The Jobs campaign garnered new data regarding graduate and professional student professional pathways and resources across UC campuses, and provided system-wide and campus-specific recommendations which can be found in our Jobs Survey report. Read the full report HERE.
Key Recommendations from our report:
Listen to Student Needs
Through our survey, students provided us with clear priorities for the professional development they want and need. Thus our first recommendation is that resource providers actively incorporate student input and priorities into resource offerings on each campus.
Increase Collaboration
For the sake of quality, utility, and relevance, Career Centers and Departments should collaborate whenever possible. We encourage Career Centers and Department faculty to think critically about how to bring professional development resources to their students in collaboration with on campus and outside partners, including Alumni.
Gather and Share Best Practices
Reviewing our survey data indicates that students are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with their professional development options; luckily we can identify the occasional outlier. We request that the UC system work to collect and share models of successful programs and investigate how to build these programs to scale.
Tailor Programming to Fit Student Needs
Development needs vary from program to program, thus it is essential that resources be tailored to thoughtfully consider what career pathways are available in each field of study. Programing should be designed to take a student “from here to there”; that is, resources must address gaps in students’ career preparedness in a way that is specific to their desired field.
Additional Supports for Students Who Change Their Career Goals
Students who change their career goals are less likely to feel well prepared for the workforce after graduation. Consider the 70% of Doctoral Students who have identified new career goals, and that 71% of those students have made a change due to a lack of jobs in their initially identified field. These students require solid guidance and resources in order to market themselves in venues outside of academia. Providing these resources may require a system to track changes in student goals and respond in a timely manner. We encourage the UC system, department chairs, and Career Services staff to consider the systems in place for reporting a change in either a student’s course of study or career goals.
Provide Data on Student Career Outcomes
Students who are considering applying to a graduate program deserve accurate data that provides information about the outcomes of that program. Data points such as percentage of student who complete, how many students pursue careers outside of academia, and the median income for graduates from each class year would help students to be more informed as they make one of the biggest consumer decisions of their life.
