Mike Nichols’s film The Graduate might have had a simple answer to this question–“plastics!”–but, for today’s students, the question of what to do after college is more pressing than ever. A 2016 Gallop-Purdue University study found that, although 61% of students in the US have visited their university career centers, only 17% found them to be “very helpful.” The reality is that most students who obtain internships and jobs do so effortfully, through personal and family connections they forge outside of career centers. A 2015 Accenture survey found that only 12% of college students had a job lined up at graduation. The bar is much higher for international students, who lack the cultural-specific knowledge and deep network to navigate the complex career landscape in the US. These are frightening statistics and they point to a disparity between the American Dream and promise of a college education and the more somber reality that colleges–even the most prestigious among them–do not provide adequate resources for students to secure summer internships and full-time jobs by graduation. What is the solution?
What is your question?
My kids never expected the colleges to GET them jobs. The career centers at their schools did have recruiters on campus…and also had suggestions of things the kids could do. BUT it was really up to my kids to get whatever for the summer…and for jobs after college.
The career center also helped with resume development, cover letters, setting up LinkedIn accounts, and the like. They also provided a LOT of resources.
My kids reported (and I think this is also data that has been verified elsewhere) MANY students don’t use the services of their college career centers as much as they could.
My point is that colleges do not “get” them jobs. Even though many parents are now paying exorbitant amounts to the top-ranked universities with the expectation that the universities will help them secure jobs, students are pretty much left to their own devices–using the inefficient job aggregators, HR which is deluged with applications, or word of mouth. The system is broken.
The students from my daughter’s small liberal arts college have an amazing success rate getting jobs after graduation. I’m not concerned. Her school started discussing job search strategies her first semester there.
My son will be attending Northeastern where we’ve been told the co-op situation really helps the kids land jobs. There is a lot of focus on job placement at the Career Center. I guess I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the next 5 years, lol.
Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate had graduated from college but evidently had not made any plans for what to do next.
This is a bad idea. Many students who are successful in finding good jobs after graduation spend large amounts of time applying and interviewing for jobs during their final year in college. Some may line up jobs even earlier (often, at the end of a summer internship between their junior and senior years).
Don’t wait until you have your diploma to start planning your future. Many jobs – particularly those that employers offer through college career centers – are filled amazingly early.
The senior students need to be flexible. The first job after college is rarely a “career job.” Hopefully it offers experience, learning opportunities, challenges, and income. My son’s first job after college was as a management consultant with a major accounting firm. He disliked it almost from the start. But it paid the rent, and he stuck with it for 4 years, while moonlighting in poker and writing.
It would be great if students had more or a clear sense for who they were professionally so they didn’t have to jump around from one job to another. We know that career change can be a great thing but a lot of younger college grads have no idea what they are good at or what professional field to focus on. Should our students really have to take jobs they hate either as a default–because they don’t know what else there is they could do–or because “everyone does that”?
The service academies seems to have figured this one out. 
(Sorry for being the broken record on SAs on the forum. It’s all I’ve got. Kiddo took all the fun out of the college process for us.)
@ChoatieMom – which SA is kiddo going to?
West Point. He just finished his sophomore year. We’re flying out tomorrow, picking him up Saturday after the grad ceremony, and heading up to Maine to spend a week at a friend’s cottage. He really needs the break. We take him back the following Saturday for his summer field exercises. We may or may not see him again before Christmas. 
61% of students have visited their career center- 39% have not.
And you think the system is broken? 39% of students haven’t bothered to get professional help writing a resume, doing a video practice interview to see that their hair twirling or use of “y’know” every other sentence is distracting, or can’t bring themselves to walk across campus to attend an info session on “careers in the not-for-profit world” or a symposium on “working in global public health” or a job fair.
Tell your kids to get up off their tushes. I meet with new grads as a favor to friends and neighbors and I’ve heard every story in the book- too busy being fraternity president, too busy with social life, last chance “just to be a kid”, had too many incompletes to finish, can’t be bothered to look for a job since “I’d rather move home and hang out with my HS friends this summer”.
It ain’t the system. Too many new grads do not understand the concept “entry level”, believe that a career will come knocking on their door, and can’t be bothered to spellcheck their cover letter.
My kiddo has already been solicited by two outfits. A food safety testing facility, and a biomedical genetics testing facility. Both offer 40 hour a week first shift work, with full benefits.
This fall is her senior year. She’s spoken to recruiters who have seen her CV on LinkedIn and from Job Fairs on campus.
She’s more interested in grad school, and is applying to a few programs. If she doesn’t get lucrative scholarship offers, she will likely work a couple of years before going to grad school…but chances are very good that she will be able to go to Grad school very inexpensively (or for free).
