It’s Thursday afternoon and I’m about to meet with Lydia, a recent college graduate, who has moved home and feels paralyzed and overwhelmed by the job search process. My 30+ years of professional and educational experience, college admissions coaching background and successful launch of two grown working daughters inform my work as an early career coach. The education to occupation route often feels more like encountering a daunting cliff face than a flat and paved path forward. The message has been loud in higher education that students need more focus on career development during their time in school.**
Improvement to the education to occupation process can come from three key areas: students, college career centers and parents. Students need to take ownership of their career development and prioritize reaching out to career services advisors early and often. College career centers need to deliver a streamlined framework to teach students how to identify potential jobs/careers and how to run a job search. Finally, parents need to educate themselves on the realities facing their new college graduates and have conversations with their kids about expectations after graduation day.
Implementing a comprehensive career readiness workshop at least nine months prior to graduation is crucial for preparing students for successful job searches. A structured approach provides a clear framework that covers essential topics such as identifying suitable job titles, networking etiquette, and effective application strategies, all within a supportive cohort setting that enhances motivation and collaboration. Current practices, such as brief career center visits senior year, are insufficient for comprehensive preparation. Students must understand their responsibility in the job search process early in their college careers. Career services must effectively communicate available resources to both students and parents, emphasizing the importance of job outcomes from the first year of college. Recognizing the ongoing influence of parents, institutions should engage them in encouraging students to utilize career services. By integrating career readiness into the curriculum and offering workshops that empower students to take ownership of their job search journey, colleges can significantly reduce underemployment rates among graduates and ensure a smoother transition from academia to professional life.
I’ve created a five step methodology that Career Service professionals can follow to engage students in this process:
- Mandatory Year 1 Workshop: Deliver a mandatory 2 hour workshop for students in their first year of college focused on making the most of their time at the college or university, with the goal of securing a job post graduation. In this workshop, staff members plant the seed that the student must take ownership of their own career development.
- Assessments and Data: Offer students a way to get to know themselves through curated assessments and show students how to use the data to develop a potential career list through the power of generative AI.
- Career Planning Exercise: Offer a career planning tool/workshop where students choose at least 4 possible versions of themselves and explore possible post graduate scenarios (modeled on designing your life odyssey plans).
- Imagine the Future: Encourage students to crystallize their possible visions for the future: invite them to be curious, experiment and talk to professionals while they are still in school. Teach students how to have prototype conversations with professionals, asking concise, insightful and relevant questions.
- Mandatory Career Readiness Workshop: Offer a career readiness workshop at least 9 months prior to graduation so students can plan their post graduation job search well before graduation day and hit the ground running.
There are countless books, articles and podcasts on the subject of career readiness, but what students need is a clear framework embedded within their college and university experience. Higher Education comes with a steep price tag and when faced with the underemployment statistics, pressure will continue to mount on career services. Last year I presented a workshop to the Bates Center for Entrepreneurship at Lewis & Clark University; the students embraced the opportunity to explore concrete post graduate plans. It helped reduce their anxiety about the future and instead promoted excitement about what was to come.
The education to occupation message needs to be delivered early to the student - the student is ultimately responsible for their job prospects post graduation. Parents need to reinforce this message and educate themselves on how to best support their kids. Career exploration is not a game of hot potato - parents, students, and institutions alike should focus on outcomes and employability or underemployment will persist. We need to equip students with action oriented career development tools and the system of higher education is the perfect delivery mechanism. Institutions, in partnership with industry leaders, can help students define and acquire the skills they need to successfully enter today’s workforce. A simple, mandatory and easily replicated career readiness framework for all students is key.
