<p>Families are spending tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their kids to college. What responsibility does the college career counseling office hold in preparing these kids for the reality of getting a job at graduation beyond the basics of resume coaching?</p>
<p>I know two boys, one graduating from a top film school and another from a top industrial design school and both were well into the 700s per test on the SATs. They can not find jobs in their chosen professions. They both only want specific jobs that relate to their degree. Their schools assured them 4 years ago that they would find work and historically this attitude was warranted. Both families are a bit miffed they each spent $240,000 and their sons seem to be only able to find $10 per hour jobs. </p>
<p>Now you can question the oiginal decision to attend but I think the real issue is the school setting up false hopes.</p>
<p>I suggest schools have career counselors that are in touch with on the ground reality, not just resume coaches. Both these boys need to know if they're being realistic ... what type of job to expect. Just like the counselor they received as freshman to ease their transition to college life, they need a counselor to ease them back out ... to set reasonable expectations with regard to talent etc. and the realities of the current job marketplace.</p>
<p>Four years ago, or five, when these boys applied, the job market was different. I don’t think you can blame the colleges for this. These boys picked a niche degree and only want jobs that relate to their specific degree. Well, the world has changed.
It’s the unusual college that promises job placement, although many offer assistance with resume building and interviewing tips. Some have companies come to campus and may encourage students to attend the fairs and set up interviews, but most of the work is up to the student. This hasn’t changed. What has changed is the number of jobs available.</p>
<p>A lot has changed in the last four years and I don’t fault what college counselors may have said in different times. My son had to work harder than I thought he would have to to land a great job when jobs were plentiful when he started college. Times do change and counselors need to keep up with what is happening but it looks like parents expect them to be able to predict the future - and I don’t think that this is possible if they are advising on career prospects in a number of different areas.</p>
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<p>From what I saw at my son’s school, they do help with resumes but they also do other things. They work with companies to come on campus to recruit, schedule and manage on-campus career fairs, hold mock interviews, run the jobs database and will even provide advice on dress and grooming.</p>
<p>I keep an eye on the job market for my specialty area and that takes a little effort and I understand what the keywords in my area mean. I don’t think that a career counselor can have that kind of expertise across all of the majors that colleges typically run. I think that students may have to go to their professors or their alumni database to get more specific information.</p>
<p>This may explain the rising popularity of schools with integrated Co-op programs such as Northeastern University.</p>
<p>In our limited experience, internships and jobs during college were the biggest help in finding a job after college. My D found these on her own, but it is helpful if the college provides help with those. I know they had fairs in the fall and spring for internships and jobs.</p>
<p>The boys in the OP may need to broaden their search outside of the niche areas they are interested in.</p>
<p>An excellent point. What kind of internships did these boys do while in school, and what jobs did they have during summers and during the year? With the kind of professional degrees we’re talking about here, it’s all about who you know and what kind of experience you have coming out of college.
But even then, it may be tough.</p>
<p>I knew a few students (one is now a graduate and went to grad school after not being able to find work for six months) that didn’t go to career fairs or on-campus recruiting events in the fall and they had trouble or are having trouble in the spring. These are from good schools and they are in good majors (engineering) - but it is tough out there. They have had internships but they could have been more aggressive about looking for jobs in the fall and during the winter break. It can be tough going to interviews, career fairs, etc., when you’re in the middle of courses but it may improve the odds of an offer.</p>
<p>And how do you know that the career counselors haven’t tried to help by suggesting career paths that would fit an industrial design or film major but aren’t actually in those areas? I counsel kids in my neighborhood (and friends of my kids, and children of colleagues and co-workers) all the time and you just can’t believe what comes out of their mouths. Inflexible, unrealistic, naive-- and I’m not even going to the entitled place yet.</p>
<p>You just don’t know if these kids have been given advice which they don’t want to take- - get a teaching job in a private HS teaching English and run the film club or another arts related club as your EC contribution to the campus (don’t need a MS in teaching for most private schools.) Get an entry level job as a media planner or copywriter at an ad agency. Get into the management training program at a national retailer and work towards a job in their graphics or in-house design studio. Get a job in corporate communications at a large bank and be part of the team that oversees the annual report, the tons of visual/collateral material that they produce annually, etc. Get a job at a public television station and learn how to run on-air promotions or how to produce their semi-annual fundraising telethons.</p>
<p>I think it’s great to want to devote your life to the visual arts. But not every new grad at age 22 is going to find a job doing exactly what they think their field is- especially if they want it to be full time, in the city of choice, with no need for a “survival job” as most artistic types tend to do as a matter of course.</p>
