Attention Leaders of Higher Education: It’s Time To Be Part of the Solution

Try to imagine a company like Pfizer investing 17 years and millions of dollars, successfully developing a drug to cure cancer, but having no marketing plan. Or imagine, if you will, Ford Motor Company spending 17 years and millions of dollars, developing self-driving automobiles – with no marketing plan when they come rolling off the assembly line.

You can’t.

In fact, you’d expect these companies to have exciting, kick-ass marketing campaigns in place to achieve their goals. Yet, leaders of higher education in America don’t understand this.

For the typical person in the US, the scholastic assembly line begins with kindergarten (maybe pre-school), and continues through high school – 13+ years. Then college is next, requiring another several years and tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of dollars more. Then, the student comes rolling off the scholastic assembly line as a new college grad.

Yet, the vast majority of graduates have no clue what to do next. They have no inkling how to secure the jobs they went to school to attract, or how to manage their careers throughout their lives. There is no marketing plan.

It’s beyond irrational.

Leaders of higher education help create the demand: if we don’t go to college, we won’t amount to much. They eagerly take our money without regard to consequence and thus, student debt is at a staggering all-time high. And they require a multi-year commitment and investment in time and money to attain a degree. For all of this, we receive a nicely framed parchment diploma and a cap and gown.

After some 17 years on the scholastic assembly line, students come rolling off as exciting, valuable new products, with absolutely no idea and no training on how best to: 1) leverage their education 2) optimize their wisdom, and 3) secure employment over a lifetime to build wealth and live rich and rewarding lives.

The Only Reason We Invest in Higher Education

The only reason most people attend college or university is to enable them to secure better jobs. Yes, there’s sex, drugs, alcohol, rock n’ roll, and all those sideshows. But in the end, the investment of time and money in higher education is made for only one reason: to land better jobs at better pay – over a lifetime. Period!

In my case, by the time I entered the University of New Hampshire (UNH), I had been on the scholastic assembly line for 13 years (K-12). I knew how to read, write, and learned enough math to know how to budget and build a net worth.

The only reason I went to college, was to gain additional wisdom that would lead to better job opportunities and greater pay. And yet, when I graduated UNH in 1976, I had no idea how to write a résumé or secure employment. I never entered or even contacted the campus career resource center and they never contacted me. So I struggled badly because I was never taught how to conduct an exciting, upbeat job campaign. I was left to search and hunt on my own – activities full of fear and pain. And my struggles lasted for more years than I care to admit.

Sadly, the Most Underutilized Department on Campus

The numbers are all over the place, but most research indicates that fewer than 20% of all students ever visit their college career resource facility. However, conflicting statistics run rampant. For instance, NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers, states, “Among the Class of 2017, 85.6 percent of students who had begun the job search had visited the career center—either at its office or on its website.” But hold on – how can this possibly be impressive?

According to NACE, some 85.6% of graduating students “visited” the school’s career resource website for a short time or spent a few minutes with a career advisor. After 17 (+/-) years of attending classes, doing homework, taking tests, cramming for finals, stressing over grades, report card anxiety, time spent in detention, filling out applications for college, and the crushing cost to attend higher education …the marketing plan for 85.6% of students consists of an inconsequential visit to the website or an advisor?

Excuses and Stagnation

“Jay, the problem is, if you think it’s political in Washington DC, it’s worse in higher education. It takes 7 committees and 4 years to change anything, including a light bulb.”

This comment was stated to me a few years ago by a well-respected Michigan leader in higher education. But I have heard this over and over again stated in different language throughout the years. But here’s what is exciting. Higher education could lead the charge in changing how we all perceive the workplace—how to enter and thrive in it.

Here’s How

There must be a mandatory semester-long career management course required before any student graduates and receives a diploma; a course that is marketing, not search driven.

A Word about Freshman English

In May of 2020, The Best Schools posted an online article: College Courses That Should Be Mandatory: (). They include: Nutrition, Automobile Maintenance, Budgeting, Cooking, First Aid, Etiquette, Insurance, Negotiating, Social Media Safety, Stress Management, Taxes, Survival Skills.

Ah, survival skills. Is career / workplace management not a survival skill? Where is the one critical course that instructs all academic graduates – high school and above – how to master the skill of workplace management? How to optimize one’s investment in education?

When I attended UNH (back in the 70’s), I was required to take Freshman English. I believe most institutions still require Freshman English for a 4-year program (bachelor’s degree). Even if one is not majoring in English. Why?

To be accepted into UNH, I had to take the standardized SATs. As you know, one of the two SAT exams is English. I was accepted into UNH because, among other attributes, my SAT scores were acceptable. Including English! So why did I need to take Freshman English?

Why not eliminate Freshman English, move this open slot to the junior or senior year – and transition it from Freshman English to: How to Attract and Keep Good Jobs: Career Management For a Lifetime.

Give a Fish – Teach How To Fish

College grads experience a number of emotions when they graduate. The first is excitement. Then comes fear. For many, sheer terror. Once the pomp and circumstance is over, feelings of loss, uncertainty, and inadequacy of knowing how to confidently market themselves replaces excitement. Fear rules!

Over the decades, most college and university career centers prided themselves on giving students a fish, rather than teaching them how to fish. They would bring employers on campus to help match students to jobs. What ever happened to teaching students how to fish – how to take personal responsibility, incorporate discipline, and plan and execute their own exciting and proactive job campaigns?

What is Job Search?

It’s long past the time when we need to view the job search not as a search or a hunt, but as a well-run marketing campaign. Most universities have business schools and most colleges have business programs that address marketing and marketing strategies. And marketing classes teach specific methodologies and processes to effectively and confidently promote, market, and sell products and services in competitive free market arenas.

And isn’t this what we want college grads to do upon graduation: to use specific strategies and processes to effectively and confidently promote, market, and sell themselves in competitive free market arenas – to land great jobs at good pay?

The Consequences Are Staggering

We graduate college, but have NOT been taught self-marketing skills to ensure we land great jobs. As a consequence…

• We accept jobs we’d rather not work at. We have too much month at the end of the money – and have to live with constant financial pressures
• We remain in toxic and demeaning jobs because we have no idea how to get out of them.
• We work with bosses who under-appreciate and underpay us, but we suck it up and remain unhappily in them because we have no idea how to change our destiny.
• We place our health and relationships in jeopardy because we are miserable at work and it’s hard to be a loving, upbeat person after a day of hell in the office.

The consequences? Author Neal Donald Walsch might have said it best. “By the age of 40 or 50, most people have given up on their grandest dreams, set aside their highest hopes, and have settled for their lowest expectations or nothing at all.”

This is NOT why we send our children to institutions of higher education.

Initial Recommendations:

All colleges and universities must mandate a full semester course be taken in self -marketing / career management - for a lifetime.

The program must be presented by professionals who understand branding, value propositions, and how to conduct exciting, proactive job campaigns (not searches). The process / curriculum must be understood and supported by alumni associations, to help alumni in the workplace well after college.

It’s time for higher education to step up to the plate and to play the key role it was meant to play, i.e., to ensure all graduating students are well equipped, scholastically to land great jobs and most importantly, to show them how to land and keep them. It’s time leaders of higher education became part of the solution.

Please Note: This essay is directed at top leaders of higher education and not career resource center directors and staff. I have consistently acknowledged and honored career resource center efforts, despite underwhelming support from leadership.