Post-Secondary Archives
The Path from School to Work: Career Self-Management Behaviors and Their Allies
Nurten Karacan Ozdemir & Hakan Buyukcolpan
To understand how career service professionals can develop career management skills, researchers examined the relationship between social-emotional learning, career decision self-efficacy, vocational outcome expectations, and career engagement. Social-emotional skills were positively related to career decision self-efficacy, vocational outcome expectations, and career engagement. Career practitioners can use this research to support students’ school-to-work transitions.
Complete Article >Incorporating a Strengths-Based Approach with International Students
By Delyash Tsartsaeva and Hal Matthews
International students’ lived experiences are unique and valuable. How can career services practitioners empower this diverse student population? This article provides practitioners with storytelling strategies to assist international students as they confidently portray their strengths and build self-promotion skills.
Complete Article >Supporting Enrolled Parents in Their Post-Secondary Educational Pursuits
By Madeline Smithson
Enrolled parents face unique challenges in their post-secondary educational pursuits. Career service professionals can increase tailored support and promotion of available resources while continuing to remove barriers enrolled parents face. With the proper setup, enrolled parents can feel empowered and excited to pursue their academic endeavors.
Complete Article >From Being to Doing
By Stephanie Bluth, Ryia Steps, and Shaunda Durham
Innovative interventions promote self-efficacy and resilience. By combining theory and practice, career services professionals assist students through life transitions, create a supportive environment, and empower students to explore, learn, and adapt. The dual use of social cognitive career theory and the theory of being ultimately enhances students’ ability to thrive.
Complete Article >Amplifying the Liberal Arts Through Applied Learning
By Dana Hebreard
Experiential learning is a cornerstone in higher education, offering students opportunities to bridge academic theory with real-world practice. One university program aimed to address talent shortages, elevate liberal arts and science majors, and nurture a pipeline of skilled professionals. Career service professionals can use the lessons learned from program implementation to achieve similar outcomes.
Complete Article >What About Company Culture? Centering Organizational Fit In Job Search Conversations
By Tzigane Martin and Brooke Nelson
College students may overlook, undervalue, and omit the assessment of company culture during the job search process. Educational institutions need to encourage students to evaluate company culture so there is a better match between employees and organizations. Career development professionals can bring this topic to the forefront of their career conversations by using the activities and tools in this article.
Complete Article >S.W.E.A.T It Out: A Guide For Job Application Documents
By Dr. Jacoba L. Durrell
Career centers are a hub for job search strategies and resources. This article introduces a model to help students create job application documents and improve career development. This individualized framework aims to prepare students to enter the job market.
Complete Article >Understanding the Costs of Unpaid Internships
By Nicole A. Lilly
Internships provide valuable real-world experience for students, yet many students cannot participate in these experiential learning activities because they cannot afford to work for free. Career practitioners can help students advocate for themselves and assist employers in recognizing the importance of compensation.
Complete Article >Scaling Career Services and Advancing Student Equity
By Michelle Okada & Ariya Bhutani
Career centers have long faced the challenges of working independently to support students in preparing for the dynamic labor market. Changes in the global economy have fueled in-demand career fields. Diverse students experiencing opportunity and employment gaps need the support of career development professionals.
Complete Article >Fostering Empathetic Career Development Through Non-Violent Communication Principles
By Aysegul Zeren
The skill of empathy is vital for career services professionals as it fosters trust, open dialogue, and meaningful connections. By embracing empathy, professionals empower students, allowing them to feel heard and confident in making career choices. This article introduces Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication (NVC) principles and explores their application in the field of career development.
Complete Article >Unpacking the Hidden Curriculum of Career Services: The Cornell Career Development Toolkit
By Jessamyn Perlus and Erica Kryst
Post-secondary students grapple with career questions, yet often encounter barriers that impede their access to the campus career office. Cornell Career Services recognized a need for a comprehensive digital resource available 24/7. This article explains how the staff designed a Career Development Toolkit, gained buy-in, and promoted the resource so other institutions can create and market a similar tool for their students.
Complete Article >Facilitating Faculty Engagement in Undergraduate Career Development
By Terry Cummins and Lauren Granese
Faculty are seen as desired but underutilized advocates for undergraduate student career readiness. Career services leaders at Penn State University surveyed a sample of social sciences and humanities faculty to understand their perceptions of the importance of career development in their curriculum. Practitioners at other institutions can use the results to advance their practice and partnership with professors.
Complete Article >Career Development Strategies for Low-Income Students
By Ashlin Schoenfelder, Lori Strasburg, and Billie Streufert
Low-income students encounter common obstacles and are often an underserved population at institutions. Career services professionals can advance access to career opportunities by recognizing and responding to students’ needs. Holistic support, community partnerships, and clothing closets are common practices that career services professionals can consider. Other institutions may use the example described here to create their own clothing closet for students.
Complete Article >A Career Course for Life Science Students
By Serena L. Christianson
Many students have lifelong aspirations to work in health services or research. Given gaps in career development, a career services professional created a career planning course to help students explore more deeply their understanding of themselves, their options, and the decision-making process. After conducting a course evaluation, one institution observed benefits across common career development outcomes. Career specialists can use these findings to replicate the curriculum.
Complete Article >Integrating Career Development into Academic Advising
By Condoa Parrent
Scholars offer evidence that institutions often provide fragmented educational and vocational planning programs. Isolated conversations create redundancies, delays, or omissions in support. In response, one institution adopted new structures to integrate career topics into academic advising and maximize students’ career development.
Complete Article >Career Development & Planning: A Comprehensive Approach (7th Edition)
Book Review By Terry Cummins
A career course textbook should strike a balance between theory, applicable skills, and data, while introducing concepts like decision-making that resonate with students in different aspects of their lives. When a textbook is in its seventh edition and is written by highly experienced authors, it effectively equips students with the necessary tools to navigate their career development in the 21st century.
Complete Article >Experiential Learning and Career Services: One Institution’s Application of Kolb’s Theory
By Sarah J. Krinsky
Experiential learning is a hands-on, interactive approach to teaching. Learning at its core occurs by gaining real-world experience. Higher education institutions that foster this type of learning produce some of the most creative and engaging minds. Yet, not all colleges engage students in experiential learning. One institution empowered students to participate in ongoing experiential learning to deepen their development and future career preparation.
Complete Article >Majors are Secondary: How Do You Want to Change the World?
By Heather Nester
Career service professionals are familiar with the ongoing concern students express about their majors and careers. At one university, where career education outcomes are integrated into all undergraduate curriculum, the Challenge Mindset was used to help undecided students connect their passions and skillsets to the challenges of today’s world.
Complete Article >Tailored and Integrated Career Support for Adult Learners and Transfer Students
By Tammy Alva and Farah Remarais
Transfer students and adult learners have unique experiences and barriers within the post-secondary environment. Career services professionals are called to aid accessibility of services and resources and tailor approaches to meet students’ needs. Integrating career development throughout the students’ college experience can enhance a student’s career guidance, education, and development. Sustainable support fosters informed decisions and frames career outcomes as a lifelong process.
Complete Article >Partnering with Faculty to Support Career Development of Diverse Populations Using Positive Psychology and Self-Assessment
By Cathi Curen & Jennifer Henriquez
A highly diverse university may seek faculty support to aid in career readiness. Combining the tools of positive psychology and self-assessment in a classroom setting can further contribute to student professional development. As a result of aligning student coursework, career centers and faculty can further facilitate the development of self-confidence and assist students in an understanding of their unique skill sets.
Complete Article >Portfolio Careers After Postsecondary Education: Encouraging Students to Consider a Test Drive
By Gloria Dansby-Giles
There are pros and cons of pursuing portfolio careers. Portfolio work may be necessary when dealing with a volatile economy or unstable career field. Career services professionals at postsecondary institutions can use the resources in this article to assist students who are turning to portfolio careers.
Complete Article >Understanding Unique Challenges of International Students in Arts and Humanities in Gaining Work Experience
By Haihong Chen
International students are eager to obtain work experience during and after their studies in the United States, yet those in arts and humanities majors often face unique challenges related to the current work regulations. Career professionals who work with this population can use creative strategies to support students as they job search in the United States and develop global career competencies.
Complete Article >Creating Campus Partnerships at the Intersection of Career Services and Academic Advising
By Brian Neighbors and Amanda Cox
Career services professionals and academic advisors are common first points of contacts for students seeking career advice. However, only some academic advisors may possess the theoretical foundation to hold career conversations. One university's career coaching program provides academic advisors the opportunity to practice using career strategies and tools with students.
Complete Article >Mapping the Future of Undergraduate Career Education: Equitable Career Learning, Development, and Preparation in the New World of Work
Book review by Lisa Novack
Critical issues in undergraduate career education prompted the need for an exploration of paradigms and development of strategies. Three editors and twenty-one authors combined their expertise to share the landscape of career education and the world of work, the critical considerations of inclusion and equity, paradigm shifts, and experiential learning, into one new book.
Complete Article >Higher Education Orientations: Assessing the Reasons for Attending College
By Tirza Willner, Yuliya Lipshits-Braziler, and Itamar Gati
The Higher Education Orientation (HEO) questionnaire is a free, anonymous, online assessment of an individual's purpose in attaining a college degree. The textual and graphic feedback assists young adults and career services professionals in understanding the reasons behind the choice to attend college and subsequently identify majors that match their orientations.
