In a follow-up attempt to qualify what a “good” visit to a career-services office looks like, Gallup spoke with graduates about their experiences. So-called “non-traditional” students—older students who may have worked prior to enrolling in college, for instance, or who might be raising children—said that the offices frequently offered only basic interviewing tips or resume guidelines, where what they really wanted was more personalized assistance. Some graduates said they would have appreciated suggestions on salary negotiation or what to look for in a potential manager. Others lamented that the offices were only open for limited hours, and wished for online assistance they could access at their convenience. Still others said their offices only had contacts in the local job market, making it difficult to leave the area.

All of this would indicate that there’s room for colleges to improve not only how they connect with students, but also what they offer. Some schools have begun to rethink and devote more resources to career advice in the past few years. Last year, for instance, Wellesley College hired the career specialist Christine Cruzvergara to expand its contact with potential employers and retool its services after she published a widely circulated article on LinkedIn that outlined how some schools have revamped their offices. Some schools, she pointed out, have moved the offices from student affairs to other departments, such as advancement or enrollment, while other schools have essentially moved the offices up the chain of command, so they have more frequent contact with top school leaders.

It’s worth noting that these shifts aren’t taking place in a vacuum. More college freshmen (86 percent since 2010, compared to 73 percent between 2000 and 2009) say getting a job is a key reason they decided to go to college, and there is increasing pressure from state and federal governments to hold schools accountable for graduating people ready to enter the workforce, particularly as tuition rises and graduates struggle with student debt.

Incidentally, graduates with the largest amounts of student debt were more likely than those with less debt to say they found their visits to their career-services offices to be not at all helpful, which, Busteed noted, raises the question of whether the offices are clued into which students have debt, and whether they tailor their advice accordingly. Right now, services are often very siloed. And, Busteed added, students often select a major, then take out loans to pay for it, and then look for a job, when it might make more sense to meet with a career-services officer early, firm up some job goals, and backtrack into a major that makes sense.

Ultimately, Busteed and his colleagues hope schools will look at the national data in the report and see it as an impetus to dig into how they are doing locally. “We’ve been obsessed with admissions,” he said, but “we kind of drop the ball on the other end.”

Hayley Glatter contributed to this story.

This article is part of our Next America: Higher Education project, which is supported by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation.

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