought a box of light bulbs and came back and started to swap them with the ‘dead’ bulb thinking this should be an easy fix.  Nothing, as expected to an outsider at least.

The reality was that she, in her life-time, every time upon flipping a switch, something was to happen!  She had no concept that one had to start an account with the utility company and it had never occurred to her to inquire as it had been a constant presence, like the very air that she breathed, in her life.  Again, for her entire existence on this planet, something happened when she flipped a switch so who knew?

Much of her story highlights the fact that graduates, or soon-to-be, ‘don’t know what they don’t know’ until it’s either presented or experienced first-hand, with the latter sometimes being too late. This is very apropos to the plight of many college graduates today as they seemingly have no concept of the issues of personal finance and related terms and topics such as; taxes, gross and net pay and what the differences are?  No understanding of the litany of potential benefits that employers may offer in a job and how each of these can play out? Investments and the power of compounding.  The majority have no idea what ‘compounding’ even means?  The fact that a landlord might want first, last month AND a security deposit before they can even set foot in an apartment? What the term ‘vesting’ means? And this is many times Economics’ majors, yet.  How about the fact that credit cards are not ‘free money’ and need to be paid back, with interest yet? What’s interest and why are they allowed to collect that? Remember all those student loans?  Well in November of the graduating year, the note holders show up at the door wanting it to be repaid. Oops, forgot to budget for that!  That renter’s insurance is a necessity when they move out on their own, thinking that the building ‘must be insured, so my belongings must be too…?’

There is an incredible lack of financial understanding and it can have large ripple effects on their navigation of life post-college. For many years I’ve taught workshops and presentations on personal finance, budgeting and understanding benefits offered by employers, etc…  These workshops have always been, historically, well attended and feedback almost universally of appreciation and thanks.  For many, these presentations are kind of deer-in-the-headlights sort of endeavors as students would sit there bewildered, perhaps having a new appreciation for what their parents have navigated to get their sons or daughters to this point in their education.  Some of the more common observations I’ve had are that students have no understanding of the language and machinations of how money & finance works on either the micro or macro scale.

Sadly, this series of workshops on finance that I have done for the colleges, were never a mandated part of anyone’s curriculum and it should be.  It was simply a need that I had witnessed so put it up on offer.  There is no reason or excuse that a student leaving college has no concept of personal finance, taxes, benefits, how to balance a checkbook even.  It really would be a simple addition, if not an all-out mandate, to one’s four-year experience. In fact, the cost-benefit of such is a huge consideration in that graduating students, future alumni/ae, can look back and say that they were ‘better prepared.’  No matter as to one’s major; if it be Economics or Dance, once departing the hallowed halls, they need to be able to understand how it all relates to function in the world they choose to live.  What’s critical, in my view, is that each student leaves college with an understanding of personal finance and how it relates to their transition to the working world.

Author-Box 

Filed under Musings on the Job Search Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Being a New College Graduate Means You are…

April 2, 2014 Leave a comment

Pew Economic Report for New Graduates

Pew Economic Report for Young College Graduates

Facing an unprecedented amount of debt – According to The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) Project on Student Debt two-thirds of the graduating class have debt waiting for them at door after graduation with the average borrower graduating approximately $26,600 in the red. In total, student loan debt is amounting to over $1 trillion. $1.2 trillion to be more specific. Think of that number for our new graduates entering the workforce and the economy as a whole. Of this $1.2 trillion in student debt, about $1 trillion is in federal student loans. This figure does not tell the full story, however, as the $1.2 trillion does not include funds students must divert away from retirement savings, parent borrowing, or credit card debt. While a tie for federal student loan interest rates to the market is of some help, lowering the current rates for undergraduate students from 6.8 to 3.8%. But if and as the market climb, these rates will also climb until they reach a cap of 8.25%.  By TICAS calculation, this may cost families $715 million more over the next 10 years.

What does the lower number of 3.8% interest actually translate to for students? If we go back to that average figure of $26,600, compounding for interest year over year using the 10-year-payback plan that is the standard, the total cost of your $26,600 loan is now closer to $40,000.  Break that down by monthly payments and you are looking at about $320 per month going toward student loan payments.  In the end, the opportunity cost of the education itself is almost $40,000 in addition to what’s already been out of pocket for tuition, room, board, books, food, etc.  Every dollar now owed is a dollar delayed in terms of the down payment on a house. Money put aside for retirement or investments.  Dollars sacrificed for the next generation’s needs.