Complete Article >Serving Our First-Generation University Students
By Donna Montoya
More than 50% of undergraduates in the U.S. are first-generation students. First-generation students encounter unique challenges that post-secondary career services professionals must address. If they ground their strategies in research, career practitioners can effectively support first-generation students.
Complete Article >Best Practices for Engaging Diverse College Students in Career Development
By Peggy Brady-Amoon and Marie S. Hammond
As the profession has moved into the 21st century, the emphasis in career counseling and guidance has shifted from a focus on assessment to a more holistic approach to career development. This article provides information to help career professionals provide more individualized and culturally appropriate services given today’s diverse college student population.
Complete Article >Collaborative Strategies for Career Services and Local Chamber of Commerce
By Denise Guzzetta and Billie Streufert
When it comes to post-secondary career services, most practitioners find themselves navigating lean budgets, short staff, and ambitious objectives from senior leadership. Techniques career specialists can use to multiply resources and deliver excellent career education are needed. Partnering with local Chamber of Commerce and economic development foundations are two collaborative options.
Complete Article >Graduate Peer Engagement in Career Development
By Fatim Lelenta
Graduate students face a variety of transitions, challenges, and milestones throughout their academic programs. As graduate students prepare for careers outside of or within academia, they can benefit from peer discussions on navigating the job market and the career development process. This article explores the benefits of group career support and strategies for supporting this population throughout their career development.
Complete Article >Preparing Emirati Youth for the Future World of Work
By Hiba Khayata
The world of work is rapidly changing globally. As practitioners respond, they can enhance their practice through cultural exchange and by learning about the effective strategies deployed by other countries. To that end, this article highlights ways the United Arab Emirates has proactively responded to anticipated shifts in its economy. Career specialists can implement similar initiatives as they formulate their response to the same challenges.
Complete Article >New Landscape Makes Way for New Opportunities to Engage Student-Athletes
By Valerie Ayer and Matt Darby
Student-athletes face many challenges upon their arrival on campus. In addition to trying to become successful student-athletes, they face recent state and federal legislation, which has triggered a seismic shift in collegiate athletics. Athletic departments are exploring external resources to create holistic programming to meet new needs. This article provides strategies for career services to reach an often hard-to-engage population.
Complete Article >Narrative/Constructivism for AI-based interviews: A Practical Application to Prepare Job Candidates
By Alan Jones and Nathan Mondragon
The capabilities of narrative/constructivist career development theory are uniquely suited for new recruiting technologies that use artificial intelligence. Practitioners of this approach can use the language generated in sessions to provide new perspectives to clients to advance their job searches.
Complete Article >Addressing Student Stress in the Job Search Process: A Collaborative Effort between the Career and Counseling Offices
By Krystle Forbes
Career specialists are uniquely positioned to collaborate with their colleagues in counseling centers to reduce the distress of students engaged in the job search. The Michigan School of Public Health advanced students’ well-being through a Careers Office and Counseling and Psychological Services’ (CAPS) workshop specifically focused on responding to graduate students’ stress related to the career search process. Other career specialists can replicate the model on their own campus to ensure their students’ well-being.
Complete Article >Understanding Intersectionality and Using Career-Life Interventions to Empower First-Generation Students of Color
By Jonique R. Childs and Edward Anthony Colozzi
First-generation college students of color encounter an intersectionality of racial barriers that impede their ability to make informed career and life choices. Practitioners can help students succeed by encouraging an examination of barriers and positive life events and creating effective process-oriented, career-life counseling interventions.
Complete Article >Scaffolding Career Curriculum in the University Setting
By Patrick Akos, Bryant Hutson and Stephenie McIntyre
Scholars have consistently demonstrated the value of credit-bearing career development courses. Some institutions have yet to adopt these best practices. All should evaluate their current model and assess its impact on students. In this article, faculty and career specialists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill describe recent revisions of their curriculum and the positive effect it had on students’ learning and development.
Complete Article >The Power of Peer Connections and Learning through Cohort-Based Career and Professional Development Groups
By Satomi Yaji Chudasama
Career specialists are uniquely positioned to empower students to take ownership of their career journeys and practice accountability while helping to create a support system. This article introduces the cohort-based career and professional development groups.
Complete Article >Helping Students of Color Develop their Authentic Professional Selves
By Amber Samuels
Post-secondary career practitioners are charged with setting students of color up for success as well as attending to and affirming the multiplicity of their identities. Professionalism standards, however, require students of color to suppress key markers of identity and adhere to White standards in order to be deemed acceptable. The purpose of this article is to provide career practitioners with tools to help students of color develop their authentic professional selves.
Complete Article >An Insider’s Perspective: Medical School Advisor Tips on Preparing Pre-Medical Students
By Lisa Cardello, Ferin Ford, Nicholas LaTorre, and Chantal Vergara
Career specialists working in the undergraduate setting have a unique opportunity to prepare pre-med students with impactful skills and strategies that will later promote success in medical school. Such strategies in a variety of areas are described, with insight offered from advisors working in a medical school setting.
Complete Article >Seeking a Career in Social and Political Change at a Time of Global Disruption
By David J. Smith
College students seeking to make a significant change in their communities often struggle to incorporate that need into career objectives. Opportunities abound for aspiring change makers to apply their talents, knowledge, and enthusiasm. However, practitioners may fail to encourage specific steps that optimize the merger of interests with meaningful careers.
Complete Article >Serving International Graduate Students in the Context of COVID-19 and Social Justice Awakening in the United States
By Paola A. Barriga
Institutions that host international graduate students gain diverse cross-cultural perspectives. COVID-19, however, has exacerbated the challenges these students face. Career practitioners can assist students by assessing their financial support, adviser assignment, career perspectives, holistic experiences, and mental health status.
Complete Article >Career Counseling and Decision-making for Latinx Transfer Students
By Paolo Varquez
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the career and major decision-making process, the role of institutional agents in students' career decision making, and their experiences with counselors, particularly with career counseling during time as students at a community college for 13 Latinx transfer students. This article includes a summary of the research background, thematic results, and recommendations for practitioners.
Complete Article >Advising Students on Writing Personal Statements for Law School
By Lauren Dropkin
When it comes to personal statements for law school, not all essays are created equal. Career practitioners need to be equipped with the knowledge needed to empower students to construct compelling content and avoid common mistakes. They can ask specific questions to guide students through this process.
Complete Article >Integrating Mindset and Happenstance Learning Theory in a Post-Secondary Setting
By Rachael C. Marshall and Erin Bennett
The world of work is constantly evolving just as workers are changing. Career professionals in a post-secondary setting will need to create space in career advising and counseling sessions to allow students to grow in mindset and better understand the world of work. Mindset integrated with Happenstance Learning Theory can help students adjust and grow in uncertain times.
Complete Article >Guides on the Side: Taking the Stress Out of the College Major Decision-Making Process
By Tricia Zelaya-Leon
For many college students, the decision to choose a major is fraught with anxiety because of a deep-seated belief that it will dictate future employment and success. Fortunately, employers are identifying competencies that graduates should possess to be successful regardless of major. A peer mentor program can help first-year students make educated decisions about their major and career plans.
Complete Article >Insider Tips for Creating a Successful Virtual Event
By Aimee Tejeda Lunn
Many college career centers have taken to utilizing virtual platforms to continue to engage students, connect them to potential employers, and develop career learning opportunities. This article focuses on five applicable tips when developing an online career learning activity, focusing on the purpose of the virtual event, target audience, logistics involved, marketing tips, and the importance of post reflection.
Complete Article >[Recognition Award Winner] Cultural Blind Spots in Career Counseling with International Students
By Satomi Yaji Chudasama
Cultural differences encountered by international students during the job search process are evident. What about cultural differences that should be considered while providing career counseling to this group? This article explores cultural blind spots that are easily overlooked by counselors. [Editor's Note: This article was recognized by NCDA in 2010 for the author's contribution to the web magazine. Career Convergence is re-running the article in July 2020 in honor of all award winners typically recognized at the annual NCDA Global Career Development Conference.]
Complete Article >Increasing Commuter and Non-traditional Students' Engagement in Career Counseling through Virtual Chat
By Tiffany Bitting and Priyanka Raut
Practitioners may need to increase accessibility of services for commuter and non-traditional students. Online or virtual career services achieve this objective. Given the current modified delivery of services on most campuses, this also benefits all students. As a result of a pilot program, the University of Houston presents best practices and recommendations for other institutions considering virtual chat services.
Complete Article >Practical Strategies and Evidence-Based Approaches to COVID-19: One Institution’s Response
By Billie Streufert and Mark Blackburn
Post-secondary career practitioners teach students to navigate transitions and vocational uncertainty. COVID-19 amplified this curriculum. Fortunately, practitioners can use theory and research to guide their practices. This ensures compassionate, proactive, equitable, and comprehensive responses.
Complete Article >Engaging Faculty: Strategies for College Career Services
By Clemente I. Diaz and Valeria Diaz
Reports indicate that students view faculty as the most valuable source of career advice. Our survey identified how faculty currently incorporate career-related themes into their courses, why they may not focus on student career development, and what services/resources they would like college career services to provide faculty. The results from this survey may be useful for engaging and developing faculty buy-in.
