LIT+REVIEW



Career Development For Students In Higher Education  Students in higher education are of diverse backgrounds. They differ not only in terms of gender and age, but also in terms of race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, disability status and nationality. Irrespective of these differences, majority of students sought college or university education to improve their employability. Understanding the career development needs of students in institutions of higher education is thus necessary for designing appropriate intervention strategies to help enhance their employability. This review identifies some of the career development needs of this population. In addition, the various intervention strategies employed by counselors to meet the identified needs and the effectiveness of such interventions strategies are presented. **Career Development Needs Of Students **  The role of self awareness in career development and career decision making cannot be overemphasized. A good number of career development theorists argue that becoming aware of one’s self is an essential component of developing a meaningful career. While this need for greater self awareness is essential in the career development pursuit of every individual, it is even more so for higher education students, majority of who are at the developmental stage termed emerging adults, where identity formation is a major task (Arnett, 2000). Students need to know their interests, values and skills so as to make informed decisions regarding which jobs are suitable for them and which ones are not a good match.  Career counselors in institutions of higher learning employ a variety of intervention strategies to assist students to learn more about themselves. One of the most popular strategies is the use of inventories and questionnaires. The number of available inventories and questionnaires for self exploration correspond to the dimensions of career-related self needing exploration. Multitudes of these tools exist and students usually complete them to learn about their interests, values, skills, decision-making style and so on. Brown (2012) provides names of some of the available inventories. They include, Holland’s Career Interest Inventory, Adult’s Career Concerns Inventory, Career Belief’s Inventory, and Career Thoughts Inventory.  While a number of the inventories can be applied across various age groups, some were developed for use among specific population. Some are multidimensional and assess different aspects of career self concept. For example the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI), which is used to measure dysfunctional thinking in career decision making and problem solving, is a multidimensional measure intended to be used by high school and college students who are choosing a major field of study or a career (Gilbert, 1997). It yields three scores: 1) decision making confusion (DMC), 2) commitment anxiety (CA), and 3) external conflict (EC). Also, similar to other inventories, the CTI comes with learning tools containing guidelines and activities that can be employed to improve the career related self concept measured. Specifically, the __Improving Your Career Thoughts: A Workbook for the Career Thoughts Inventory__ that accompanies the CTI provides clients with information and exercises to help them to identify and change their dysfunctional career related thoughts.  Counselors using objective assessment techniques like inventories to assess and enhance students’ self awareness need to be cognizant of certain issues when selecting inventories for use among higher education students. These issues include the inventory’s appropriateness for the age group, its sensitivity to the concerns of minority groups and its psychometric properties (validity and reliability). Irrespective of the above, the use of objective measures of self awareness is easy and straightforward. Most inventories are also written in simple language and students can administrated them on their own with little or no help from counselors. Career development inventories thus remain the most cost effective means to satisfying higher education students’ need for career-related self knowledge and counselors can use them in diverse settings including career workshops and job fairs.
 * Need for Self Knowledge **

