Students.Parents. You Deserve Better From Career Services.

As I discovered from talking with parents of college students and recent grads, there is an assumption that the first place to look for help in a student’s first professional job search is the school’s career services center.  The reality can be discouraging. (Note: blogger just would not cooperate today. Format is funky.)

Today, when catching up on LinkedIn group discussions I was rendered speechless by a particular discussion. The discussion started in the Career Services Professionals group with 14,000+ members. (This is copied verbatim from the posting).

“What do I do with a major in?... Any good free resources out there where I can direct students? Maybe something like focus but free? Appreciate your help!” The first commenter said, "This is a great question to ask, because you will definitely be able to benefit from the many resources already developed (no need to reinvent the wheel?) AUURGH! Other comments provided websites to check out.

What’s even more astounding, it was posted by a director of a center for career development. And yes, the person has many years of experience in this area.

SERIOUSLY! Was I reading this correctly? I sent this discussion to a number of college consultants and bloggers to hear their take.Are they as outraged as I am? They sure are. As one said, " Wow. That's stunning. How does somebody like that get a job in this field?" 

Why are we surprised that surveys say many students are unprepared for the job search.[1]How could they be when the very people schools hire to be professional guides for students are unqualified to help. I’m tired of reading articles and LinkedIn postings that place all the blame on students. There’s plenty of blame to go around and that includes the schools and parents.

Career Services Centers Share in Some of the Blame 

In A Roadmap for Transforming the College-To-Career Experience a report based on a conference that included more than 250 higher education administrators, faculty members, corporate executives and national thought leaders concluded: 

While transformational changes have occurred in the world of work, many college career offices look and function the same way they did twenty years ago. When we think about how dramatically the world of work has changed, it is remarkable that the methods utilized to prepare students to enter it have remained static. Yet instead of investing, schools slashed career office budgets by an average of 16 percent this past year while prospective students and families pleaded for increased support to help find gainful employment.[2] Unless we can demonstrate to prospective students and their families that the four years spent at college will result in better employment prospects, there will continue to be those who disparage a college education as a waste of money.

Correct. And for those college career service professionals who post discussions complaining they can’t get students to engage  in their programs ask not how to, instead ask: Is what we offer what students want?  Are the programs/resources relevant to today’s job market and students or can the materials be downloaded from other websites? Are we providing the coaching students need? Can we provide students with ongoing support they need during their job search? Do we have a quantifiable track record of success?  Do we have the appropriate connections with employers? Do we even know what employers value? Vision and a value proposition only go so far especially when the programs don't deliver outcomes.

Make career services a criterion for college selection 

Parents you have power and it’s time to use it. With the high cost to send your son or daughter to college to earn a bachelor’s degree, you need know more about the school’s career services. 

According to a study authorized by More Than a Resume:

• Over 50% say college career centers aren’t up to the task
• When asked, “My child’s college has excellent career service resources,” 54% somewhat or strongly disagree with the statement and 64% of those parents who are involved with their child’s first job search say the same
• Over 50% of parents did not consider career services or job placement rate as college selection criteria
• Over two-thirds of parents didn’t investigate, visit or compare career service centers

Lynn O’Shaughnessy in College Solution posits, “…one reason why colleges haven’t made career services a priority is because they have been able to get away with it. Since a way didn’t exist for families to measure how well schools did at helping their grads find jobs, they didn’t have to be accountable." Yep! There’s no incentive for school’s to change until parents demand it.

Parents, you must learn how the school views, funds and staffs its career services center.  You need to ask questions, make the school show the job placement data (they have some data) and demand an upgrade in staffing and in the services provided.  After all, the tuition fees you pay support these centers. Are you getting your money’s worth?

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[1] Thirty-one percent of employers believe that recent graduates are unprepared or very unprepared for their job search. That’s according to a study of over 700 employers, conducted in late fall 2012 by The Chronicle of Higher Education and American Public Media’s Marketplace, titled “The Role of Higher Education in Career Development: Employer Perceptions”.

[2] National Association of Colleges and Employers 2011-2012 Career Services Benchmark Survey

The Internship: Lessons from a Vince Vaughan and Owen Wilson movie. Really?

Yes, really. 

