College graduates are more likely to receive career advice from professors than from their campus’s career services, according to the 2018 Strada–Gallup Alumni Survey of more than 5,100 U.S. college grads.
The survey suggests that roughly 33% of students receive career advice from faculty or staff very often or often, while just 22% reported using resources from career services at the same rate. And 27% of grads reported never visiting their college’s career services office or accessing its resources during their time on campus.
Even more, students value career advice from professors more than they value career advice from career services, according to the survey. While 49% of students found career advice from faculty and staff outside of career services to be helpful or very helpful, just 30% said the same about the advice they received from career services.
And this is true for students across majors—particularly arts and humanities students. According to the survey, 46% of arts and humanities students indicated that the advice they received from faculty or staff was helpful or very helpful, compared with just 22% who said the same about the advice they received from the career services office.
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Writing for Gallup, Zac Auter and Stephanie Marken suggest that these findings echo the Strada-Gallup 2017 College Student Survey, in which surveyed students indicated that their career services office was more helpful for creating or updating resumes than for career-related advice.
Auter and Marken recommend that colleges clarify the role of their career services office, as well as the role of professors and other faculty in advising students. For instance, institutions can empower faculty members to discuss careers with students.
After all, the Strada-Gallup 2017 College Student Survey reveals that about 57% of students who said a professor or staff member initiated a conversation with them about jobs felt confident in their career outlook. And additional research has shown that close faculty-student relationships result in significantly greater levels of happiness and engagement later in students’ careers, adds EAB‘s Colin Koproske (Auter/Marken, Gallup, 11/16).
