Like many of my colleagues, I became a career services professional more through serendipity than careful planning. It wasn’t that I didn’t have a career goal. In fact, I enrolled in Indiana University’s (IU) doctoral program in Russian studies certain that I would become a professor of Russian history. After a few weeks, it was clear to me that I liked my residence hall assistantship a lot more than my Slavic studies.
It still took two years with the Peace Corps in Iran, an M.S. in college student personnel administration, a two-year research assignment at Kabul University in Afghanistan, a doctorate in higher education administration, and a two-year research project with the Indiana Commission for Higher Education before I wound up as associate director of business placement at IU. Years later, when I asked my boss why he had hired me, he said he liked my research and writing skills.
Three years after joining IU, I was hired as director of career development and placement at the University of Cincinnati, a position I held for nearly five years. In the 17+ years since then, I have served as career services director at the University of Tennessee.
Looking back, I realize why this profession has been so enjoyable and fulfilling. I also recognize the challenges inherent in the field, including the need to bring new blood into our ranks. Beyond my personal views, this article incorporates the results of a survey of my fellow practitioners. I polled the directors on their expectations of entry- and director-level career services candidates and their views on how to attract and nurture newcomers to the field.
A fragmented profession
The career services field is fragmented in ways that can enrich practitioners’ choices and activities. Within many career centers, for example, there is a continuum of services from career counseling to experiential education coordination, placement assistance to alumni career support. Each of these areas can call for a somewhat different set of skills and attributes.
Fragmentation also results from specialization. There are centralized campus-wide career centers and those that focus on schools of business, engineering, agriculture, or the arts and sciences. Many professional schools, particularly law schools and M.B.A. programs, have their own career services functions as well. Some centers deal only with cooperative education or career planning.
Then there are the differences between the two-person career center at a small liberal arts college and the 30-member staff of a major state university. The practitioner at a small school has to be a jack-of-all-trades; he or she can be a specialist in one aspect of service delivery at a much larger institution.
The fragmentation of the career services profession is both its strength and weakness. The wide variety of duties practitioners perform, and the range of clients they serve, make it difficult to develop consistent standards across the field. Efforts at career services certification have floundered. Without consistent standards for practitioners, it is difficult to attract young professionals to the field.
At the same time, that fragmentation leads to a phenomenal range of ways in which one can pursue the profession. There is no specific Myers-Briggs Type Indicator profile that matches the successful career services professional.
What do careers services directors expect of practitioners at the entry and uppermost levels of the field? A survey of geographically and institutionally diverse directors provides the answers.
The survey listed 18 different skills, qualities, and attributes, and asked respondents to rank them into three categories—“most important,” “very important,” or “somewhat important.” The respondents also were asked not to assign more than six attributes to any one category. Scores for each attribute were calculated by assigning point values for each category (3=most important and so on), then dividing each attribute’s total score by the total number of respondents. Of 128 surveys mailed, 64 or 50 percent were returned in usable form.
Interpersonal skills were, far and away, viewed as the most important attribute of career services directors, followed by management skills, problem-solving skills, organizational skills, and ethics. It is interesting that none of these attributes is in any way exclusive to a clearly defined job, and all of them might score high for any management role.
The next cluster of attributes included writing skills, teaching and presentation skills, computer knowledge, counseling skills, and flexibility. Those qualities and skills, more than the top attributes, relate to specific functions, such as teaching a class, writing a report, or counseling a student.
Although the remaining items ranked lower on the list (11 through 18), most were still valued by many respondents. For example, “detail oriented,” number 17 on the list, was identified as a most important or very important attribute by more than one-third of the respondents. The respondents also were asked to suggest skills, qualities, or attributes that were not included on the list. Respondents across the board cited a skill that can clearly give an edge to candidates for career services positions: fund raising.
The results of the survey reflect the wide range of skills, qualities, and attributes valued by and in career services directors.
One might expect that the size of the respondents’ programs (as measured by the number of students they served) would account for significant differences in the attributes they sought in a director. However, an analysis of the responses revealed only minor variations:
Directors of large programs (serving more than 15,000 students) viewed ethics, commitment to the profession, and finance skills to be of greater importance than counseling skills.
Directors of mid-sized programs (serving 3,000 to 14,999 students) cited flexibility, creativity/imagination, and team player as more important than writing skills and computer knowledge.
Directors of small programs (serving fewer than 3,000 students) regarded writing and counseling as more important than management and finance skills.
These differences make sense in that directors of large programs would deal more with “big picture” issues than their counterparts in mid-sized and small programs.
The respondents were asked to identify an entry-level professional position in their department, and to indicate the background and attributes required of candidates for that position. Positions cited by the respondents included career counselor/adviser, college coordinator, assistant director, program manager, and co-op coordinator.
Almost all of the directors of large and mid-sized programs reported that they require at least a master’s degree, preferably in college student personnel administration, counseling and guidance, or business, for many of those positions. Most also require candidates to have related full-time work experience and counseling, presentation, and computer skills.
On the other hand, nearly half of the directors of small programs indicated that they would consider entry-level candidates with a bachelor’s degree and outside work experience.