The critics are correct.  The movie isn’t as good as Wedding Crashers.  It is an hour plus promo spot for Google. And you already know, if not lived, the basic storyline: you spent tens of thousands of dollars on a world-class education, run yourself into debt for decades, and wind up doing low value work for no pay at some corporation. Yet, despite the movie’s stereotypes and clichés there are lessons to be learned.

improve your skype and video job interview

More and more companies are trying to save money by relying on technology, specifically Skype or video interviewing to screen applicants. It’s already difficult to prepare for and undergo an interview, Skype and video interviewing adds another layer of complexity—acting on camera. There are things you can control to generate a more favorable result than others who are competing on camera for the same job.

Consider the technical details

Technical details represent a very important part of the setup: The camera should be at a distance that shows you from the chest up, so that it captures body movement in a natural way. Too close the camera picks up facial details. Too distant, it impairs not only the general quality of the video but the audio part as well. Position the camera vertically at about the level of your mouth so you are not looking up or down but straight on. Look at the screen showing the interviewer and not at the camera.

The technology with Skype has not been perfected and you will notice a 2-3 second delay. On the screen it looks like the interviewer has stopped talking when they actually haven’t.  Before you respond just wait the extra second to make sure the interviewer has finished talking. That way you won’t appear to be talking over the interviewer.

For more tips on Skype and video interviewing send an email: jane.morethanaresume@gmail.com

You’re making a lot of first impressions

Skype and video interviews are real interviews. Your answers are weighed and selection decisions will be made, just as they would if the interview was in-person. In fact, the interview will be scored and reviewed and shared. More people will see your interview than is typical for first round phone or screening interview.

Understand how you are being evaluated

The movie reminded me of my time at a consulting firm.  I was observing a start class of 40 new hires all right out of business school.  There was a week of indoctrination and a week to work on a case study and present recommendations to the class and a few partners.  The team I was observing went straight to work trying to solve the problem presented in the case study. Eager to make a good first impression, every day was a 12-14 hour day for them. They were determined to be the team that came up with the “right” answer. However, there was no answer let alone a right one. The case study did not provide enough information to form any recommendations. The team members simply did not understand what they were being evaluated on—their soft skills.

In the movie and it’s true in the real-world, people don’t underperform because of their lack of technical skills, they underperform because of their lack of soft skills. (Calling it soft skills undervalues the importance of these skills in the workplace.)  Vince and Owen’s characters in the movie won the job because not because of their technical skills but because they were givers not takers and demonstrated critical soft skills. They:

• Collaborated with cross-functional groups on projects
• Made effective presentations to customers, company executives and/or those in other functions
• Persuaded others to consider different points of view
• Coached and were coachable
• Took direction from others in a matrix environment
• Able to work for a variety of different people each with their own unique style
• Were flexible
• Challenged conventional wisdom and authority
• Helped team members who were struggling
• Were able to prioritize with little direction
• Didn’t need to be the smartest people in the room
• Networked internally—got to know people in organization who became their champions

cultural fit

For the seventh year in a row, Google topped the list of the most desirable employers for MBAs, according to a newly published survey of MBA opinions by research firm Universum USA. Watch the movie and it’s easy to understand why this is believable.  But it’s not a corporate culture for everyone. 

And that’s the point the movie is making.  Your fit with a company’s culture trumps your technical skills. 

Update: Judge Rules That Movie Studio Should Have Been Paying Interns
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/business/judge-rules-for-interns-who-sued-fox-searchlight.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y&_r=0

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The Employment Game Has Changed. Who's Teaching College Students The Rules?

Most college grads and their parents agree it still pays to earn a college degree. However, a just released study from Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce reports the pay-off comes when you graduate with specific degrees. The lowest unemployment rate among graduates includes nursing, elementary education, physical fitness, parks and recreation, chemistry and finance. And the highest is among political science, film video and photography arts, anthropology, architecture and information systems majors. The co-author of the study, Anthony Carnevale said in an interview, “Students probably aren't choosing the right degrees because they haven't been given the right guidance.”

Is there really such a thing as a right degree? I don’t believe there is and instead coach students to pursue knowledge and skills, and learn how those link to career opportunities. I coached an anthropology graduate who landed his first professional job in an advertising agency based on the skills he acquired in his major.  

Although he does say students need to explore and find their way, Carnevale points a finger at both high school guidance counselors and college career services. He says, that in this country there is no counseling apparatus to help students and that college career service centers are not meeting the needs of students because they are understaffed (this has been widely reported) and because they do not have the information set on career prospects and pathways.I’ve had a number of parents say, “They (college career services) just don’t know what to do with a history major.”

