So much has changed in post-secondary career centres over the past 20 years. As a professional career counsellor at the University of Toronto, I’ve seen changes not only in how we counsel students, but in student expectations, financial constraints and technology. To illustrate the differences, I flipped through my appointment book for January 1991.
The schedule is full because it is January, a month where well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions are still possible. On Jan. 3 and 4, I’m registered to take a MAC course. Scattered throughout the month, I am scheduled to lead a couple of workshops called “Making Career Choices” and I will sit in on a few planning sessions. Most tellingly, over the month of January, I have 83 one-hour career planning appointments with students at both the St. George and Scarborough campuses. During those appointments, students will need to talk about planning their careers—many of them are continuing work begun in the previous year. With backgrounds in geography, biology, sociology, history, political science, psychology, physics, astronomy, environmental or cognitive science, their aspirations are as diverse as their program specialities. The astronomy student is interested in a career in music recording. The French/Italian major is looking at broadcasting careers. The English student is seeking a magic “test” that will tell him what he should do. The graduating business student would have chosen a different career, had he been given a choice. And based on his December grades, things are not looking good for the biology student who aspires to a career in medicine.
In 1991, I can organize day-long career planning courses during Reading Week and expect a “crowd” of 25 students. Of course, only 17 will actually show up, but as we auction off values, play personality games, construct collages, and sort through skills and interests, we have a great time together planning, challenging each other and creating career possibilities. Interestingly, only seven students will show up for the job search group the following Thursday.
I am the only career counsellor at the Scarborough campus, and I know that by the end of February, I will be exhausted. My appointment book also shows the occasional meeting with colleagues to share wisdom—U of T has an Association of Counsellors who meet a few times per year to share cases and best practices. Students (then, as now) are experiencing mental health challenges: I find a receipt in my appointment book for a session on adolescent depression.
Fast forward to 2011! My appointment book looks quite different. Our career services offices, staffed with a larger number of career counsellors and advisors, now offer very few day-long sessions for students. The new reality is that students do not have the time. Most are working over 12 hours a week while attending school. Many are choosing to complete a four-year degree in five years because of work commitments, academic pressure, financial constraints or lifestyle choices. I look back with a degree of nostalgia on those day-long sessions or hour-long appointments, when I could really get to know the students and understand their career concerns in the context of the rest of their lives.
Students’ relationships with career centres tend to be more transactional now. It must be quick, fast, specific, personalized… did I mention quick? We’re competing with instant messaging, instant food, instant access to money, and less time than ever. Career centres must adapt. We must become more technologically adept, providing just-in-time services, where, when and how a student needs them.
My colleague Laura Addicott, recently retired Director of the Career Services Centre at Dalhousie University, also sees technology’s influence on career seekers.
“The fast pace of today’s communications makes it easy for job seekers and employers to share information, but the selection process can still be protracted,” she says. “Today’s young people, in particular, may expect quicker responses and actions to their efforts. This can increase frustration and impact the effort put into job searches.”
Addicott also sees debt load as a major new reality, compared with 20 years ago, for college and university students. “Today’s financial reality for so many job seekers is urgent and overwhelming, contributing to their frustration with process and timelines,” she says. “This may also contribute to accepting roles and duties that are not optimal.”
We’ve all found that dealing with students has changed, due to the influence of parents and friends (“My friend said I should organize my résumé this way.”) as well as technology, which makes information readily available. “Sometimes you are working with students who might want validation of what they’ve learned [on the Internet] and what they created, and it may be necessary to value where they are at while helping them to accept new information or advice,” says Addicott. She also finds there are more international students who are highly motivated but have significant challenges and barriers. “This is very satisfying work for career practitioners because they are open, accepting and extremely grateful,” she says.
Indeed, many changes have been for the good. “I’ve observed a significant shift in the way employers present themselves—the marketing is much more welcoming and inclusive,” Addicott says. Overall, career centres 20 years ago were more about placement: sourcing jobs, referring students, etc. “Career centres have moved away from this model to be more educational, which is the right way to go,” says Addicott.
I am putting the finishing touches on our Career Centre’s Strategic Plan for the next three years. We have set a goal to look for ways to farm out our career expertise to parents, faculty, staff, alumni and peers, so that whomever the student talks to will be equipped to have a meaningful career conversation with that student. We won’t wait for the student to come to us—we will work hard to ensure that career information is accessible online, in person, everywhere. And we will be intentional in teaching students how to determine good information from bad. We aim to build our capacity and provide opportunities for our students to be equipped for their transition to the next phase of their careers.
Despite all this change, one thing remains the same: the fundamental career questions of students. They are still as certain or uncertain of their choices. Still concerned about saving the world and creating a meaningful existence. Still postponing career decision-making, still not taking full advantage of the services available. Many still do not know there is a career office staffed with people who are waiting to support and inform and help them with their life goals. But there are still those who seek out the help that’s available and have launched themselves at the world with confidence.
And yes, there are still those who do quite well, without our assistance, because somewhere along the way they got the help they needed from someone other than us. That’s okay too.
A Sample Career Centre Today
Career Centres vary from one institution to another, but typical career services can focus on:
- Career development
- Student success
- Career learning
- Integrated learning
- Experiential learning
Funding structure: student-funded, cost recovery, income generation
Student expectations:
- More
- Faster
- Everywhere
- Specific
- Personalized
- Now!
- Technologically with the times
Employer expectations:
- Get me the students I want, now
- Post my job
- One-stop-career shop, value-add, return on investment
- Well-rounded students with work experience; excellent leadership, communication and interpersonal skills; commitment to continuous learning
Questions that stakeholders (institutional, government, parents, students) ask career centres:
- What are students learning?
- How are career centres making a difference?
- How do career centres add value?
- How does career centre work align with institutional mandates?
- How many graduates are employed?
