Angela is a 25-year-old energetic and highly organized professional who easily landed her dream first job in the event planning field. In her fast paced job, she helps clients determine their event logistics while managing multiple priorities with competing deadlines. However, when it comes to making decisions and taking actions regarding her next job and future career path, Angela is at a loss. She explains, “I didn’t do a job search while in college because I thought I had it all figured out. I missed the whole memo on how to do this.”
Most university career service organizations specialize in helping their graduates find their first job and most are very good at that. With extensive networks of employers seeking emerging students and an approach focused on landing that first job, graduates often effortlessly transition from school to work without breaking a sweat. However to apply a sentiment expressed in Grit to Great by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval (2015), gaining quick success may not prepare them with the skills and experience to tackle a future job search that may prove more challenging.
Angela is just such an example. She represents a group of students who successfully participated in their career services recruitment programs to obtain their first professional jobs, but three years later, they do not know how to go about finding their next opportunities. Angela explains, “All I had to do was submit my resume on the career services opportunities database, and then I met with the recruiter in the career services office. Once I received an offer, I thought I was done.” Angela did well in her internship, so she was thrilled when her supervisor offered her permanent employment after graduation. Angela reflects, “I was relieved that I had a job, and I thought I was done with the whole job search process.” But now that she’s been in her job for three years and is wondering what is next, she wishes that she had taken the time to learn how to better define her career path, find new opportunities, and build professional networks.
A big part of university career services programs include recruitment services, and these employer connections are valuable resources for both students and employers. However, the drive to quickly place as many students as possible may create a tendency to gloss over some of the more technical (and time consuming) job search strategies, skills, and activities. Some students get advice from their faculty who transitioned directly from school to academia and may be unaware of current industry trends and dynamics. Furthermore, students who go directly to graduate school may never consider their career development until they finish graduate school. Deferring these valuable and lifelong career development skills may result in a lower career trajectory.
Young professionals from both the workforce and graduate school need additional assistance to refocus their current values and interests and to learn how to align them with appropriate work opportunities and environments. While a few progressive universities offer their alumni career services for life (example, the University of Richmond), the majority do not, and such professionals are left to figure it out on their own. To avoid this trap, professionals should fully explore and develop their career strategies, skills, and approach (even if they have no intention of immediately using them). They need to develop the skills while attending university so that when the time comes, they will be in a better position to assess their position and achieve that next step with greater confidence.
It is never too late to develop the necessary career development skills. Universities offer much of their content online, which may be available to alumni. Current books published within the last five years are useful because of the rapid pace of online job searching, personal branding, algorithmic candidate screening and filtering, and professional networking. Certified professionals (referred to as Licensed Professional Counselors or LPCs) are ideal as they can often help crystallize fragmented ideas and interests into cohesive plans that can be acted on and are often more experienced with non-student populations. Just like a financial plan is essential for managing personal finances, a career plan is essential for managing professional life. The sooner you start, the sooner the career dividends will flow.
Tonya Osmond, EdD, LPC, is a Career Consultant and President of Quantum Career Consulting, LLC. With more than 20 years of career counseling experience, she is a licensed professional counselor in both Maryland and Virginia.