 The need for self awareness is closely linked to the need for an enhanced understanding of the world of work. According to Wood and Kaczynski (2007), majority of college graduates find it difficult to obtain employment and hence develop meaningful careers because they are seriously under-prepared for the world of work. They argued that most students leave college with but little knowledge of the job market and worst of all they lack knowledge about the job-seeking process itself. To overcome this problem, it is essential for college students to be armed with information about the various career options available to them as well as other relevant information about such careers like the entry requirements, job prospects and job demands or tasks. This will assist them to make informed decisions about what career they would like to pursue and the needed preparation they have to undertake. In the past, career counselors have used various tools and intervention strategies to help higher education students develop greater self-awareness and substantial knowledge about occupations. They have arranged job shadowing and internship opportunities for students to get exposure to various jobs. Also, students have been made to read books about various occupations conduct career interviews or attend lectures by various professionals. Students have also been taught how to use occupational database like the Occupational Outlook Handbook provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This gives a plethora of information about careers including: income, job projection, job growth, education level needed for jobs, and other data (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). Similar to this handbook, the Occupational Information Network (O’NET), a database of occupations, also provides information about hundreds of jobs from which students can explore and learn about the various option available to them. These resources provide information about what each occupation entails, the entry requirements, salary as well as future projections. For example, from the Occupational Outlook Handbook students can learn that by the year 2018, careers in the service sector will continue to outgrow careers in the manufacturing sector and that the top three career categories in the service center that will experience the most growth are: healthcare and social assistance, professional (scientific and technical services) and educational services respectively (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). Also, from O’NET students will find out that accounting jobs are expected to increase by 20 percent by 2018.  Each of the intervention strategies listed above has its pros and cons. For instance, it is easy and cost effective to teach student how to use the various occupational databases to search for career information. This can be done through individual counseling, group sessions or at workshops. In another respect, internships and job shadowing opportunities help students to gain both self awareness and practical occupational knowledge. However, securing such opportunities can be tiresome and at times costly for students and career counselors alike. In the same way, arranging career-related public lectures for students can be costly. But these lecturers do not only expose students to the experience of people in various fields, they also provide them with insight on various career options they may not have considered. One of such options is entrepreneurship. According to Hipple (2010), self-employment continues to be an important source of jobs in the United States. As of 2009, 15.3 million people in the United States were self-employed (Hipple, 2010). However, college students and graduates do not generally consider pursuing self-employment because they are primarily encouraged to become hired as employees. Many attribute this attitude to the kind of training students receive in college and argue that schools should make more effort to teach students about entrepreneurship. According to Culkin and Mallick (2010), “what is actually required is a more radical approach, one that seeks to empower graduates with the knowledge and skills of the entrepreneur rather than those focused around simply ‘getting a job’(p. 348).” One approach to promoting entrepreneurship can be through public lectures and workshops designed to expose students to the benefits (including increased independence, and unlimited earning potential) and drawbacks (irregular job schedule, financial insecurity and time consuming) of pursuing self-employment.
 * Occupational and Work Knowledge Needs **

 For most college graduates, the transition from school-to-work is everything but successful and smooth. The difficulty of the transition process is evident by the high unemployment rate among recent graduates (Hobojn, Gardiner & Wile, 2011). While the economic situation in the country is partly to be blamed, the unemployment situation of most recent graduates can be attributed to certain controllable or avoidable factors relating to employability skills. As noted earlier, Wood and Kaczynski (2007) observed that majority of college graduates are seriously under-prepared for the world of work. According to them, the source of the difficulty is that, most graduates throughout their college years received no career training as well as had no formal job placement. Unlike the group above, some graduates find employment shortly after graduation. Among this group, the difficulty of the college-to-work transition is manifested in the fact that only less than 50% remain with their first employer after two years (Wendlandt & Rochlen, 2008). A significant proportion of this turnover rate among college-educated employees has been attributed to non-satisfaction and adjustment difficulties on the first job (ibid). Cognizant of these difficulties, there is the need to familiarize future graduates with the various challenges involved in the college-to-work transition as well as provide tips as to how they prepare and position themselves to deal effectively with these challenges. Here are some reasons why graduates fail to find and maintain employment shortly after school. Some of these reasons are: poor GPA, l ack of work experience and employability skills, u <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">nrealistic aspirations or expectations and <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">c <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">hanges in environment (see table 1 for examples of differences between school and work environment). Another factor can be **d**egree-work mismatch. There are times that what students learn in school have little bearing on what is being done at the work place. Prospective employers may thus not know where in their organization to place such people. When this happens, such employers expect graduates to educate them on the skills they had acquired in college and how that might be useful in the company. Unfortunately, most graduates who find themselves in such situations to not usually not how some of the skills learned and utilized in school may translate into the workplace. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">Table 1: Differences Between College And The World Of Work <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">etc.) || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Infrequent and less precise feedback || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">with lots of direction || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Highly unstructured environment and tasks <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">with few directions || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Interests || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Directions and interests dictated by others || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Focus on getting results for the organization || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Get results with your knowledge || <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> A number of students also graduate from college with little preparation for the work environment in terms of self presentation, motivation and communication. (Wood & Kaczynski, 2007).As such they may not know how to relate to their colleagues and supervisors leading to work stress and subsequently poor adjustment and performance. Some individuals also have poor work attitude. They lose sight of the fact that irrespective of one’s GPA, as a newcomer in the world of work, one will have to start at the bottom. As such they apply for position which their experience does not qualify them for. Assisting students to learn about employability and careers whiles still in school will be very beneficial in overcoming these challenges. Through workshops and seminars, students can be taught how to obtain career information through interviews as well as how to present or sell themselves when they are searching for employment. This may include teaching them how to write resumes and cover letters as well as how to behavior during interviews.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Job Search and Work Adjustment Needs **
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">College || **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">World of Work ** ||
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Frequent, quick and concrete feedback (grades,
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Highly structured curriculum and programs
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Few significant changes || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Frequent and unexpected changes ||
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Frequent breaks and time off || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Limited time off ||
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Personal control over time, classes and
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Intellectual challenge || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Organizational and people challenges ||
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Choose your performance level (e.g. A, B, C) and Focus on your growth and development || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A-level work required all the time
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Independence of ideas and thinking / create and explore knowledge || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Do it the company's way
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Individual effort || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Team effort ||
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Less initiative required || <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lots of initiative ||
 * //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Source: Holton (2000) // ||


