Career services leadership and advocacy

Hello, Reader — ‘Tis the season! Commencement season is one of the best parts of higher education. The joy is real. Families cheering wildly for names they absolutely did not hear correctly. Faculty trying to maintain dignity while wearing medieval robes in questionable temperatures. Your senior leaders jumping up and down to House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” Students balancing cords, stoles, honors medallions, and at least one suspiciously tiny bottle of Fireball tucked into a pocket somewhere....

Hello, Reader — Have you noticed? Everyone’s feeling tired. It’s not the kind of tired that disappears after a long weekend or a lighter day. It’s the kind that lingers in the background and quietly reshapes how you work. Decisions take longer. Patience runs thinner. Even routine tasks feel heavier than they should, and the pace that once felt manageable now feels like a constant push. And if you pause for a moment, you’ll likely see that this isn’t just about your team. You’re carrying it,...

Hey there, Reader — What if your office were measured by retention instead of appointments? Not how many students booked coaching. Not event attendance. Not résumé reviews. Not whether 37 students came for pizza and velcroed themselves to the wall until the food showed up. Retention. Would you run the same programs? Use staff time the same way? Promote the same services? Celebrate the same wins? You probably wouldn’t. Many career centers were built to deliver services, not necessarily to move...

Hi, Reader — Summer planning is coming, which means something subtle, but important is about to happen. The pace slows just enough to create the illusion of space, and with that space comes a surge of ideas. New initiatives feel possible. Lingering problems feel solvable. Everything starts to look like something you could finally “get to.” And almost without noticing, the list grows. Not because the ideas are bad. In fact, they’re often quite good. But because no one has made the harder...

Hi, Reader — I’ve found myself in two very different conversations recently, and I can’t shake the gap between them. At one institution, there is a deep and genuine commitment to preserving the liberal arts in its most “pure” form. Faculty are protective of the intellectual experience, cautious about anything that feels overly applied, and wary of integrating career preparation too directly into the academic environment. The concern, whether stated explicitly or not, is that doing so would...

Hey there, Reader — I’ve been thinking about the number of seniors who will graduate in just a few weeks without a clear next step. In this market, waiting or hoping things resolve on their own isn’t a strategy, and it’s a real risk for our students and for how our outcomes are perceived. And it’s something to intervene on—quickly. The good news: this doesn’t require new programs, approvals, or long planning cycles. The institutions that move now will change outcomes for students this...

Hello there, Reader — Last month my consulting business quietly passed its third anniversary. Three years is long enough to accumulate a lot of stakeholder interviews, a lot of airport coffee, and a surprising number of job titles. Consultant, strategist, facilitator… and, depending on the day, also my own IT department, marketing team, and tech support. But the real milestone isn’t the calendar. It’s perspective. When you spend three years walking onto different campuses, interviewing...

Hey there Reader, When Susi Gomez Kennedy stepped into her role at UW-Milwaukee (UWM), she didn’t inherit a polished program. She inherited potential. UWM is an access institution serving 23,000+ residential and commuter students. Building community, belonging, and professional networks in that environment isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. Many students are balancing work, family, and school. Social capital isn’t automatic. Retention issues aren’t abstract. And sitting quietly in the middle...

Hi Reader, My daughter is a junior in college now, which means that not long ago I sat through an impressive number of virtual campus visits. I became very familiar with stock footage of students laughing under trees and phrases like “transformational experience” and “supportive community.” If enthusiasm alone were a differentiator, every institution would win. Honestly, if drone footage were destiny, we’d all retire. What surprised me wasn’t the polish. It was the sameness. Small classes....