How Students Use Career Services: A Brief Comparison by Major
Graham Donald
Founder & President @ Brainstorm Strategy Group Inc. | MBA, Strategy & Marketing
We know that students in different majors use career services differently (and often have different services available to them). But as I look more closely at the numbers, some interesting patterns emerge.
For instance, I’ve just spent a bit of time comparing how students in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, and Liberal Arts/Social Sciences/Education each view and use career services on campus.
As one might expect, all four groups cite getting help with their resumes and access to job postings as their first priorities when accessing career services. But after those top two priorities, the picture changes. Arts students are significantly more likely (54%) to expect help with learning about careers they may be qualified for, versus students in engineering (42%), business (45%), and computer science (41%).
Perhaps this doesn’t surprise you, but it’s great to have some concrete national numbers to look at and compare to.
Arts undergrads are also much more likely to visit career services to discuss graduate programs than those in other majors. This is one of the reasons that career services and academic advising need to work more closely together.
On the other hand, arts students are significantly less likely to expect career services to help them meet and network with employers. I have to wonder if that’s an initial expectation, or one they’ve learned from seeing the types of organizations that are most often involved in career services events.
When it comes to communicating with students, they all insist that emailing them with “update alerts” is most effective, followed by regularly scheduled emails updates. This is despite how often we hear that it’s hard to get students to open emails. (But isn’t that true of everyone?)
Moving beyond email, the picture gets more interesting when we look at different majors. For instance, certain majors prefer Facebook for communications from career services while others prefer LinkedIn.
But ironically, your most effective overall tool after email isn’t any social channel at all. It’s posters on campus! One good thing about posters is that they don’t require you to adjust your privacy settings…
NOTE: The brief snapshot of data above comes from the extensive 2017 Brainstorm Student Career Interests Student Survey of more than 14,000 Canadian university and college students. More details can be found here or by emailing [email protected].
Founder & President @ Brainstorm Strategy Group Inc. | MBA, Strategy & Marketing
6 年Yes, Kim Eldred, M.S. all of those options were in the list - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, website, posters, class announcements, etc. And yes, it always remains a challenge to be heard through all the noise in email!
Senior Talent Development and Learning Leader | Connecting people, ideas, and strategies to transform organizations and enable growth
6 年I think students like email because it is easy and they can go back and find it if they need it.? One email, though, is rarely enough to capture their interest as today's students like reminders.? I am curious what other options there were in your survey for types of communication (i.e., texting, social media, websites, etc.)???
Employer Brand | Culture | Talent
6 年Thanks for the insights!
Founder & President @ Brainstorm Strategy Group Inc. | MBA, Strategy & Marketing
6 年Hi Kimberley Dart, if any organization asked me how I'd like to be reached I'd probably put email at the top of the list... and then open it about 10-15% of the time like the rest of their readers. Unless, of course, we get into the sketchy world of "click-bait" subject lines. The reality seems to be that multiple channels are required. Next time I see you, will you show me how the heck to fold fitted sheets? Perhaps we should add it to the program at Business Career Services Summit! https://www.businesscareerservices.ca/
Career & Workforce Strategist | Can Fold Fitted Sheets
6 年Thanks Graham! We just surveyed our business students about their expectations on career services. Their responses aligned with the national response. The big head scratcher was the e-mail. On one hand students do say they want e-mail notifications for events, job postings, etc.. and on the other they admit that they don't open many of our e-mails so they end up eventually in the spam folder! We are using our combined data to re-organize our events and offerings for 2018-2019 so they are more aligned with what our students want. I'm hopeful that next year's survey will have different results.