May 1, 2014

Helping faculty help students prepare for life after graduation

Susan Terry and Briana Randall: UW Career Center

One of the most common questions students ask at the UW Seattle Career Center is, “What can I do with my major?” “Students really want a direction; they want to understand the connection between major and career and their place in the world,” says Susan Terry. “We need to help our students be more intentional about the choices they make. They have so little time. We know how to find the rock-star students. They find us. But we need to engage more of the students who aren’t stepping into the UW experience as readily. Faculty providing some of that guidance and mentorship is extremely useful and important.”

To that end, the Center has launched a web page to give faculty “simple ways they can introduce the idea of career or even just signal to their students that they’re open to talking about these issues,” says Briana Randall. This relatively new focus on faculty resources builds on the Center’s ongoing work with students and departmental advisers, providing general and discipline-specific information about internships, service-learning, and careers; and directly serving students through one-on-one career counseling and workshops at the Center or in academic departments.

“We are excited to be working with faculty. They are the front lines in helping students learn about and value opportunities outside of class—and in helping students connect the dots between their different kinds of learning,” says Terry. Here are some of the Center staff’s suggestions for faculty:

Quick, easy referrals from faculty and advisers can have a big impact: “Students are much more likely to take information seriously or go to an event if they hear about it from a faculty member or departmental adviser, or, best, from both,” says Randall. The Center’s online checklist includes ideas such as:

• List resources for students in the syllabus or link to them from the course website.
• Mention resources in class or share handouts such as “How Do Huskies Get Jobs?,” “Internships: What, Why, and Where?,” and “Making the Most of Your Major.”
• Encourage students to pay close attention to emails and resources from their advisers. “Advisers are a tremendous resource for faculty,” says Randall.
• Require or offer extra credit for attending a career fair or an online or in-person workshop, such as “LinkedIn 101,” “Identifying Your Strengths,” and others offered by the Center.
• Invite a career counselor or alum to visit class.

Help students start to think about life after graduation sooner rather than later: Many programs don’t talk to students about what is next until their senior year. Faculty can encourage students to prepare earlier. The UW Seattle Career Center focuses on helping students understand their interests and strengths—core characteristics that can serve them in all areas of their life—such as resiliency, persistence, or the ability to innovate. “This work will make it easier for students to plan their time at the UW and beyond, because they have a strong sense of who they are and what they can contribute to different kinds of work environments,” says Randall. Terry adds, “We counsel students that not all alumni land the ideal job that maximizes their talents right away, that often they have to work their way into that perfect position over time. At the same time we talk about the need for them to follow their strengths and not allow themselves to be trapped in something that’s not a good fit.”

Make it clear how students’ classroom experiences can help in their careers: Local and national employers say that students, especially undergraduates, are not practiced in articulating their skills, says Terry. “You really have to spell it out on the spot what type of skills students are developing in a course or major, such as problem-solving, quantitative analysis, project management, or team management, that could translate to a different course or even a different discipline,” says Terry.

 

Resources: New faculty pages on the Career Center website.

Learn More

Read the full Provost report on how to prepare students for life after graduation