Complete Article >Home Field Advantage: Emphasizing Cultural Strengths in Student-Athletes
By Ryan Sides, Carley Peace, and Avery Knipfing
Student-athletes face unique barriers and often do not believe they are competent to overcome them. The purpose of this article is to identify culturally specific resources that could improve student-athletes’ career development.
Complete Article >The Peace Corps Experience: Impact on Student Career Development
By K. Richard Pyle
The Peace Corps is a two-year cross-cultural international poverty experience. It impacts career development by developing critical transferable skills resulting in career successes that exceed a cohort group and Fullbright scholars. The career services practitioner can share insights with students on how the adjustment process and the skills gained from coping with a different environment and culture relate to career development.
Complete Article >What Does "Career Competencies" Mean to You? Redefining Them via Your Own Voice
By Gaeun Seo and Heather Fortenberry
This article introduces two successfully implemented career interventions that enabled students to not only connect their daily campus experience with the NACE career readiness competencies but also reconstruct them with their own language. The authors also share their lessons learned that career development professionals could use in their settings to empower students.
Complete Article >Career Check Up: Implementing a Campus-Wide Screening to Assess Students’ Career Needs
By Jessamyn Perlus and Nicholas Debernardi
Career concerns are abundant on college campuses but there are few system-wide efforts to help students identify and plan their career development needs. This article discusses the development and implementation of an annual campus-wide career development screening day. At this event, students complete a brief questionnaire and receive information pertaining to their career development needs.
Complete Article >Career Reintegration Strategies for Pre and Post-International Experiences of College Students
By Satomi Yaji Chudasama
With a number of higher education institutions encouraging their students to gain international experiences, how could career development professionals help these students maximize their experiences? This article explores this question by offering strategies to support students interning, volunteering, working and studying overseas before their departure and after returning home.
Complete Article >A Career Exploration Model for Connecting with Underserved Students
By Sylvia Withers
Early and ongoing career exploration interventions were launched to improve the relationships with first-generation students and ethnic minorities to clarify students’ career paths and decisions. These early and frequent career conversations improved students’ level of connection and decreased concerns that might hinder their success. Practitioners are encouraged to replicate these relationships to foster student persistence and engagement.
Complete Article >Stacking the Deck: Using Gamified Learning to Make Career and Major Exploration First-Generation Friendly
By Kerry Lay and Karley Clayton
As higher education professionals work with Generation Z, they may need to rethink approaches to career development. Research suggests using gamification in the classroom keeps this generation more engaged and enhances learning outcomes. This article discusses how gamified activities were used in first year seminars to introduce major and career exploration and provides strategies for gamifying similar concepts.
Complete Article >The Role of Career Services in First-Gen Student Success
By Christine Albright
First-generation college students represent a significant portion of individuals seeking higher education in the United States, yet they face many barriers that hinder success. The Office of Career Services sits in the perfect position to assist first-generation college students. However, to be effective we must first understand their needs and struggles.
Complete Article >Accessible Experiential Learning: The Key to Student Success in the Future of Work
By Lindsay Purchase
A growing chorus of voices is calling for expanded experiential learning to help students develop necessary skills to thrive in the future world of work. However, to be successful, experiential learning must be accessible and linked to reflection on skills.
Complete Article >From University to Employment: Perfectionism in International Students Living in the United States
By Terah Davis & Thommi Lawson
Using multicultural-inclusive theoretical orientations, research, and best practices, this article aims to provide practice recommendations for career and college counselors working with international students who seek employment in the United States. Effective strategies for meeting the career development needs of international students upon graduation from an American post-secondary institution are explored.
Complete Article >Preparing Students for Career Success: Exposing Students to Online Interviewing
By Errick D. Farmer and Sundra D. Kincey
This article focuses on the importance of college career advisors and faculty members keeping pace with the changing landscape of job interviews. Specifically we explore methods for preparing students to succeed in virtual interviews, using technology and online interactions as the primary medium for securing jobs and internships.
Complete Article >Are Campus Offices Prepared to Work Collaboratively with Families?
By Chelsea Petree and Janine Rowe
While parents of college students provide needed support to student development, many offices are not prepared to work collaboratively with family members. This article includes information and tips from a successful partnership between the Parent & Family Programs office and Office of Career Services at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Complete Article >Paving the Way through Career Exploration
By David McCall
The PAVE2 model is a framework for helping undecided students at different stages of development with the career exploration process through a systematic and deliberate approach.
Complete Article >Helping Clients Who Feel Like Impostors
By Jessamyn Perlus
The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) – feeling like a fraud, as if success is due to luck or error – can substantially hinder a career. This article, based on a study of graduate student women, covers how to recognize IP and assist clients impeded by impostor beliefs.
Complete Article >Career Challenges Kuwaiti Youth Face
By Sheetal S. Swamy
Providing young Kuwaiti nationals career development guidance can lay the foundation to a fruitful career journey. Addressing the career challenges faced by Kuwaiti youth will promote economic growth of the nation.
Complete Article >Peer Consultation: A Best Practice for Career Development Professionals
By Lanie Damon and Kim Meredith
Many remarkable benefits have come from a collegial commitment between two long-time career development colleagues to write a career development related article for publication. In this article, we share our story as consulting peers in hopes that it will be an impetus for your own practice and career development.
Complete Article >Choosing a Career in International Development
Book Review by Mason Murphy
Planning for working in the field of international development can take multiple steps. Russell outlines a practical process to facilitate exploration that counselors can utilize when working with clients. He draws on his many years of experience by using anecdotes and stories to build a connection with readers.
Complete Article >Associate’s Degree or Industry Certification: Helping Students Select the Right Credential to Meet Employer Needs
By Marcus Williams
This article explores the practicality and employability of two-year college degrees and industry recognized credentials. The majority of marketing and academic advising at community colleges is focused on degree completion and much less attention is paid to the usefulness of industry recognized certifications. Training and culture at most institutions will need to change in order to address employer needs.
Complete Article >What I Learned About Internships from Being an Intern
By Craig Ames
Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish I had known that before I started.” After struggling through finding, acquiring, and working in a mental health counseling internship, I have ended with a Top Five list of things to know and do, including starting early and being humble.
Complete Article >Symphonies in a Garage
By Charles Orlowek
Preparation for a technical career may boost an individual’s economic prospects, but the idea may also clash with one’s hopes for an intuitive and artistic life. Have career development professionals noted this or is it a false dilemma? People can have both, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Such a life is being lived by service technicians in Chicago, as they listen to symphonies while repairing cars.
Complete Article >Learning from a Career Course over 45 Years
By Robert Reardon and Janet Lenz
The comprehensive career course at our university has been in continuous operation since 1972. This course is cost-effective, represents an institutional commitment to student career services, and reveals lessons about its effectiveness as a career intervention that students pay for.
Complete Article >Promoting Student Well-Being and Mental Health: the Career Center’s Role
By Michelle Tullier
Student well-being and mental health are serious issues. This article is a call to action for career centers to examine the role we may unintentionally play in a stressful culture and suggests ways we can more intentionally help shift the climate to a healthy balance of well-being and career success outcomes.
Complete Article >Supporting the Career Exploration of College Sophomores
By Billie Streufert and Ann Rosendale
Most sophomore college students want help assessing their career choice and voice a desire to gain experience. Although many have declared majors by this time, they continue to evaluate options and seek career information. This article outlines a highly successful weekend sophomore retreat discussing vocation, service and purposeful work, plus guidelines for planning a similar event.
Complete Article >Working Learners Need Better Access to Career Advising: How and Why to Take Your Services Online
By Autumn Collins, Shalom Bond and Marty Apodaca
Forty percent of undergraduates work at least 30 hours weekly while 19% have children. Online walk-ins are an efficient method to provide these working learners access to personal career advising. In this article we explain why and how to implement a successful program of online walk-ins at your career center.
Complete Article >What Color is Your Parachute? 2017: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers
Book Review by Earl J. Berksteiner
One of the most widely acclaimed career development and job search books ever written, What Color Is Your Parachute? has been through an annual revision every year since 1970 – a total of 47 years! The material in the book has been updated and changed with the times, making the book as extremely valuable a resource in 2017 as it was in 1970. Despite the sad death of Bolles in March 2017, the 2018 book will carry on the legacy.
Complete Article >Career Development & Planning: A Comprehensive Approach (5th edition)
Book Review by Dawn Friedman and Brian Montalvo
Reardon, Lenz, Peterson, and Sampson bring over 115 years of combined professional experience in career theory and practice at the college level to the 5th edition of Career Development & Planning: A Comprehensive Approach. See what’s been updated, read a short interview with the lead author, and learn how it can impact your institution’s delivery of career services.
Complete Article >Integrative Approaches to Engage Student-Athletes in Career Development
By Kathleen Mannheimer
Student-athletes often struggle with unique career development issues related to expanding their successful athletic identities to include career and life goals. This article highlights how a university career development professional integrates with the teams to co-create learning opportunities and utilize multi-dimensional approaches to engage student-athletes in building new skills and perspectives.
Complete Article >The Power of Personal Experience
By Mary A. Fitzgerald
This article focuses on how a new career development professional uses her recent career transition to assist her community college career center clients. These tips can be easily applied in other post-secondary settings as well.
Complete Article >Supporting Self-Reliant Military and Veteran Students in Career Development Services Utilization
By Sarah M. Terry
This article addresses the challenges of delivering career services to military and veteran students who are accustomed to the military’s cultural value of self-sufficiency. Common reasons for hesitation to utilize resources are explored. Suggestions for encouraging military and veteran students to utilize career services are also addressed.
