The Interfolio Blog

Penelope Trunk had an interesting post last week about the failure of many career centers in preparing students for success and setting them up for professional futures.

Not all career centers help students network and prepare for careers as they could or should, particularly when it comes to building a network and a personal brand. While networks of successful alumni and job postings from major companies are helpful, those students who do not have a business or trade degree or who are not looking to take such a traditional route can often become lost in the career center shuffle. As the routes that college graduates take after leaving their alma maters become more and more diverse, career centers are tasked with a greater degree of responsibility in assisting a wide range of people launch careers in a myriad of industries. 

But can we really put the blame on the shoulders of the career centers and assume that liberal arts degrees are the culprits for poor job placement after graduation as Penelope suggests? That's a bit of a stretch. Career centers can serve as catalysts between those hiring and those seeking employment, but are we now arguing that career centers are actually responsible for finding college grads employment? We don't ask our universities to ensure that students get A's, why should we ask them to guarantee employment? You can lead a horse to water... but if our universities are tasked with actually getting people HIRED that takes a great deal of responsibility off of the very students who are supposed to be learning to take responsibility, use the skills they learned in their undergraduate and graduate courses and find their life's calling once they leave the higher ed nest. 

If our college graduates begin making college decisions based on which school is most likely to place them in a job after graduation, we are essentially saying that students are paying a placement agency rather than an institution of learning. That's a pretty slippery slope. Suddenly class content matters far less than internship and job placement and how much of a guarantee you can get that the career center will do all the work for you. 

Career centers are an asset and one that some schools run more successfully than others. But ultimately students need to grow up and take the reins on deciding not only what they want to do for a career, but how their college courses will augment that career choice and help them be more successful employees, managers or bosses some day.