Advice on career planning
College students are often encouraged to pursue a “degree” in area of their interests. They are told to “Follow their dream” or “Study whatever they are interested in.” However those advices may lead students to obtain degree in area that has no need in this competitive job market.
Today a college degree is NO LONGER a guarantee for job. Most companies do NOT hire graduates base on degree but on the SKILLS that companies need. That is the reality of this competitive job market that many students and parents are NOT fully aware of. That is why newspapers are full of articles about unemployed people with college degrees. To succeed in this competitive market, it is important for parents, students and schools to focus on career planning based on market trends and industry needs rather than just pursue any college degree.
College students often do not distinguish between career planning and finding a job. Career planning is a process that students select an occupation when they go to college, prepare for a career by obtain necessary skills, getting a job, growing in that job, keep learning and advancing until they retire. To plan a career, students must explore the field of study that lead to the occupation in which they are interested; conduct research on the industries in which they like to work in; and research the job market trends BEFORE making decision on what field to study in college.
I know some students have their own interests and I am not asking anyone to abandon their interests but from a practical view, I do not want to see them gaining knowledge in an area of their own interests but may be useless upon graduation. I want students to be fully aware of how their decisions in college will affect their future career opportunities. An interest has to be practical; else it may bring regrets later. I have seen many students who graduated with advanced degrees but had no valuable job skills, which gave them difficulty in finding works. I feel sad for students who have been told just to get a “degree” rather than to learn “valuable skills” that can help them to build good career. I also feel sad for parents who spent most of their life to save money to put their children to college and found out that their degreed children could not even get a job. Today go to college and get a degree is NOT enough, students must also have the skills that are in demand to build a good career. Many students do not like to make career decisions until second or third year. By that time, they are far behind others who have acquired all necessary skills and experiences to compete in this job market.
When I taught in Asian, I had chances to talk to many unemployed graduates. I found that most of them have never been given any direction by the school or by their advisors as to what skills are important to build a good career. Many did not realize their fields of study were no longer needed or there was an oversupply of workers already. Few students know what they will do when as their education goal was just to get a “degree”. One thing that surprised me the most was even in this Information Age, many did not know how to research job market or industry's trends to plan their career. Many spent a lot of time on the internet chat rooms to know in details about scandals of movie stars and rock musicians but do not know which skills are needed by the industry. Last year a student told me that most skills required by the industry were not taught in his school so I asked him whether he knew about open on line trainings such as “Coursera”, “Khan's Academy”, “Udacity” or “edX” where he could learn almost any subject and any skills taught by the professors from the top universities in the world. He was surprised that these trainings exist and he did not have to pay anything to take these classes.
In Asian, parents have significant influence on a student’s career selection. Unfortunately, many parents are often unaware of the market changes and the globalization factor that may impact their children's careers. They do not realize that what has happened during their time, which may be twenty or thirty years ago, is no longer valid. Many parents only encourage their children to go to college to get “degree” rather than understand which skills are needed. The common advices that I heard from parents was: “We will support you to get the highest degree possible.” rather than be specific on a particular career goals. Many parents also do not want their children to work in the summer because they can support them but they do not understand that summer job is an opportunity to gain experience and familiar with the working environment.
It is important that parents discuss their children's career with college counselors to explore multiple fields of studies that allow their children to make good career selections. Of course parents must consider a variety of factors, such as the college's reputation, the competitiveness for admission, and most importantly, whether the school has the program that their child can build a good career on. They must understand the market trends and industry needs as well as understand the need for students to gain summer of work experience in area that is related to their careers and be supportive of the students to get this experience.
Parents need to discuss their views about career direction with their children as early as possible. They should be active to participate in their children education to make sure that their children's career would be good ones because today, there are so many factors such as global economy, technology changes, market changes and industry needs that could impact their children's career.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