Complete Article >The Rewards and Challenges of Writing a Career Services Blog
By Chris Magnuson
Creating and writing a career services blog for a student audience can be a challenge. There is a lot to learn about blogging, both technically and artistically, yet the rewards outshine the challenges, both for your students and your career services department.
Complete Article >Balancing Between Dreams and Reality: Practical Suggestions Originating from Motivational Interviewing
By Shékina Rochat
Due to the constraints of reality, career counselors often have to moderate their clients’ aspirations. However, this process is uneasy, as it may dishearten clients and jeopardize the counseling relationship. This article highlights how adopting an evocative stance based on motivational interviewing principles is likely to help career counselors find a balance between encouraging dreams and taking reality into account.
Complete Article >Peace Jobs: A Student’s Guide to Starting a Career Working for Peace
Book Review by Mason Murphy
David Smith brings 30 years of experience in peacebuilding and peace education to this book. He uses student success stories to demonstrate the practicality of getting both internships and full-time positions. The book is filled with career resources, job titles and a glossary of terms which will be useful to both students and counselors.
Complete Article >Using the MBTI in Education in the Way It Was Designed
By Rich Thompson
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment’s widespread use in education has given rise to debate about its application and value. To determine whether the MBTI is an effective tool for your particular setting, examine its scientific basis and the purpose for which it was designed - helping people understand themselves and others.
Complete Article >Creating and Expanding Transfer Pathways for Community Colleges: The Hawai`i Model
By Gemma A. Williams
Kapi`olani Community College and the University of Hawai`i at Manoa faced a joint challenge when only 12% of the community college students were earning a credential after six years. A Degree Partnership Program with a focus on collaboration and student success made a huge difference in a few short years.
Complete Article >“Isn’t It Personal?” Strategies for Feedback and Grading in Career Development Coursework
By Susan Krug Friedman and Kristen Tompkins
Experiential work gives students the chance to explore varied angles of a subject and to use resources beyond an established syllabus, which is especially appropriate in a class dealing with career and human resource development. This article focuses on challenges and strategies relating to evaluating student work in a talent management class.
Complete Article >Creative and Collaborative Considerations for a College Career Center
By Kristy Magee
How do we capture students’ attention on a limited budget while living in an instantaneous social media driven society? Consider these career center initiatives based on creativity and collaboration.
Complete Article >A GCDF Final Project Turned Call to Action: Supporting Transfer Students at Four Year Institutions
By Amanda C. Sargent
Transfer students comprise a significant part of the U.S. college student population, but may not receive customized services to effectively support their career development post-transfer. This article describes how one NCDA member used her Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) final project to identify a need and propose solutions for career services to better serve transfer students.
Complete Article >Placing the Relationship First: Connecting with College Students and Alumni in a Distracted World
By Adam Mayer
This article provides relationship-building strategies for working with college students and alumni. Higher education professionals are offered concrete suggestions designed to build meaningful relationships. Areas of focus include the art of being present, leading by example, virtual relationship-building, and identifying qualities employers seek.
Complete Article >Students’ Hierarchy of Résumé Needs
By Melanie Diffey
This twist on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs allows career practitioners to tackle the necessary task of critiquing résumés without missing teachable moments. Practitioners can assist clients and bolster job seeker confidence without the temptation to focus solely on “correcting” the résumé, thereby fostering a relationship for future guidance opportunities.
Complete Article >Addressing Change in Career Direction
By Maximillian Matthews
Because professional fulfillment is of the utmost importance to Millennials, these young workers are job hopping more than any other generation. This article explores how career counselors can work with Millennial students who are interested in changing career direction and help them to develop a thoughtful process in doing so.
Complete Article >Making Career Information Stick
By Kim Matteson
Follow these four simple tips to apply some of the principles from the Heath brothers' book “Made to Stick” in your next group presentation to really get your audience to pay attention and remember what you say!
Complete Article >Solving Problems That Matter (And Getting Paid For It): STEM Careers in Social Innovation and Global Sustainable Development
Book Review by Patrick Lennahan
With 54 expert briefs and 100 profiles of STEM innovators, this book can truly show readers how to earn a living while changing the world. Written for students, faculty, advisors, and professionals already in STEM careers or on their way, this is one guide that should be accessible to all.
Complete Article >From Self-Assessment to Action Plan
By Squeak Stone
For many students it is a struggle to move from reviewing the results of a self-assessment through career exploration to planning a course of action to achieve career goals. This article shares a systematic process for assisting students in higher education to use their assessments to start building an action plan
Complete Article >NCDA Recognizes its Members for their Service and Achievements: A look at the Winners of the Service to International Students Award
By Sheri Young
This article presents a look at the innovative programs from Purdue University and Indiana University Kelley School of Business, both winners of the NCDA Service to International Students Award. The NCDA Awards offer members an opportunity to recognize the successes of our community. With 13 categories to choose from, please nominate yourself or other members for their work in our field.
Complete Article >An Approach to Career Services / Academic Integration
By Esther Wallen
Career Services is often reduced to a limited platform of resume reviews, career fairs, and checking a box when students are “placed.” But what if academics and career services were integrated? This article explores a new career services delivery approach by identifying potential areas for integration through academic partnerships.
Complete Article >The O*NET – Your GPS to Career Success
By Earl J. Berksteiner
Many career development personnel and jobseekers are not fully aware of the advantages provided by the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), an online database from the US Department of Labor. This article metaphorically relates the O*NET to the Global Positioning System (GPS) because both of them are used for guidance and includes a synopsis of some of the applications available to O*NET users.
Complete Article >Applying Counseling Theory to Pedagogy
By Payton J. Jones
Many career professionals are called upon to teach. However, the personal nature of career counseling is often lost in a sizable classroom. Teachers can best adapt by encouraging personal interaction, emphasizing real-world experience, and empowering students.
Complete Article >Assisting College Students with Career Planning After Denial of Admission to Their Pre-Professional Programs
By Meghan Huyghe Veltri
Competitive and selective admission for pre-professional programs is forcing growing numbers of students to re-evaluate their career plans. This article will examine the grieving process that can occur during such career transitions and how advisors can assist students in their new professional journeys.
Complete Article >Planning Your Career, the “Meal” Way!
By Aya El-Mir
One thing that most young college students can agree on is their fascination with fast food. A popular Western fast food restaurant in Beirut, Lebanon is ROADSTER. When speaking with a group of college sophomores, I capitalized on this passion to introduce them to the importance of career planning.
Complete Article >Strategic Directions For Career Services Within The University Setting
Book Review By Amanda C. Sargent
With national developments shining a spotlight on accountability and return on investment in higher education, career services professionals are experiencing a revolutionary time for service delivery at the post-secondary level. This article presents a critical review of the insights and projections for the future of career services in the university setting compiled for the newest installment of "New Directions for Student Services".
Complete Article >ADA University: A Model of Higher Education Institution–Business Cooperation
By Gulnur Ismayil
ADA University (Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy) focuses on preparing students for a rewarding and accomplished future. This preparation includes exposing its students to ADA’s ample resources for career and leadership development throughout their program of study. Both coursework and professional career development are tailored to best leverage their strengths and interests in school and beyond, where business enterprises are welcome to take an active part.
Complete Article >Examining the Skill Seeker Framework for Career Development
By Laura Brogdon and James M. DeVita
This project examined the application of the Skill Seeker framework in a student summer internship in a corporate setting. Students demonstrated growth in all seven areas identified within the Skill Seeker framework. Multiple measures revealed that while all skills were developed through students’ internship experiences, certain skills (i.e., Communication and Interpersonal) were found to be crucial to development in other areas.
Complete Article >Job Skills and LinkedIn: Where's the Connection?
By Mike Parchinski
Industry-related LinkedIn groups can provide important information about the correct work skills required for a specific job. This article describes the author’s use of LinkedIn as part of a job search to indirectly interact with people currently working in a specific industry. The purpose is to show how a job seeker, particularly a college graduate, can follow a similar LinkedIn approach to obtain valuable information necessary for conducting a productive job search.
Complete Article >Employer Relations and Recruitment: An Essential Part of Postsecondary Career Services
Book Review by Mark Colvenbach
Reaching out, connecting to, and partnering with the employer community is a crucial part of the role of career service providers in higher education. Such programs and relationships will inform the future of our profession, but also the students we serve and the institutions within which we work. This NCDA monograph provides a detailed overview of what we all need to know about the current face of employer relations and recruiting.
Complete Article >Study Abroad: Guiding Students to Demonstrate Skills To Employers
By Sheri Young and Donna Remington
Career advisors need practical tools to help students demonstrate global and career skills gained through study abroad. Through collaboration with the Study Abroad office, career advisors can achieve these goals with a student population that may not connect study abroad with career skills.
Complete Article >Professional Communication: Teaching Students to Use Email Effectively
By Dori Peleg Mazor
While most of today’s college students have used email since a very young age, they are often unfamiliar with the conventions of professional email use. Career development practitioners can help by providing explicit instruction about tone, professionalism, word choice, and clarity. Instruction comes alive when students are given the opportunity to write and critique messages addressing common workplace scenarios and to discuss situations in which face-to-face communication is preferable.
