Do Colleges Help You Get That First Job After Graduation?

Colleges get a failing grade for helping their graduating students secure their first quality job. 

What would you grade your alma mater when it comes to helping you (or your child) land a competitive entry-level job upon graduation?

College is a wonderful way to expand your ability and capacity to learn. It allows tens of thousands of young people every year to begin to spread their wings as they move into adulthood. College usually provides a safe and sheltered environment to learn and grow as a person. 

For many of us, it is the first time that we felt truly independent from our parents. That, in and of itself, is a tremendous life lesson. College also does a wonderful job introducing us to “diversity”, in every sense of the word. It allows us to expand our horizons philosophically, spiritually and pragmatically. We begin to set our dreams and test new directions.

So where does college fail? It fails miserably at making a commitment to each student to actively help them find employment in their field of choice upon graduation. They have taken tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of your dollars in order to promote their own worth and agenda. 

Yet to me, the true worth, value or metric that universities and colleges around the country should be answering to is the percentage of graduating students with immediate employment in their field of choice.

They don’t do that. In a very ceremonial manner they usher you down a large auditorium to receive your diploma and then give you a nice nudge out the door.

Instead they should provide a required 3 credit course that will show you everything you need to know and do in order to land that job. This is a blatant failure of the higher education system. They are very happy to take your money and then not be held accountable (in any manner) to what you do after you leave their hallowed halls.

I believe they do a horrible job in 4 keys areas:

1. Offering in-depth career counseling.  Colleges should have to sit down with each student and map a career course based on the specific talents and desires of that student. This should be a non-judgmental forum where the student feels comfortable sharing his/her dreams and looking for guidance.  Don’t put the student in a cookie cutter! Listen to and guide based on the individuality of each student.
2. Showing you how to properly market yourself to companies. You have to present yourself as the best solution to a specific company’s needs. This means you have to have an understanding of how to acquire this information. Competition in the job market is too intense to apply to a job posting with a bland and vague resume. But this is the guidance that graduating students receive.
3. Teaching you the proper interview preparation and interviewing techniques necessary to landing a highly competitive job.  Interviewing preparation is an art that is acquired over time UNLESS individuals are taught these preparation techniques early on in their career. Wait…how about in college???
4. Teaching you how to identify your own job opportunities!  There are techniques and tactics necessary to be able to stand out in this job market. And if you don’t know these and utilize these, then best of luck to you!  Instead, colleges tell their graduating class to do the same thing that every other college graduate is doing…Go on job boards; post your resume and then wait? This does not work, even for entry-level competitive jobs!

By the beginning of your senior year, colleges should be intently helping you with each procedural component to landing your first meaningful job. College should be teaching you all of this! They certainly charged you enough! But they are not.

Landing a good job is not difficult if you are given the information in a supportive and nurturing manner in college (or later). Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of colleges and universities fail miserably.

Fortunately, you have stumbled upon this article. And with that you can learn more about the strategies and tactics necessary to shine as a candidate in 2018 and beyond. 

I am here to take over where colleges and universities have dropped you off…

If interested in learning more, please click on the link below to schedule a FREE Candidate Assessment Call.

https://meetme.so/CareerResourceConsultantsSS

I look forward to speaking with you.