It may come as a surprise to some that college is intended to have value beyond those riveting experiences in frat basements and weekly ventures to Powerplant Live for club night.
While college presents a unique opportunity for social experimentation and growth, at its core, college is about getting an invaluable education that will prepare students for their futures. Today, more than ever, the dominant trend shows that college graduates lack direction.
"Most students are actually not planning their career until after they graduate, and they are finding that they can't graduate in four years because they didn't know what they were going to college for," said Peg Hendershot, director of Career Vision, an organization that aids students in formulating an appropriate plan for the future. "In fact, about 30 percent of kids graduate in five or six years instead of the normal four."
For many, prolonged undergraduate study or career indecision is a problem of not knowing what they want for the future, which results from an inadequate understanding of what makes them happy.
"Students want to start preparing for the workplace as early as possible," said Hendershot. "This means looking at what they have in their tool kit to see where they are going."
Many students are also unprepared in terms of the specific skills that are needed in the job market. While graduates excel in areas such as writing, analytical capabilities and debate, many are lacking in other skills that are necessary in the business world.
"In terms of soft skills, students are woefully unprepared," said Brad Karsh, president of JobBound, a career counseling company that he started three years ago after working for 15 years in the recruiting department at Leo Burnett in Chicago. "There is no class in college that teaches you how to get along with a boss you don't get along with or that teaches you to work successfully in a team. Adjusting to the real world is totally different than most expect."
Karsh has been featured on CNN, CNBC, and in The Wall Sreet Journal as a leader in career counseling. This week, Karsh is gearing up to appear on the Paula Zahn Now on CNN, which is covering the issue of unemployment that has resulted from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
According to counselors, considering today's competitive job market and skills needed for success in the job force, there are few downsides to planning early.
"There's nothing wrong with planning, but you have to allow enough flexibility," said Erin White, a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal who has written extensively on internships and resume building. "While there is always the risk that if you plan too meticulously then you will end up focusing and limiting yourself to one path, if you leave yourself open to adjusting plans, then you will be fine."
The first step that should be taken in preparing for life after college is to get advice. A quick meeting with a counselor can go a long way in establishing a feasible path to follow.
Hendershot advises, "Take advantage of anything the university has to offer. Most of senior year and even after graduation, the university is good about helping students make career decisions. You pay a lot for this assistance."
Today this notion of knowing one's interests and talents is particularly important. "Understanding what you are good at doing, where you want to develop yourself and where you will make a contribution is how you get hired," said Hendershot. "The trend today is that it is a dramatically different world of work that is changing so much faster than the previous generation."
"Depending on what field you want to go into, many jobs require that you start early, since they do recruiting early. For example, if you are interested in banking or finance, you want to get started freshmen or sophomore year. For more creative fields, there is a different process; they aren't hiring seniors until February, March or April, so there is more time" said Karsh.
In today's job market, internships are widely pursued and coveted as necessary resume boosters and for the professional experience they offer. The majority of internships for college students are done during the summer months; however, opportunities abound for work during the school year.
White described the effect of growing demand for internship opportunities; she said, "As the job market is getting more and more competitive, people are putting more effort into the things that they need to be hired. [When applying for a job], there is a need to have what other people have. If everyone else ratchets it up a notch and gets an internship, then you have to as well."
Karsh attributes the increasing importance placed on internships to several factors. "Internships are more and more important for a couple of reasons: one, companies ideally want to hire students who can hit the ground running; and two, less money is allocated for training programs than in the past."
"Internships can be an indication of ability to do the basics of the job, one's ability to work in office environment and what you are getting into," Karsh said.
Another aspect to concentrate on is building a solid resume. Here, again, being able to identify one's interests is important. Many students, in attempting to craft the best resume possible, fail to accurately describe their own goals and experience.
"Students turn themselves inside out to answer questions, and they end up saying something that they are not," according to Hendershot. Hendershot said this scenario usually results in unhappiness with a job or an inefficient job search. "A common mistake that students have made is to have others write their resume because then, when you go in for an interview, you don't know how to explain what is written on paper."
In addition, many students have a tendency to focus on writing job descriptions instead of explaining individual accomplishments. "Ninety-nine out of 100 students write job description resumes as opposed to writing accomplishment resumes," Karsh said. "Most students describe what they have done instead of focusing on accomplishments or what they did that was special or more than another."
A salient part of this whole process is learning how to achieve a healthy balance between planning for the future and enjoying the present.
To achieve this tricky balance, "you have to devote the energy to planning things when you are thinking about it, but when not sitting down and planning the rest of your life you have to let it go for a little bit," White said.
"As a freshman and sophomore, you should be exploring more instead of obsessing. Try to learn a bit more and chill out while thinking about getting an internship, but not obsessing from day one," said Karsh. "Too many students get too worked up with the job search. There is a difference between being an obsessive college student and an intelligent job seeker. You can't obsess for four solid years about your job."