Complete Article >Crossing the Cultural Bridge: Coaching International Students to Prepare for Job Interviews
By Xi Yu
This article illustrates relevant cultural variations that may have an impact on the ability of international students to succeed in job interviews in the United States. It also provides recommendations for career counselors to reduce students’ frustration with interviewing and for coaching international students to prepare effectively.
Complete Article >Cultural Blind Spots in Career Counseling with International Students
By Satomi Yaji Chudasama
Cultural differences encountered by international students during the job search process are evident. What about cultural differences that should be considered while providing career counseling to this group? This article explores cultural blind spots that are easily overlooked by counselors. [Eds. Note: This article originally appeared here in May 2009. It is being repeated in celebration of Career Convergence's All Conference issue. See NCDA NEWS for more details.]
Complete Article >STEMs to Flowers: A Grassroots Approach to a Career Mentor Program for Female Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Students
By Zoe Sullivan
With the governmental push for the advancement of the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields within education, career services professionals must provide adequate programming for future STEM professionals. This article outlines the structure for such a program, rooted in a framework aimed at providing specialized support systems for students pursuing the STEM fields.
Complete Article >Navigating the Path to a Teaching Job: Uncover the Areas of Influence
By Amy Szymaszek and Peter Titlebaum
Today’s prospective teachers learn about resume development and job interviews from various sources with limited knowledge of the employer’s wants. Understanding the human resources perspective, we will summarize the areas of potential influence—networking, portfolio development, resume drafting, professional development, and self-branding—to bridge the gap between theory and successful employment.
Complete Article >Infusing Career Development into your Work-Study Program
By Toni-Anne Nhotsoubanh
Many students enter college work-study jobs with the mindset of making money, but so much more can be learned from this valuable experience. We re-examined how the Career and Transfer Center manages work-study assignments and transformed this job referral program to infuse career development activities.
Complete Article >Using The Career Sailboat Model to Facilitate Career Planning and Decision-Making with Young Adults
By Fidan Korkut-Owen, Fatma Arici, Selen Demirtas-Zorbaz & Tansu Mutlu
The Career Sailboat Model (CSM) was developed based on individual/personal, social, political, economic, legal and system related, and chance factors that influence career choice. In the model, metaphorically, the career choice process was presented as a journey by a sailboat. Individuals were encouraged to explore their goals as the destination or port at the end of a long sailing voyage.
Complete Article >Green and Sustainability Jobs and Career Resources
By Debra Rowe
Students’ interest in green and sustainability career pathways has never been greater. Our urgent societal challenges require an educated public willing to engage in solutions. This article provides a definition of green and sustainability jobs and explains the pervasiveness of these career opportunities. National networks and an extensive collection of job listings and career pathways resources are provided.
Complete Article >Unleash Your Dreams: The Importance of the Big Question in Career Development
By Rhonda Priest
The importance of timely and intentional examination of a student’s life goals, beyond their educational and occupational pursuits, is critical to their overall career success and requires one essential question be posed to each student.
Complete Article >Encouraging Advocacy: From the beginning of the career process to the negotiation table
By Erin Perdue
History shows we have made strides in advocacy for women in the workplace in the United States, but all students, regardless of gender, need our professional reassurance and guidance throughout the career development process. In this article, a brief history of social justice for women in the workplace is discussed in relation to encouraging students to be their own advocates as they enter today’s workforce.
Complete Article >Success Seminar: Developing a Job Search Preparation Class for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
By Janine Rowe
College students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) may experience difficulties with the job search process. “Success Seminar” prepares students with ASD for their job search by training students on effective search strategies and providing practice making small talk, reading body language, interviewing, and networking.
Complete Article >What is Your “Hire Score”?
By Karen Kowal
“What is Your Hire Score” is a simple assessment given to college students, used to inform them of what they need to do before graduation to obtain a job. It is a self-scored tool, written using their terms, and is to the point about what employers look for.
Complete Article >A Field-Based Strategy for Developing Successful Career Programs
by Robert Reardon, Ph.D.
This article describes the experience of a comprehensive university career center in instituting policies and procedures to improve the effectiveness of new programs. Included is a detailed 13-step Request for Proposal outline for a developer to use. In honor of NCDA's 100th anniversary, Career Convergence is publishing articles of historical significance. This month, our web magazine is reprinting articles from our debut issue in 2003.
Complete Article >Career and Leadership Development: A Paradigm Shift for College Career Centers
By Linda Domenitz
This article describes how a state funded urban community college career center created a systematic way to cross-fertilize the work of the Academic and Student Services Divisions through a program developing students with leadership ambition, all without additional financial burden or increased human resources.
Complete Article >Partnering with Families to Promote Career Exploration and Development
By Billie Streufert
Whether it is career aspirations, engaging in exploration, or job search strategies, parents often have great influence on students’ career choices. This article examines opportunities for higher education professionals to partner with family members to advance the career exploration and development of students.
Complete Article >Transitioning College Students with Asperger’s Syndrome to the World of Work: Implications for Career Counselors
By Abiola Dipeolu and Cassandra A. Storlie
Transition services for post college employment are essential for the success of students with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) on college campuses. This article will introduce considerations for AS college students transitioning to the world of work and provide tools for career counselors to use with this unique population.
Complete Article >Developing a Large-Scale Informational Interviewing Event Using a Speed-Dating Format
By Leigh Eskin
Students in broad majors are struggling to find career direction. Through an informational event coordinated with the Psychology Department, students were able to explore various career options and speak with leaders in fields of interest. Read about the development, implementation, and feedback from this event so you can create a similar event for your students.
Complete Article >College Career Counseling: Making an Authentic Connection
By Lashay Taylor
Do you find yourself getting frustrated with feeling distant from your student or client? Students will often informally mention certain things that cause them to not open up and share their story. This article offers some tips on how you can assess the source of disconnection and ways to enhance the client/counselor relationship. Learning to solidify this connection is particularly important for graduate students and new professionals.
Complete Article >From Underprepared to Gifted: Helping All College Students Achieve their Career Dreams
By Justina Farley and Amber Hughes
College career counselors see students from across the spectrum, from underprepared to gifted. Given the unique needs of these groups, counselors should use different interventions to help students achieve their career dreams. We will describe these populations, briefly describe constructivist methods for addressing their needs, and present creative tools to add to your counseling toolbox.
Complete Article >Career Counseling First-Generation Students at a South African University: Reflections On Challenges and Successes
By Marquard Timmey & Vera Chapman
A South African career counselor shares his experiences working with first-generation college students in a historically white university environment. Read more to discover the striking similarities between his experiences and what many university career counselors face here in the United States.
Complete Article >Using Pinterest to Make Career Development Learning Interesting to College Students
By Vera V. Chapman
This article describes how career services professionals may use the new visually rich virtual pin board, Pinterest, to creatively share career development information with college students. Strategies are discussed to make students aware of ways to best use Pinterest in self- and career exploration, personal branding, and job searching.
Complete Article >Counseling Students Who Need a “Plan B”
By Billie Streufert
Many students need to change career paths or plans after they receive some bad news. Some are rescinded from their chosen degree field or are declined job offers. This article will outline specific techniques to help these students discover alternative occupations and persist in college or the job search.
Complete Article >You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career
Book Review by Kate Juhl
Do you work with liberal arts students or graduates? Are you familiar with “The Question?” Katharine Brooks’s interactive guide uses chaos theory to help liberal arts students chart their next career moves.
Complete Article >The Informational Interview: It’s Just About Having Coffee
By Jennifer Vancil
As career development professionals, we often tell our clients to conduct “informational interviews,” but do they really know what that means? Our responsibility is to lower the stakes and remove the fear from this situation. It’s a first date, not a marriage proposal, and it’s simply about making conversation and asking questions.
Complete Article >The First Year Graduate Student Experience at Florida State University
By Leigh Eskin
Choosing to go to graduate school is an important decision. This article provides in-depth information and suggestions from a first year career counseling graduate student at Florida State University. Get an inside view into the experience of being a graduate student at one of the top career centers in the nation.
Complete Article >Maximizing the Career Development of Students Who Study Abroad
By Vera V. Chapman
This article describes strategies for career services professionals to better prepare students for the many career development opportunities available to them while studying abroad. Recommendations are also made to ensure that the unique career development needs of students are met pre-departure, while abroad, and upon their return home.
Complete Article >Career Services and the Non-Traditional Student
By John E. Butt
Adult students are not easily provided career services in the same model as provided to traditional-aged students and this group can be easily overlooked. This article outlines how services can specifically be adapted to address this growing student population with programming tailored to their needs.
Complete Article >LinkedIn: A Tool for Career Counseling with College Students
By Laurie Haskell and Kayla Krupnick Walsh
Very few students know how to use LinkedIn as a tool to advance their careers and many career counselors aren’t sure how to utilize LinkedIn as an educational or counseling resource with students. This article provides techniques for career counselors when using this professional networking tool with students.
Complete Article >Preparing Student Teachers to Interview Effectively
By Kelly Cooper and Wes Morgan
The efforts by new graduates to find their first teaching position is more challenging today because competition for those positions has increased significantly. An applicant submitting an impressive transcript and exceptional references must still convince an interview committee that she or he is the candidate they want to hire. This article addresses how Rockford College is preparing future teachers for these important interviews.
