Editor’s Note: After this post went live, InsideHigherEd.com published: “Career Services Must Die“. Despite the linkbait-ish title (where even the author says, “Well, not die, exactly. Transform.”) the post is highly recommended reading.

The economy still sucks. Employers complain – often – that the skills gap (and now a soft skills gap) is getting deeper and wider. Clearly, students need more help than ever to successfully ascend into the workforce.

And yet very few students ever step foot in their on-campus career center.

This is the basis for an ongoing discussion in one of my favorite LinkedIn Groups, College Career Experts. The conversation was started by Sheila Curran and her blog post, “A More Honest Approach to College Career Preparation”.

And what a spirited conversation it has become.

Comment after comment offers examples that prove the point of the original post; contributors quote self-serving data points to gain credibility points; some suggest solutions worth considering. Many, however, follow the example of our political leaders and blame instead of listen or collaborate.

On one side we have the career center professionals continually stating “the students are lazy… they don’t deserve us”. The other side, representing the students and parents, fires back: “career centers are outdated… their advice is obsolete”. The reality is, like most passion-filled arguments, that both sides are more correct than either would like to admit.

So how do we fix this problem, knowing these two groups will never find a compromise?

We ask the customer.

We ask students and parents how to serve their needs better. We ask recent graduates – especially those who have struggled in the recent economy – where the process failed them. We stop hiding behind manipulated data points regarding post-graduation employment (of which the career centers had no impact since, as everyone agrees, students never visited them) and we ask why they didn’t think their career centers were worth a single visit in four years.

And we listen.

Granted, we aren’t going to like the answers we hear. How do we know? Because at YouTern, we’ve already asked the questions. Here’s what we hear; here’s why students don’t use their career centers:

Other students, even professors, say to stay clear of the career center; a waste of time

They’re out-of-touch; they don’t know what it takes to find a job in this economy

We find better advice on Google, blogs and Twitter chats

Students don’t even know what their career center does

There’s no outreach; the center just expects us to come to them

There are tens of thousands of students and only four career center staff; how can they help us?

They have one-size-fits-all advice for everyone

They acted like they were doing me a favor; made me feel stupid

No one ever got a job there (mis-set expectations, by just a bit?)

There are more valid answers – and many more invalid replies that bring up issues of independent action and accountability – but you get the idea.

Now, from the career services’ perspective (according to the LinkedIn group discussion), here is why students don’t utilize career services:

Students assume a degree will lead to a job and don’t spend time thinking about career

Students are scared, lack confidence, and self-sabotage in order to throw the blame on us

They ignore our calls, emails, texts and Facebook posts and tell Mom and Dad that we’re not helping them

Students are too busy with ‘right-now’ stuff like mid-terms, internships, jobs, studies, etc.

If a professor doesn’t support the career center, this confuses students; they begin questioning the career center’s purpose

Career center directors can’t think strategically because the administration doesn’t give a hoot

Parents need to step up and encourage their child to take ownership of their career

Because if career development isn’t a mandatory course or program, students won’t do it

In other words: career center professionals blame the lazy students and misinformed helicopter parents; the professors and administration; policy, bandwidth and much more. While these are very real issues, none of them removes the responsibility of career center professionals to ATTRACT customers to their career services office.

And – here’s a thought – might it help if career centers stopped bashing their customers in public? Has there ever been a case where the organization that is paid to serve their customers chooses to argue with them – on campus, in blogs, through social media, anywhere – and wins?

Not once. Ever.

What if we opened the only restaurant on campus and only the top 0.1% of the most hungry ate there? What if the wait staff dispensed insults with the salad? And when the customers complain, instead of taking corrective action the owners tell the world how stupid and lazy their customers are… that they don’t know what is good for them?

Who is ultimately responsible for the poor business and the acrimony that follows: the customers… or the restaurateurs?

Certainly not the customers. They want a good meal. They want to be served well. They want to enjoy the experience. No paying customer chooses to be insulted and disappointed. This isn’t Amy’s Baking Company.

Now, there are some very strong career centers out there ranging from the huge to the tiny that are doing amazing work; Babson, Northeastern, Indiana University, SMU, Spring Hill College and Thomas College just to name a very few. In each case, the person ultimately responsible for driving traffic into their center has embraced relationship-building, social media, blogging, and – perhaps most important – taking an “I don’t have to BE the expert… I just have to KNOW the experts” approach to serving their customers well.

Many career centers, however, do seem to have issues. Big issues.

An outdated model filled with outdated advice? Perhaps. Public relations problem? Most likely. Failure to emulate those centers that excel, even in this economy? For many, yes. Failure to invite the customers/recruiters/experts in, actively listen, and adapt their business to a customer service based model? Most definitely.

Pretending this is all someone else’s fault and taking an “our restaurant is just fine; they just don’t know how good we are” approach? Major fail.

To find a solution, career centers must tear down the protectionist walls they’ve built between them and the rest of us. They must realize these walls don’t provide the security or longevity they’d hoped. Instead, they keep the truth out. And the truth is… everyone being blamed for this problem is actually a stakeholder in fixing the problem.

No one is immune; no one is an exception.

We stop arguing. Rather than blame, we collaborate, mentor and share best practices. We turn the model upside down by making career preparation a mandatory component of a college education.

We fix this. Or we continue to wonder why so few students use career centers… even when they need us most.

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About the Author: CEO and Founder of YouTern, Mark Babbitt is a serial mentor who has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Forbes and Under30CEO.com regarding job search, career development, internships and higher education’s role in preparing emerging talent for the workforce. A keynote speaker and blogger, Mark’s contributions include Huffington Post, Switch and Shift, The Daily Muse and Under30CEO.



Mark has been honored to be named to GenJuice’s list of “Top 100 Most Desirable Mentors” and was recently featured on HR Examiner’s “Top 25 Trendspotters in HR” and several top blogger lists, including JobMob’s “Top Career Bloggers of 2012”. Contact Mark via email or on Twitter!