Career services leadership and advocacy

Hi ya, Reader- There’s a question that’s quietly turning into a crisis on campus:“What do we lose if we cut career services?” At some institutions, that question has already become a decision. Staff slashed by 50%.Open roles frozen indefinitely.And yet… Students still expect personalized guidance. Families still demand outcomes. Presidents still need to prove ROI. Career services isn’t being cut because it’s unimportant. It’s being cut because it’s invisible in the conversations that count....

Hey there, Reader- When I introduced the idea of interventions in career services last week, one concern came up: “This all sounds great, but we don’t have the systems to track it.” And honestly? That’s fair. Most career centers weren’t built with intervention in mind. We have tools to post jobs, run career fairs, and collect FDS results—but not to track whether a student has completed the milestones that predict employability. Reframing the problem The good news: you don’t need perfect...

Hello, Reader- How many of your juniors were truly ready for the internship market by September?How many are checked out—or still exploring majors when employers are already recruiting? In today’s environment—tight labor market, AI reshaping entry-level jobs, and state and federal accountability breathing down our necks—leaving career readiness to chance is no longer cutting it. It’s time to step up our game. From the engagement on my LinkedIn post on this topic, I know many of you are with...

🍁 Happy September, Reader! It's that time of year again, when we watch the rankings make our chancellors and presidents sweat. Boards ask about them. Donors cite them. Parents Google them.And let’s be honest—sometimes it feels like an entire cabinet meeting can get derailed by one data point in the rankings by U.S. News. But here’s the opening: alternative rankings are changing the story. Washington Monthly’s “Best Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax Dollars)”—out just last week—flips the...

Hello, Reader- New academic year, new syllabi, new… wave of students pretending not to make eye contact when they walk past your career center table. Sound familiar? Every year, we launch welcome events, kick off programming, and hope this will finally be the year more students engage earlier. But here’s the truth:Students aren’t waking up thinking about résumés, career fairs, or NACE competencies. They’re thinking…“How do I choose the right major?”“Will I land an internship?”“What do I want...

So, Reader, last week, I brought you the hard news. If you’re still with me for part 2, thank you for hanging in there.We are better together. Here's the long and short of it: entry-level jobs are disappearing and students are finding it harder than ever to get their start. Career services needs to evolve. This data shows we’ve fallen behind. A recent report from Tyson Partners demonstrates that college administrators and staff don’t think their institution is worth the cost. The reason?...

Reader, We have a pretty urgent situation on hand here. If you haven’t been paying attention to the news lately, you may have missed the latest data on GenAI’s influence on entry-level roles. And I’m not talking about some theoretical “future of work” debate. I’m talking about the fact that entry-level jobs are evaporating already. Not in one year. Not in six months. Yesterday. And I want to talk about this with you. It may feel like a swift kick in the pants. It reminds me of spring 2020,...

Hello Reader, Last week, I presented at uConnect’s Career Everywhere Conference with a couple of power-house consultants from Carnegie and Credo. Joretta Nelson, Jonathan Wehner, and I talked about how career services connects to some of the biggest priorities on campus—enrollment, retention, mental health, and overall student success. Then Joretta dropped this gem: “You adapt to the needs of students all the time. Why aren’t you adapting to the needs of the president?” And I nearly launched...

Hello there, Reader! Shortly after my son handed me Ice Cream Machine by Adam Rubin, I found myself captivated by the opening lines. Rarely do middle-grade books grab me like this: “...Here we are now, you and I together, on this very word. “Strange, right? It's almost as if these sentences have formed some mystical, telepathic connection directly from my brain to yours. You are reading my mind right now, and I, in turn, have you hypnotized. “I can prove it: Imagine a dog eating a diaper....