Complete Article >Networking for Introverts: Tips and Techniques for Career Counselors
By Wendy LaBenne
With the current economic climate, networking has become even more crucial in securing employment. Yet there are clients who are reluctant to engage in this job search strategy. Learn about tips and techniques to assist these clients with a skill vitally important to reaching their career goals.
Complete Article >Developing a Group Career Counseling Program: Reflections on the First Year
By Nancy K. Farber
The author shares an account of how a career counseling team developed a group career counseling program at their university. A discussion of the rationale for developing groups, steps taken and participant feedback is included. The process can be adapted to meet the needs of any group of clients.
Complete Article >There Is No One Page Rule – “Experience” Must Guide A Resume’s Length
By steave savage
The picture of the traditional college student has changed: no longer are students dedicated to just education. Today’s student often holds multiple positions to contribute to their educational expenses, while developing strong work and leadership experience for their resumes. As a result, the traditional “one page resume rule” is outmoded and may not benefit students.
Complete Article >Empowering Students with Hidden Disabilities to Achieve Career Success
By Amanda Ljubicic
Students with hidden disabilities are attending postsecondary institutions in increasing numbers, so it is essential for career counselors to understand the unique needs of this population. Counselors must familiarize themselves with the most common disability diagnoses and the resources and programs available to help students.
Complete Article >Purpose-Based Advising
By Aaron Basko
When we help our students to develop a personal sense of “purpose”, we help them to understand what they are “built to do” and where they will find satisfaction. This focus on purpose is a lifelong tool which they can use to evaluate options and make decisions about jobs and careers.
Complete Article >Outcomes and Investments: 10 Opportunities to Partner with Enrollment
By Billie Streufert
Partnerships with other campus offices allow Career Services to have a broader impact within the institution. This article outlines ten steps to take in partnering with Enrollment, one of the most influential campus functions.
Complete Article >Exploring Majors: A College-Wide Event
By Carly Dennis
A collaborative program between the Career Services staff and college faculty from every academic department yields a well-attended event designed to help students identify academic majors and career paths. What worked for this two-year division of the University of Cincinnati should give you some ideas as well.
Complete Article >Creative and Engaging Career Assessment: A Visual Strengths-Focused Life Map
By Valentine Roché
The author shares a creative process for engaging clients in discovering their unique talents. In addition to using the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment, the client creates a visual strengths-focused life map to clarify how his/her talents are applied, which engages the client in generative learning while opening up a dialogue for career decision making.
Complete Article >The ICAN Career Development Model: A post modern framework for understanding career development
By Adry Snorradottir Clark
Due to recent rapid changes in the world of work, many traditional career development models that concentrate on single situation decision-making are outdated. This article discusses a model that was developed by the author and focuses on readiness for lifelong career transition and on developing outcomes that fit current career realities: It identifies active engagement as a key to developing these outcomes, coupled with awareness of what individuals bring to the engagement experience.
Complete Article >Increasing Collaboration with Faculty: The Starr Sub Program
By Richard Orbé-Austin
In our rush to adopt the newest and most impressive applications of technology in our profession, we may forget about the importance of “face time” with individuals and groups. Here's a tried and true method of collaborating with faculty on classroom presentations in order to expand awareness of the career center and broaden its impact with students.
Complete Article >Starting a Career Building Peace
By David J. Smith
Wouldn't it be great if more of our students considered peace building and conflict resolution as a career? This article serves as a primer about these fields, outlining the direct and indirect paths of working to promote peace. The impact of these careers can be local or global, and the need for them has never been greater.
Complete Article >Motivational Interviewing: An Intervention for At-Risk College Students Seeking Career Services
By Mary-Catherine McClain
This article provides a brief overview of motivational interviewing (MI) and how related principles can be implemented at a university career center. Tools, techniques, and clinical resources for practitioners working with this population are provided.
Complete Article >Eliciting Change Talk
By Mary-Catherine McClain
Addendum to "Motivational Interviewing: An Intervention for At-Risk College Students Seeking Career Services"
Complete Article >Junior Business Card Project
By Heather Maietta and Jennifer Williamson
Career Services practitioners know that a well-established professional image can make a difference in being remembered and contribute to landing a job. This article discusses a project in which one Career Center provides business cards to help undergraduates carve out their professional image and stand out in the crowd.
Complete Article >Who Are You? Integrating Popular Culture into Career Development
By Deborah Bransford and Joni Hays
This article provides a reflective analysis of experiences and benefits of using popular culture to facilitate career exploration experiences of enrolled and prospective college students and their parents. The authors report success in using popular culture to capture audience attention, promote active learning, and encourage continued independent career exploration.
Complete Article >A Dating Game: How to Make Targeting Each Resume Make Sense to Students
By Kayla Krupnick
Students often question if they really need to target each resume. This article examines a dating analogy in order to make the concept of targeting a resume relevant and understandable to students.
Complete Article >Finding Your Own Path: Using the Myers-Briggs Step II and Strong Interest Inventory in College Career Counseling
By Darlene Garcia and Catharine Beecher
The insightful and accurate choice of a college major or career direction has always been filled with uncertainty for college students. This article outlines the rationale for a helpful career counseling process to address this problem using two in-depth assessments together, which earned one of the authors NCDA’s Outstanding Career Practitioner award this year.
Complete Article >What Can You Say in 140 Characters? Using Twitter to Market Career Services
By Caryn Statman
Although some career services professionals have been reluctant to embrace the more trendy aspects of social media, such as Twitter, this article clearly outlines the methods and advantages of “tweeting” within our profession.
Complete Article >Infusing Career Assessment into a First-Year Experience Course
By Michael Stebleton
A partnership of faculty members and career professionals using a strengths-based assessment tool in a first year inquiry course yields impressive results with the students, and also presents a productive and successful model for collaboration between academic affairs and student affairs units.
Complete Article >Providing Career Resources for STEM Students during Freshmen Orientation
By Melodie Cameron and Lee Rosenfield
A Career Center and a College of Science provided a straightforward method for conveying information about technical and scientific careers. The goal was to help students judge their level of interest and fit for science related careers, which could better meet the Silicon Valley workforce needs.
Complete Article >Not Just for Seniors! Connecting First-Year College Students to Career Services
By Diane Farrell
Everyone expects seniors will be concerned about careers. But how do we reach freshmen who also need our assistance? When orientations and everyday marketing weren't working well enough, the career center developed a partnership with the Director of General Education, leading to a 52% increase in career counseling sessions with freshmen.
Complete Article >Best Practices for Sustaining a Student Advisory Board
By Suzanne Helbig
Many college career centers implement Student Advisory Boards to gain insight into student motivations and preferences, but struggle with challenges like recruiting appropriate members. This article will demonstrate how the UC Berkeley Career Center tackled this challenge.
Complete Article >New Realities at Work for College Graduates
By Tim Lutenski
The traditional models of work, job, and career have been changing in recent years as future social and economic realities are being drastically transformed. This article outlines a new understanding of jobs and work for new college graduates, as well as how they can succeed despite the uncertainty of these changes and challenges.
Complete Article >Federal Government Internships Offer Hope in the Tight Economy
By Laura Kapelski
The tightening job market and the federal government's need to replace a retiring work force have created the perfect opportunity for college students to obtain career related internships. This article discusses the rise in federal internships and tips for career counselors to assist students seeking opportunities with the government.
Complete Article >Best Practice: The Exploring Majors and Careers Tutorial
By Lee Rosenfield
The Career Center at San Jose State University has developed a 5-part online tutorial to assist students in the process of choosing a major and exploring career options. This tutorial has been accessed 10,000 times in the past year. This article outlines both the content of the tutorial and the development process
Complete Article >Creative Activities as Teaching Tools
By Ying Tang
Career counseling courses have been perceived as plain and theory-based learning by many counseling students. The opportunities for learning should not be limited to lecture and textbooks. Readers who are interested in developing a creative curriculum for your career counseling course may find this article inspiring.
Complete Article >Maximizing Cultural Awareness: Possible Implications for Vocational Assessment
By Michelle C. Gates
A research description from the 2009 Graduate Student Research Mentor Grant Award Winner: When using objective vocational assessments with clients from non-dominant cultures, conscious effort should be taken to maximize cultural validity. Current thinking and research suggest that the context in which an instrument is administered may actually have the potential to contribute to or detract from the cultural validity of assessment results.
Complete Article >Recruiter to Counselor: What's Different on the Flip Side?
By Stacy Smyk
My experience working with college students stems from two different perspectives. Initially as a college recruiter, I conducted events and used resources to hire graduating seniors. Now on the "flip side" as a career counselor, I focus on helping students in a way that integrates my knowledge of both employment and career development.
Complete Article >The Other Side of the Rainbow: Social Support and Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Persons
By Martina Preston-Sternberg and Monica Solinas-Saunders
Research shows that a great majority of GLBT persons feel they encounter career development delays and a lack of social support during the "coming out" process. This article presents a number of supportive steps career counselors can take to assist their GLBT clients with career development.
Complete Article >Helping Students During a "Major" Crisis
By Mary E. Ghilani
Being denied entry into the student's academic major of choice can be a very traumatic experience. The degree of crisis is influenced by several factors including the competitiveness of the major, the amount of emotional investment, and the reaction of the parents. This article provides strategies to help students and their parents during this difficult transition.