<p>Yes, a job at Pixar telling the studio honchos what movies they should be producing would be great. But I know someone who has that exact job-- and he started in the finance department as an accounting clerk learning whether catering costs are considered general corporate overhead or can be logged in as film specific costs for tax purposes.</p>
<p>So he had a long slog doing what most film majors would not consider doing. I’m sure it bored the heck out of him, but nobody runs a spreadsheet like he does! It pays off of course- as folks of our generation know so well- it’s called paying your dues.</p>
<p>I counsel kids in my neighborhood (and friends of my kids, and children of colleagues and co-workers) all the time and you just can’t believe what comes out of their mouths. Inflexible, unrealistic, naive-- and I’m not even going to the entitled place yet.</p>
<p>I think these boys need a serious reality check. Blossom they need you!</p>
<p>The schools are getting well paid and though thought a conflict of interest by some, I think a reality check senior counselor is very important. These boys are going to waste time dreaming. For $240,000 I think the smart school will think of their marketing and applications and provide serious career services for seniors … At the moment timely advice. If the kids ignore, that is their choice.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, my D found her permanent job at a spring job fair in her junior year. The company invited her in (with a group of others ) for interviews in September of her senior year, and she had the job offer in October or November. She had a history of both unpaid internships during semesters and paid work during summers. So for future job seekers, it’s never too early to start looking!</p>
<p>^^ Actually, in some fields it IS too early to start looking. My son, a graduating college senior, submitted resumes and had phone interviews with 3 different companies for marketing positions (1 in late fall, 1 in early winter, and 1 in February) and each time he was told that unless he could start immediately, they weren’t in a position to wait until May when he graduates. And this is after they reviewed his resume and saw that he wasn’t graduating until May. Go figure.</p>
<p>Yes. I think it is career specific. Many large companies who hire in areas of Engineering, CS, accounting and consulting typically hire in the fall because they have a large program. Smaller businesses who don’t hire a class of new grads each year only look when they have an opening and that’s why starting early doesn’t really work.</p>
<p>And FYI my son has 3 great internships under his belt – 1 last summer, 1 the previous summer and 1 for a 4-month period last spring when he did a London semester and was placed at a company working 9-6 5 days/week. Still looking for a job (and he’s graduating from a top 10 undergraduate business program). Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>In CS it’s very common for the internships you do summer before senior year to offer you a job. It certainly makes senior year a lot more relaxing!</p>
<p>I don’t things are going to be nearly as easy for my younger son who is majoring in International Relations.</p>
<p>Yes, mathmom. You’re right. My older son left his CS summer internship with an offer in hand, but ended up going to a PhD program instead. At least he received a fellowship and full funding, so it made it easier to walk away from the offer.</p>
<p>So I still think the colleges need to be more hands on with carrer advising than they are. They seem to give lip service to career help that appears ineffectual. Maybe they need an outside firm to be contracted for the purposes of helping their students.</p>
<p>Being the web searcher I am, I searched various local schools career counseling websites to see what all they had. What I found is that each school had a piece of the picture but they don’t seem to collaborate on resources. </p>
<p>Even sites for internships and jobs that are out there if you hunt for them yourself. It is like they are in competition with each other, which I guess they are, but our kids are the losers.</p>
<p>These days you have to develop the skill of looking for a job which is very different than the skills required for doing a good job. My guess is that job search skills will be needed fairly often over the next 40 years of their working lives.
It takes time and effort to be good at an effective job search and salary negotiation. Some new grads may luck out depending on a position or a career choice but I would not count on that being the case forever. The world is changing just too fast.
If it takes someone longer this time, it may take them less time the next go round.
Career Counseling can give them the basics tools for sure but I think it is an unreal expectation to have jobs available for their college graduates.</p>
<p>My D school career website, currently has 34 yes only 34 jobs available. Target managerial program, Citibank, (which ironically several of D friends took these banking jobs post graduation and just got their pink slips two weeks ago) and Citibank is hiring a slew of soon to be grads, yet just gave the door to last years group. Test site monitors and SAT tutors. </p>
<p>I know my D career services center was appalling.</p>
<p>I agree that it is unrealistic to expect colleges to have jobs available for their graduates. I suggest colleges provide honest real world counseling to get graduates on a good path that reflects current realities. Some of our kids had college counselors to ensure a proper fit for college and a good understanding of the process … why not for the transition to the working world.</p>
<p>Simply, our kids need more help with the career process. When people spend $$$ for education, they just might develop a sense of entitlement with relation to getting a job. </p>
<p>The ivys, most of all, offer great networks justifying their price. The ROI of most schools does not justify them charging the same rate as the ivys. If other schools do not have the powerful network, i suggest they consider a powerful career resource program.</p>