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Job Acquisition Skills and Information **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Resumes andCover Letters **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">: A recent survey of 140 United States and multinational companies found that the majority of employers still prefer the standard resume: chronological order, delivered electronically, and including cover letters (Schullery, 2009). In addition to knowing how to format a resume, students must know what type of information to include. Thoms et al (1999) found that resumes with clear, precise objective statements were more likely to be chosen than those without. Resumes that listed a GPA of 3.0 or higher were more likely to be chosen than those with no GPA listed. Accomplishment statements and one page resumes were also preferred over no accomplishment statements and two or more page resumes. Extracurricular activities can also impact how a resume is rated. Nemanick and Clark (2002) found that holding leadership positions in many organizations resulted in more positive ratings than leadership in less organizations or no leadership; having no extracurricular activity was rated the lowest. By educating students on this research, they can create more competitive resumes for optimal employment opportunity.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Employment References **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">: Many employers require references as part of the selection process. According to Muir (2009), students should have a variety of references, including ones from social, academic, and supervisory areas. Having many potential references to choose from would allow the student to tailor the references they choose to provide to different employers. As demonstrated by Evuleocha, et al (2009), different recruiters consider different characteristics. Their study found that males tended to value decision-making and women tended to value computer skills. Recruiters over the age of 46 valued work ethic more than recruiters under 35. The area of employment references would benefit from much more future research.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Job Interviews **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">: Practicing job interviews and interview coaching as good preparation strategies has been supported by research. Those who received interview coaching used more strategies than those who did not, such as role-playing, observing, and organizing their thoughts. These strategies resulted in better interview performance (Maurer, 2001). There is also more than one kind of interview. A meta-analysis of 47 studies revealed that interviews seemed to be generally divided into low and high structure. Low structure interviews were more likely to assess intelligence, emotional stability and agreeableness, and physical attributes, whereas high structure interviews were more likely to assess mental skills, social skills, and organizational fit (Huffcutt, 2001). Tross and Maurer (2008) found that the more coaching an interviewee received, the higher the rating their interview received. The various coaching strategies included lectures, discussions, writing exercises, practice, and feedback. This research suggests that student should use as many resources as they have available to learn about and practice interviews.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. //American Psychologist, 55//, 469–480. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bezdek, R. H. (2010). Green jobs currently employ substantial numbers; Source of new jobs.Natural Gas & Electricity
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> References **

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