Complete Article >A Game-Show Format for Reaching Out to Millennials
By Farley S. Leiriao and Brian M. Montalvo
Are Millennials in Jeopardy for not starting their career development until graduation is in sight? Or are career services professionals in Jeopardy for not targeting the Millennial learning style?
Complete Article >Reconsidering College Student Career Options in 2009 and Beyond
By Patrick Lennahan
The "perfect storm" of a faulty global economy has already begun to have a multi-tiered effect on college students, changing their options for next semester, next year, and beyond.
Complete Article >Using REBT to Overcome College Students’ Interview Anxiety
By Sarah Schmidt and Marion Cavallaro
Interview anxiety is common among college students who are starting their search for internships and employment. Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a useful tool for college students trying to overcome their interview anxiety. Career counselors can easily teach the ABC method of Ellis’ approach.
Complete Article >Parents as Partners in College Student Career Planning
By Sharon Gilbert
College Career Counselors can facilitate the process of parental involvement in the student's career development.
Complete Article >How to Plan and Develop a Career Center (Second Edition)
Book review by Sarah Clark
The second edition of How to Plan and Develop a Career Center, edited by Don A. Schutt, Jr., covers many topics that are essential in starting or improving a career center. The book addresses virtually every aspect of this topic, but cannot go into nearly as much depth as one might like. However, it is a great resource for those charged with managing or building a career center in educational, corporate or community settings, as well as online.
Complete Article >Rapid Fire Results, Part II: The Secret of Memorability
By Linda Domenitz
In a follow-up to the July 2007 article Rapid Fire Results for Clueless Jobseekers and Other Educated People, the author gives further detail on coaching students through reverse role play in the interview. This article also outlines a storytelling technique for stimulating memorable visual imagery in the interview in order to leave a lasting impression on the interviewer.
Complete Article >Holland's RIASEC Theory and Applications: Exploring a Comprehensive Bibliography
By Elizabeth A. Ruff, Robert C. Reardon and Sara C. Bertoch
Just how widespread is Holland's influence? Is the study and application of RIASEC limited to the post-secondary setting? Once the authors created a bibliography of 1,609 reference citations related to Holland's theory and applications from 1953 to early 2007, it became obvious that references related to his work have been steady, and interest continues.
Complete Article >What Do You Do If You Are Stuck? Using Creativity in Career Counseling
By Mary Ann Hollingsworth
Career indecision is a common obstacle for many students in the selection of college majors, as well as for adults selecting both initial career paths and making subsequent career changes. The result is often a sense of being "stuck". This article provides unique activities and suggestions that use creativity as a tool for resolution to help clients become "unstuck." While this article is well-suited for graduate students and new professionals looking for new interventions to expand their "tool box", seasoned counselors will also benefit from this refresher.
Complete Article >Identifying and Reframing Negative Thoughts of Undecided College Students
By Brian M. Montalvo and Joel R. Driver
Many students have negative or self-defeating thoughts about themselves or the world of work that make it difficult for them to solve their career problems and/or make career decisions. This article will outline an approach to identifying negative thoughts when working with students and then assisting them to reframe these as positives for career decision-making.
Complete Article >Using E-Mail to Mentor Students
By Melissa Venable
Online mentoring can be a new way to reach students while maximizing an existing technology tool (e-mail) that is already widely in use. Those interested in developing an online mentoring program should consider the advantages and disadvantages. Current programs provide lessons learned and encouragement for developing similar programs of one’s own.
Complete Article >Facilitating College Students' Ethical Decision-Making in the Job Search
By Laura Winkler
College students face many ethical decisions during the job search process. It is important for university career centers to inform students about job search ethics through a variety of communication modes and tools. Examples of these tools and implications for career development professionals are discussed.
Complete Article >Utilizing Film and Television to Illuminate Career Development Concepts
By Billie Streufert
This article reviews the benefits of utilizing television and film in career development courses. In addition to engaging students, media scenes portray concepts, normalize students' experience, and initiate discussions. Concepts in the media that are examined include self-efficacy, sex typing, social valuation, value conflicts, cultural perceptions of work and academic majors, factors to consider when selecting a major, and interview skills.
Complete Article >Career Development as a Retention Tool: Early Intervention for Incoming Deciding Freshmen
By Wendy Becker-Jamison and Wendy LaBenne
How do college career centers reach out to deciding incoming freshmen? Saint Louis University initiated an early intervention program designed to engage students in the career development process prior to arriving on campus in the fall. Not only did students increase awareness of the career decision-making process, but the program may also serve as a retention tool for the University.
Complete Article >The Role of Early Recollections in Career Counseling
By Keley Smith-Keller
Early recollections, as a tool in narrative therapy approaches, have useful applications in career counseling both in higher education and in other settings. This article provides an outline of how to use early recollections both with individuals and in classroom settings.
Complete Article >Career Center Advisory Committees: Connecting with your Stakeholders
By Janet G. Lenz
Career centers in higher education often think about creating some type of advisory committee to help guide their efforts. These committees take many different forms, depending on the goals the center is trying to accomplish in creating an advisory committee. This article shares some practical advice for those seeking to create such a committee and some pitfalls to be aware of in the process.
Complete Article >Rapid Fire Results for Clueless Jobseekers and other Educated People
By Linda Domenitz
Many students fail to consider their audience when preparing for the employment search. Using a theatre arts approach – role playing – enables career services professionals to achieve rapid results helping students.
Complete Article >Framing Career Expectations in Graduating Seniors
By Laura Demarse
As many of us get to know students and counsel them on the variety of issues surrounding obtaining meaningful employment upon graduation, we periodically hear career expectations that make us scratch our heads and think, "Hmmm, how do I provide unconditional positive regard, listen authentically, and ground and shape their career expectations without discouraging them or endorsing unrealistic expectations?" This article presents five topics to cover in providing our students a framework for success.
Complete Article >Career Counseling "At-Risk" College Students: Providing Direction and Support
By Michael E. Remshard
The Adaptive Counseling and Therapy (A.C.T.) model focuses on how counselors and teachers act to change student behaviors. This article offers a brief narrative introduction to the A.C.T. model. The model makes clear how counseling skills can be mixed and matched to fit any student's or group's presenting vocational situation with dignity and respect.
Complete Article >Using Career Convergence as a Teaching Tool in Counselor Education Programs
By Julia Y. Porter
How do we provide realistic learning experiences for graduate students in counselor education programs to prepare them to become career counselors? Career Convergence can be used as an effective teaching tool to provide current, practical information about techniques and strategies being used by practicing career counselors.
Complete Article >National Service as a Post-Secondary Option
By Janet E. Wall
Typical career options for youth include entering the job market, obtaining further education, participation in training programs, and serving in the military. Add national service to the list of possibilities for individuals who want other avenues for doing something meaningful and important.
Complete Article >www.MyMajors.com: Supporting University-Level Academic Advisement
by Fritz H. Grupe
Career development professionals utilize a wide range of instruments to assist students in planning their futures. MyMajors.com, a recently implemented online computerized program, helps students find an appropriate college major. It is being used by a wide range of educational institutions to supplement their advisement resources.
Complete Article >Career Portfolios For College Students
by Dawn C. Sherman and Edward Kolek
What do CD's, one's left arm, and the value of the process versus the product have to do with Portfolios? College Counselors who read this article gain everything they need to answer those questions and help their students succeed in the interview and the professional world. This article is a follow-up to $$Link, http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=803&Sections=3&IncludeDropped=1&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285,The Professional Development Seminar (PDS) Program At Nichols College$$, which appeared in Career Convergence in May 2006.
Complete Article >Attempting to Improve Retention through Academic and Career Collaboration
by Alison Grewe and Vivechkanand Chunoo
What measures are being implemented to ensure that first-year students successfully matriculate? What are advisors doing to ensure that first-years become vested not only in their futures but in their institutions? The Academic and Career Advisor in Residence program was initiated at the University of Miami to connect academic advising to the student experience in the residential setting.
Complete Article >Career Development and Planning: A Comprehensive Approach
Book review by Katarzyna Ganko and Cynthia Kivland
In order to develop a fulfilling career one needs to take charge of one's career. To make this happen, counselors start with self knowledge, as well as awareness of job market reality, and then employ various methodologies to design a path toward career/life fulfillment. This is the perspective taken by the authors of Career Development and Planning: A Comprehensive Approach.
Complete Article >Straight Jobs, Gay Lives: Sexual Orientation and Career Decision Making
by Mark Brostoff
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (GLBT) students preparing for entry into the work force are faced with career planning challenges related to their sexual orientation.
Complete Article >Facilitating Students' Capacity to Engage with the Cultural Context of Career Development
by Matthew A. Diemer
Career counseling courses have untapped potential in training counselors to address the cultural context of career development and well-being. Students may learn counseling, guidance, advocacy, and intervention skills that address the contextual and structural layers of career development, producing change agents who impact clients' lives, our profession, and our social structure.
Complete Article >The Professional Development Seminar (PDS) Program At Nichols College
by Dawn C. Sherman and Edward Kolek
Aligning with its mission to "provide the best practically oriented business education in New England", Nichols College has developed Professional Development Seminars (PDS), a series of four 1-credit courses designed to enhance the professional skills of our students as they become candidates in the job market. These required courses were developed specifically with the Nichols student in mind, and uniquely address the College's mission to prepare all students with the professional skills necessary for success in their careers.