Carnevale gets no argument from me on the need for college career service centers to up their game.  It is time, as he says,”… the American education system, given its cost, given the fact that most of us now require it to get a decent job, to align it much more carefully with job prospects.”

And I have no disagreement with the survey methodology or data. (I know my clients are laughing at that statement.) However, I think there are important marketplace realities missing from Carnevale’s conclusions.

• The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act that requires universities to disclose the earnings of alumni and the nature of their employment to prospective students addresses only the issue studied which is by no means the only issue.
• Too many of the skills needed in the workplace today are not being taught by colleges.
• Employers are not hiring degrees (a pet peeve of mine) but rather new professionals entering the workforce who are not being taught how to communicate their major/degree in terms of the skills they’ve learned and they value they offer.

The most successful job candidates understand that many employers today don’t care about your degree or resumé but only what you can do and what you can continuously reinvent yourself to do as a life-long learner.

Getting It Right from Day One: When you do your job you don’t have to ask for a promotion or raise.

This is the third in a series of articles focused on what you can expect from your first year and the behaviors employers will value helping you set a course for a successful career.

Here’s some advice from Brent Saunders, chief executive of Bausch & Lomb, (it was announced that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International of Canada plans to purchase Bausch & Lomb):  “Never chase the next job.”  I’m revising that slightly: Never look like you are chasing the next job. 

For most, the role of the first job is to get the job you really want which is the second and third job. But that doesn’t mean that everyone you work with should notice that you are chasing it. Or that you should ask for a promotion or a raise. There are more effective ways to get a promotion with your current employer or move up in another organization.

• Let your work stand on its own.
• Do the job you’re doing today the best you can.
• Do the right thing for the people you are teamed with and for your supervisor. A note about supervisors. Companies are never aware of who you are or what you do. It’s your supervisor—the person you report to who knows you and your work and is your spokesperson and your connection to your employer.
• Lose the ego. Share credit; let everyone shine.
• Deal with issues when they arise and be open to feedback. 

Do these things and you’ll be successful.

National Study: Parents Need to Worry As Much About Getting Their Children Out of College As Getting In

As soon-to-be college grads and their parents are discovering the hard way, many have focused too much on getting into the right college and not enough on transitioning into the professional workplace, according to a new study authorized by More Than A Resume. 

A full 71% of parents were involved or highly involved in their child’s college admission process, with one-third paying for outside resources, including exam prep courses, tutoring, essay coaches and application consultants, according to interviews and a national survey of 250 parents of college students and recent graduates. In contrast, just 40% of parents are helping their children land that crucial first professional job after graduation and only a tiny 1% pay for expert support, such as resume preparation or job coaching. 

But parents are overly optimistic about how fast their children will secure professional employment. Seven out of 10 believe their child will land his or her first professional job with within five months of graduation while 23% say their child will have a job by graduation. But 40% of parents with recent graduates say it took their child six months or more to find a job while 22% report it took more than one year.  

“Parents freely admit they are in over their heads when it comes to helping their college grads launch their careers. And they are finding job-placement services at colleges woefully inadequate,” says Horowitz.  “Parents now realize that a top school education doesn’t guarantee a job. In investment language, parents have overlooked the exit strategy.”

A vast majority, or 95%, of parents agree that looking for a first job is very different today than when they joined the professional workforce:

• 73%, say they do not have the right knowledge and contacts to help their child
• 68% percent don’t know how help
• 58% say they do not have a trusted network for support and help in this process   

College career centers aren’t stepping up either. More than half, or 54%, of parents, somewhat or strongly disagree with the statement:  “My child’s college has excellent career service resources.” At 64%, the disappointment is even higher among parents involved with their child’s job search. In fact, parents in interviews related such experiences as:

• "My kid realized he has to go it alone. They don't know what to do with a history major." 
• "The career services center told him (a college senior) it was too early.”
•  "They told him since 80% of our students go on to graduate school, it's not our focus." 

“Just as with the college entrance process, parents and college students are seeing the need to adopt a more businesslike approach to moving through and out of college,” says Horowitz, who provides personalized coaching to help college graduates launch their professional careers. “There are steps every college student can take during school and afterwards to dramatically improve their chances of finding a professional job suited to their talents, interests and education.”

Read the full report