The system is not broken. A degree does not come with job placement. That’s entirely up to you. If you’re smart, you’ll research the job market before dumping 100K into an unmarketable degree.
By the way, “The American Dream” is a myth. Children almost never move up the socioeconomic ladder from their parents in the US. Research published in 2013 shows that the US provides, alongside the United Kingdom and Spain, the least economic mobility of any of 13 rich, democratic countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
There’s a lot more social mobility in Denmark. Statistically…if you want your kids to do better and have a better life than yourself…they should be pursuing the Scandinavian Dream.
You have to wonder how many of the 61% who visited the career center actually did it mire than once.
My kids both got resume help from the career center. It was something the career center did very well. At DS’s conservatory grad school, they even helped students develop multiple resumes because musicians do multiple things.
DD used the career center to help set up her LinkedIn, and to help with some essays for the Peace Corps application.
Neither kid expected the college to land them a job…that was the KID responsibility. Leads? Sure. Guaranteed job placement…nope.
Oh…bot career centers also did mock interviews with students…to,help,them.
I really don’t think students take full advantage of what their career centers have to offer.
@Careerthoughts It sounds like your child is graduating college soon so this probably isn’t helpful to him/her, but if maybe you have younger kids?. So my friends and I are all concerned about what our kids will do for a living after college, and starting when our kids hit the 9th grade we’ve had them shadow various grown ups in their lives and apply for summer programs related to various fields of interest. Besides asking around our friend group, and the professionals who provide services to us, the Girl Scouts, the Y, and the Rotary Club were good sources for shadowing opportunities. As a result of the shadowing, some of our HS kids have paid internships this summer with a vet, a physical therapist, a lawyer’s office etc. My daughter is volunteering again this summer at a local university to get some lab experience, and she works a minimum wage job on the weekends during the school year to make money. As part of our college visits we’ve been asking all sorts of questions about internships and what the school does to help the kids get them.
Getting back to your child, even after graduation your college career services is supposed to work with you. They can do mock interviews, give you lists of alumni in your area, help with the resume, and probably help with getting internships. They can also give your child some personality tests to help identify things that he/she might like. A first job is a foot in the door and is a chance to learn and use some marketable skills - there is all the difference in the world between learning at school and learning on the job. Your child should think about joining a service organization or the school’s alumni club and be talking to as many people as possible from different walks of life and ask them what they do for work, what they like about it and don’t like, etc. Sorry if I’m saying such basic things that you already know, but it’s really about your kid putting himself out there, gathering information and networking.
The funny thing about the Scandinavian dream is that in Europe, even the best unis are by and large bare-bones and maybe at the level of an average state school here or worse in terms of career services. Yet Europeans get jobs. A career services office can provide you with resources and advising, but they’re not going to do the hard work of networking, researching company cultures, needs, and industry trends, and figuring out how to sell yourself to different companies and positions and how well you would fit in different roles.
Do you expect them to do that, or do you expect your kid to do that?
Careerthoughts, thank you for posting this. I think there may be a bit of a disconnect between the experience of some posters here (whose kids seem very directed) and the majority of grads (some of whom may be “nontraditional.”)
My observation has been, after three kids and their peers graduating some years ago, that some do flounder right after college, and work in cafes, waitress, or do service jobs in stores etc. But after awhile many find their footing and career path.
There is a concept called “wise wandering” that I like. An example would be a friend who was working in a dept, store and was asked to do displays. This became a theater scene design career. Or my friend who was a counselor in a shelter then ran a dept. for laundry and kitchen, and ended up fiscal director. I could go on and on.
The real problem is time. Adolescence and young adulthood are prolonged in our culture, into the late 20’s. The economy, high rents, and high debt burdens cause many young people (82% I read) to return home after college and suffer confusion about goals for awhile.
In most cases it does seem to work out, but a degree is not the instant solution that many present it to be. At this point, the absence of a bachelor’s can hurt, but not sure how much the presence of a bachelor’s helps.
ps can’t resist commenting on MaryGJ comment on the Scandinavian Dream, which most certainly seems to include apartments full of affordable Ikea furniture!
@MaryGJ I understand your point that students need to have initiative (this is true about the entire educational process, as well! At the end of the day, students actively read books, write papers and assignments, take tests etc) but, speaking from the perspective of someone who has recently spent a lot of time at career services and who has many friends with stories of helpful but ineffective career services at some of the top universities, I can say with confidence that the students are not at fault. Universities are fundamentally places for study; they are not places where sector professionals come in to mentor and guide. Students end up having to beg friends and family for contacts or spam HR, linkedin, and aggregators. They may not be reaching out to CS because they feel disillusioned.