Complete Article >Rejection, Rejection, Rejection!
by Jengyee Liang
Students who are aware of how the job hunt works and what attitude to adopt when rejection occurs will manage rejection appropriately and not let it distract them from the task of landing a job. This article outlines situations involving rejection and includes activities that mimic the job hunt and allow students to practice handling rejection before a future job is on the line.
Complete Article >Facebook: Put your Best Face Forward!
by: Martina Sternberg and Marie A. Soto
Facebook is an online directory for contacting friends through networks of academic and geographic centers and is very popular among high school and college students. It seems innocent, but do they know that employers, parents and even the Secret Service can have access to their Facebook? How can Career Centers educate students on using Facebook as a positive means of networking?
Complete Article >The University of Arkansas' Professional Development Institute
by Barbara Batson
According to a recent National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) survey, employers seek ten specific qualities and characteristics (such as flexibility and communication skills) when interviewing job applicants. At the University of Arkansas, students can develop these sought after skills and more through an intentional process -- the Professional Development Institute (PDI).
Complete Article >Internships: Bulldozing Roadblocks to Effective Career Services
by Bill Coplin
What do you need to place at the top of your priority list in 2006? The most powerful bulldozer to remove the roadblocks of fuzzy thinking and blind vested interest -- the internship.
Complete Article >The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership
Review by Erica S. Whitfield
Steve Farber’s book The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership explains the valuable lessons that help individuals evolve into Extreme Leaders. He proposes that in order for an individual to change the world, he or she has to change his or her world first. If you have a few moments, read through this book review and if you are interested, pick up the book at the local library; it won’t take long to read!
Complete Article >The Role of Career Counselors in Global Education
by Satomi Yaji
The phenomenon of globalization has had a significant impact on the area of career development. With this reality, how are the students’ perspectives addressed during career counseling? This article explores the various student populations on campuses and provides suggestions for career counselors.
Complete Article >A Systematic Approach for Addressing College Student Retention
by Kent Koebke
This article provides educators with a systematic approach for studying student retention. The system we used includes the following three steps: 1) Identify the problem, 2) Build a model based on simplified assumptions and 3) Collect data and test the model. As career development professionals, it is important that we identify the risk factors associated with student retention so that we can play our part in reducing them, and thus help increase students’ future career success.
Complete Article >Online Career Portfolios: Reactions from users and employers
by Katie E. Meyer and Jill A. Lumsden
Online portfolio systems are useful career development and job search tools. Data collected from student users of an online Career Portfolio, as well as from employers familiar with the system, are presented.
Complete Article >What Do I Like to Do?
Book Review by Thomas F. Harrington
A book to assist new and experienced professionals explore and measure interests by providing 101 activities to help students do educational and career planning.
Complete Article >Got Job Openings? Go With the Flow
by Jon Shy
More and more career centers are developing online databases of employer information and job openings. However, many career centers still maintain hard copies of job notices. The following article presents one University’s job notice filing system.
Complete Article >Making Career Services a Point of Difference
by Colleen Johnson
In order to make career services a point of difference in higher education, collaboration amongst career services staff, students, faculty and alumni/ae is essential in increasing student traffic and marketability. The article provides an example of a comprehensive four-year career development program called Pathways.
Complete Article >Connect College to Career
Book Review by Danielle Savage
Connect College to Career: A Student’s Guide to Work and Life Transitions is an aptly-named guide which powerfully interweaves career development and psychological theory, interactive exercises, inspiring quotations and relevant case studies to facilitate undergraduates' effectively preparing for the transition to the work world.
Complete Article >Holistic Career Guidance for the At-Risk College Student
by Marilyn Joseph
The article provides a holistic approach to career counseling. Because of the demands and responsibilities that we all face, it is important that students examine a variety of factors in making career choices. Guidelines for assessing and exploring the students’ background, identifying and establishing external support systems, and specific activities to promote their future career success are provided.
Complete Article >Career Development for Graduate Students: Building a Workshop Series
by Tamara Baker & Julie Newman
The article discusses a new career workshop series tailored specifically to graduate students. The program was designed to strengthen the career center’s relationship with graduate students. Topics, resources, collaboration ideas and future initiatives are provided.
Complete Article >Social Entrepreneurial Pathbreakers
by Mark Stefanick and Kristin Eicholtz
Non-profit organizations are reaching out to the college student population. Discover how college students can employ an entrepreneurial spirit to open many doors for visionary and problem-solving creativity. They can creatively test their skills by volunteering smarter, not harder!
Complete Article >From Backpacks to Briefcases
by Lorri Sonnendecker
One of life’s biggest milestones is transitioning into the world of work and getting that first job. Career centers can help students move forward in this process more confidently by offering workshops and services preparing them for that first year.
Complete Article >Recipe For Frustration: Mixing Up "Job Search" With "Career Exploration"
by Dana Alexander
Some college seniors and recent alumni who can't find meaningful work have made the false assumption that they are in a job search stage when they have omitted the first step of career exploration. Helping them see their true location will make the pathway clearer.
Complete Article >Creative Marketing on a Limited Budget
by May Lansigan
How can Career Centers effectively market to students on a limited budget? Tough question, but we’ve got some creative answers! First, it is important to understand the audience to whom our marketing efforts are directed and then identify the unique challenges that follow. The fun begins when we present cost-effective options and real-life examples that Career Centers can utilize!
Complete Article >Breaking Barriers: Career Centers Reaching Out to Students with Disabilities
by Beth Lulgjuraj & Sarah Lucas Hartley
Adapting your career center to support individuals with disabilities is not as difficult as you may think. Some suggestions include using disability-friendly computer programs, working with community agencies, creating resources, having a staff liaison, and ensuring that your Web site is user-friendly to individuals with disabilities.
Complete Article >How to Gain R&R Through Volunteering
by Mark Stefanick
According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an astounding 46 percent of graduating students do not have internship experience. Discover why your students should add a quality volunteering achievement to their resume - and it's not just to gain Rest and Relaxation!
Complete Article >A Little Exercise to Help College Freshman Apply a Skills Perspective to their Educational Planning
By William Coplin
How many college students will be able to give an excellent answer to the perennial question, "what are you going to do with your degree?" With the help of the exercise in this article, the answer could go something like this: "I am going to get a good job and have a great career because my college education will give me the skills that all employers want."
Complete Article >10 Things Employers Want You to Learn in College:The KNOW-HOW You Need to Succeed
Book Review by David P. Helfand
We all know that in tight economic times simply having a degree is no guarantee for employment. Bill Coplin, Syracuse University professor, describes what skills employers are looking for in today’s college graduates. This book is a great asset for college students and for those who work in higher education.
Complete Article >Career Services For Distance Students
by Cyndy Redifer and April Crandell Peterson
The rising number of students enrolling in distance education programs presents new challenges for career counselors. This article addresses the development of services for distance students at Regis University, trends in distance education and information about professional ethical codes, as they pertain to online services.
Complete Article >Establishing Common Ground: Cultural and Family Values in Career Decision-Making
by Yas Djadali
When working with a diverse population of students, it is essential that we take a holistic approach to our career counseling services. As helping professionals, we must recognize and consider the cultural and family background of each student and how these values might impact their career decision-making. This article provides a step-by-step approach for exploring cultural and family work values and developing tailored career counseling strategies.
Complete Article >Family Lifework Activities Can Help Students Make Career and Educational Choices
By Sally Gelardin
Imagine that your students understand how their education and internships relate to their future work and career goals, graduate with honors, and find satisfying work upon graduation. Unfortunately, this scenario doesn't usually happen in real life. Students have a difficult time selecting majors that are in conflict with their parents' expectations and often cannot make career decisions. Family Lifework Activities can help students make successful career and educational choices.
Complete Article >The Use of Analogy in Career Presentations
by Alan Farber
Career presentations can be rather sterile and uninteresting affairs. The use of relevant and interesting analogies is effective in capturing students' imagination, relating foreign topics to familiar ones, and inviting participation in career development workshops.
Complete Article >Teaching Counselors about Computer-Assisted Career Guidance
by Becky L. Bobek
A free new counselor training curriculum, ACT's DISCOVER Career Guidance Graduate Training Curriculum and Tool Kit, represents a best practice approach to preparing counselors in the effective use of computer-based career guidance systems with high school and college students. Through guided study and hands-on exploration, prospective counselors become savvy consumers of computer-assisted career guidance systems (CACGs). They also learn to unlock the full potential of CACGs to help students with career planning.
Complete Article >The Forgotten: Graduate Student Career Services
by Martin F. Hill and Dwaine S. Campbell
This article addresses the need for graduate student career development activities to fill the void faced by this population. Personnel at some universities are not meeting the career development needs of graduate students. The authors address the need for services, propose activities, and list goals/objectives associated with providing career services for graduate students.
Complete Article >Major Decisions: A Stand-Alone Web site for Undecided Students
by Donna Vinton
At the University of Northern Iowa, academic web authoring software has been used to create a stand-alone web site for students who are undecided about their major. Students diagnose where they are in the career decision-making process and then link to information specifically related to their career needs.
Complete Article >Prepare, Practice, and Persistence
By Michael S. Levy
Resumes, job interviews, or the follow up, which one is most important when it comes to landing the perfect career position? All three, but without Preparation, Practice, and Persistence, you might significantly diminish your competitive advantage. Increase your own or your client’s job search skills with the 3 P’s.
Complete Article >