Filling director-level positions
It is apparent from the survey responses that there is a fairly broad gulf from entry- to director-level positions in career services. More than one-third of the directors of large programs expect director candidates to hold a doctorate, preferably in counseling or college student personnel administration, and have substantial experience (generally five to seven years) in career services or a closely related field. Some seek a minimum of 10 years experience including management roles.
Directors of small and mid-sized programs generally require director-level candidates to have a master’s degree and a background in counseling or another area of student services. In some cases, business experience can be a substitute. Although many of those respondents, particularly directors of the mid-sized programs, favored candidates with five years of experience, others were less demanding.
When conducting a search for a career services director, many colleges and universities involve a committee and are insistent that candidates fully meet advertised requirements. Advancing in the field clearly hinges on having the right combination of education and experience.
The wide-ranging roles of practitioners
A variety of attributes are valued in career services professionals, but do they really have a place in the field? Can a job be so varied that all of these different qualities come into play? The answer to both questions is an emphatic “yes!” The following examples illustrate and validate this point.
As part of their jobs, career services practitioners are likely to:
- Reach far outside of their functional area to build relationships with faculty, employers, students, and others.
- Get outside the “ivory tower” to stay on top of issues that affect their clients, including the changing needs of employers who recruit new college graduates.
- Apply and enhance their technical skills to deliver services and/or communicate with their constituents.
- Teach, advise, and mentor students. Despite the wealth of information available on the Internet, students still benefit from “high-touch” relationships with practitioners.
- Benchmark and maintain relationships with their colleagues in career services and counterparts in college recruiting across the country. Involvement in regional and national associations also provides practitioners with resources for meeting workplace challenges and developing leadership skills.
- Provide services that are valued by students, faculty, and others. Universities help students to develop intellectually; practitioners help them apply what they have learned.
- Exercise their creativity and imagination. Without a manual to tell them how to perform their jobs, practitioners have the freedom to develop creative new programs and resources on their campuses.
- Manage relatively complex operations that entail hiring, evaluating, and training employees; overseeing the delivery of a wide range of services; and continually doing more despite shrinking budgets.
- Multi-task. On any given day, a practitioner may advise a student in biotechnology then one in accounting, teach a class, put in time on committee work for a professional association, lunch with two recruiters from a high tech company, help organize a career fair, meet with faculty members in a social sciences discipline, conduct a workshop, and review web site modifications with a web designer. The following day could be totally different.
- Face new and exciting challenges that, ultimately, contribute to long-term career satisfaction. Many practitioners hold the same positions for 20 or more years without ever feeling that they would rather have their boss’ job.
Among their suggestions:
- Use graduate assistantships as a way to bring people into the profession, not just as a way to get work done. In selecting graduate assistants, focus on those who might be searching for a student services niche. Then expose them to the broad range of responsibilities carried out by career services.
- Provide ample training opportunities for peer mentors and interns, and treat them professionally. Similarly engage freshmen and sophomore student employees in your work, and allow them to grow with your department.
- Advise students about opportunities in career services, professionally and objectively. Practitioners often are too hesitant to point to their own field as a career option.
- Build relationships with student leaders on campus, particularly those with an interest in college student affairs careers.
- Educate corporate and government recruiters about career services. Those contemplating a career change can be excellent candidates for the field.
- Keep an eye on promising young professionals at your school, particularly in high turnover areas like admissions and residence halls. Involve them in your programs to interest them in career services.
- Establish ties to graduate students in college student personnel administration and counseling psychology. They can be strong prospects for the field. Practitioners at small schools without graduate programs can sometimes arrange with large local universities for graduate students to work with them. At large schools, the career services director may be able to become involved in course offerings.
- Hire Ph.D. candidates as graduate assistants or work with them on their doctoral research or professional internships. Counseling psychology and higher education administration are fertile ground for identifying prospects.
- Set up a table at your own career fair to promote the career services field.
- Establish a program for interested students to shadow career services professionals. Many schools arrange for students to do this off campus. Why not provide this opportunity internally?
- Promote from within. Hire degreed people for nonexempt positions and, as they prove themselves, promote them to exempt roles. Support their work toward a master’s degree while they are in the nonexempt role.
- Be imaginative. Sometimes practitioners get locked into preconceived notions about filling vacancies. Each time such an opportunity arises, give some thought as to how it might be filled. If the role of the person changes, so might the position specifications.
- Make the work environment as positive as possible. Provide young professionals with top-of-the-line computer equipment, opportunities for professional growth, and support beyond the minimum. Listen to their thoughts and ideas. Challenge them. Retention is just as important as recruitment.
- Pay top dollar. The starting pay in career services can be a substantial inhibitor to recruiting young professionals to the field. Remember that they usually have graduate degrees and they know the starting salaries of their fellow graduates in other fields.
Conclusion
Career services is a small profession, as such things are commonly measured, but practitioners touch many lives in very positive ways. Many love their work, and look forward to each day, knowing it will bring new opportunities and challenges.
One of the challenges that warrants immediate attention is the recruitment of new professionals into the field.
It’s clear from the survey findings that career services directors have certain expectations of entry- and supervisory-level practitioners. They also have definite ideas about engaging prospective colleagues in their work. The two go hand in hand. To ensure a steady flow of newcomers into the field, practitioners must first communicate their expectations to students and other candidates. Then, they must afford them the opportunity to acquire relevant and meaningful experience.