Facing an improved economy but – for every position offered by an employer, not only are the new grads in competition with each other, but facing increasing numbers from laid-off, displaced and/or career changing job-seekers that, in addition to a college degree, offer a tangible employment history and applied experience. With that new competition, increasing numbers of recent college graduates are ending up in relatively low-skilled jobs that, historically, have gone to those with lower levels of educational attainment. This is having a push-down effect where those with only a high-school degree are now being displaced by college graduates.

In fact, the proportion of ‘over-educated’ workers in occupations appears to have grown substantially; for example in 1970, fewer than one percent of taxi drivers and two percent of firefighters had college degrees, while now more than 15 percent do in both jobs; The figures are based on an analysis of the 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers. They rely on Labor Department assessments of the level of education required to do the job in 900-plus U.S. occupations, which were used to calculate the shares of young adults with bachelor’s degrees who were “underemployed.”

About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in well over a decade.  In 2000, the share was at a low of 41 percent, and this was when the dot-com bust erased job gains for college graduates in the telecommunications and IT fields.  The result is that if you look at employment broken down by occupation, young college graduates were heavily represented in jobs that merely require a high school diploma or even less.  The barista serving you coffee with the Ph.D is no longer an urban myth.

Faced with ‘new’ employer skepticism – As more and more news reports and pundits attempt to explain the plight of current prospects for new graduates, another, new-ish court is being heard from more and more; the employers.  They say that college students, in general, are entering the workforce, or trying to, with a double whammy working against them; coming in the door without the skills needed to hold down or perform a job AND, in addition, unrealistic expectations about the job itself and the requirements the employer is needing. This means that in a soft job market like we’re now experiencing, recent graduates are facing not only stiff and varied competition from experienced workers re-entering the workforce but also new, budding skepticism from the employers with the (limited) jobs on offer.

According to Inside Higher Ed, more students have struggled to make their mark in a depressed job market and this has raised the obligatory questions about the intrinsic employment value of a college degree?  In the same correlative breath has the concern that new graduates are not equipped to function in the work place and are not meeting employers’ expectations and needs.  A new survey reaffirms that quandary.  In the report, “Bridge That Gap: Analyzing the Student Skill Index,” only half of college students said they felt very or completely prepared for a job related to their field of study. In contrast, and perhaps even more telling, even fewer employers – 39 percent of those surveyed – said the same about the recent graduates they’d interviewed in the past two years.  The fact of the matter is that the latter percentage, whether real or perceived, is the benchmark as they, the employers, are the ones hiring.

The most ‘educated’ but the least well prepared – As the more scrutinizing lens of a poor economy starts to look for answers, many have argued that colleges and universities aren’t doing enough to prepare their students for the work force.  This is true; sort of…  I would have to agree with that assessment and I don’t mean in a way that condemns the educational institutions’ intentions.  The problem is that the ‘system’ is not built where the idea of higher education and its synthesis of development and ’employ-ability’ are best intertwined.  In most cases, for example, representative career service offices tend to be an isolated campus entity.  Either an overbooked office that doesn’t have the resources and staff time to effectively work with students navigating their career path OR an office that can go underutilized or flat-out ignored by the campus community.  I’ve seen and experienced both and both are a disservice to the very client’s they try to serve.  In the past couple weeks I have spoken with several soon-to-be graduates and the common question asked is “have you been to your campus career center?” Invariably, the answer seems to be either ‘no’ or ‘yes, but only one or two times.’

What’s missing is that colleges need to be systemically embedding career development into the fabric of the undergraduate education.  This is a difficult task as many a faculty department will fight the ‘vocation’ label and/or expectation tooth & nail.  This is changing as new members replace the incumbents understanding the new economy and its demands but it is a slow evolution at best.  If this were to come to fruition, an organic and institutional embedding of course and career, not only would this better prepare students for life after college, it would help to justify the value of a liberal arts degree, or any degree for that matter especially as outcomes are becoming the new quantitative rage.  

To qualify, this post is not meant to simply and merely highlight the negatives facing our soon-to-be-freed graduating class, but instead to shed some light on the realities being faced, not just by the current generation, but all generations as there is a systemic, ripple-effect that reaches out and affects us all.

Author-Box

Filed under Musings on the Job Search Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,