The Role of Career Services Programs and Sociocultural Factors in Student Career Development. WCER Working Paper No. 2018-8.

Existing research on the effectiveness of college career services centers (CSCs) has primarily focused on students’ rates of utilization and their satisfaction with the programs and services offered. Based on survey (n = 372) and focus group data (n = 35) from undergraduate business students, we found that participants were most satisfied with the CSC’s provision of practical tools that enhanced employability and were least satisfied with the CSC’s integration of students’ backgrounds and interests during advising. Our qualitative analysis yielded three categories of contributors (i.e., sociocultural factors, independent activities, and institutional factors) to student career outcomes, which were psychological characteristics, career decisions, and social capital. Sociocultural factors were most prominently featured in students’ narratives of their experiences, in that they shaped how students leveraged institutional resources and how they engaged in independent activities as part of their career trajectories. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed. The Role of Career Services Programs and Sociocultural Factors on Student Career Development Mun Yuk Chin, Chelsea A. Blackburn Cohen, and Matthew T. Hora Although debates about the role higher education should play in vocational preparation relative to liberal education have raged for decades (DuBois, 1973; Grubb & Lazerson, 2005), the vocationalist perspective is ascendant in the early 21st century. Widespread anxiety about the availability of well-paying jobs, the rising price of college, and questions about whether graduates have the skills employers require have all contributed to a reorientation toward career preparation across the entire higher education sector (Cottom, 2017; Selingo, 2016). Although this focus on student employability implicates nearly every unit or department on campus, campus administrators widely view career services centers (CSCs) as central in helping students prepare for and compete in a rapidly changing global economy. Consequently, CSCs have attracted considerable investment and scrutiny, with questions being raised about their quality, relevance, and ultimate impacts on students’ lives and careers (Chan & Derry, 2013; Dey & Cruzvergara, 2014; Ezarik, 2016). However, relatively little empirical research has examined the impact of CSCs on students’ outcomes such as their career-related skills, social capital, and psychological readiness for the world of work. Research tends to focus on students’ utilization of and satisfaction with programs and services offered by these campus units. For instance, a 2016 Gallup survey documented that 17% of recent college graduates described career services as very helpful for their career development. While insights into students’ use and perception of career services is important, understanding the degree to which these units enhance their social capital and psychological readiness is arguably more salient. A considerable body of research highlights the importance of social networks and connections (i.e., social capital) (Granovetter, 1995) and psychological attributes such as career adaptability (Savickas et al., 2009) on a student’s ultimate career success. A focus on these outcomes is especially warranted given that career services professionals are now seeing their roles as less about providing career-related skills (e.g., résumé preparation and job placement) and more about cultivating students’ networks and professional identities (Dey & Cruzvergara, 2014). An investigation into these phenomena, however, cannot assume that CSCs are the sole influence on students’ lives, career-related skills, professional networks, and vocational development. Research indicates that students’ career decisions are strongly influenced by personal relationships and family background (Fadulu, 2018; Schultheiss, Kress, Manzi, & Glasscock, 2001). Furthermore, a developmental perspective highlights the fact that students’ views on work and careers unfold in stages throughout their lives, such that colleges and CSCs are but one influence on career identities and outcomes. For example, the sociocultural, economic, and political environment in which students are socialized, particularly via messages and models about what types of careers are possible and/or desirable, also play an important role in shaping students’ views about the world of work (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012). Thus, a key issue Role of Career Services Programs 2 facing the field of student affairs and career counseling in higher education is not only whether students frequent campus CSCs, but also how those experiences might intersect with other factors that influence their career-related skills, social networks, and psychological readiness for the workplace. In this paper we report findings from a mixed-methods study that explored these issues in a school of business at a large research university in the United States. Drawing on survey (n = 372) and focus group (n = 35) data from undergraduate students at this university, we address the following research questions: 1. How, if at all, are students using and experiencing CSC programs and services? 2. From which sources, particularly career services and sociocultural elements, are students acquiring information about careers and the world of work? 3. What are the relative influences of these factors on students’ social networks, psychological characteristics, and early career outcomes? Answers to these questions promise to expand the research literature on the role of CSCs on student outcomes, while illuminating nuances of student career decision-making that student affairs and career services professionals can use to design more effective programs and interventions. Factors Shaping Students’ Career Development and Outcomes Despite increasing attention to CSCs on college and university campuses, little empirical research exists on precisely how these units contribute to students’ career-related outcomes. For instance, much of the research and practitioner literature focuses on the degree to which students utilize CSC programs (Gallup, Inc., 2017; 2016) and students’ reactions to the work performed by career services practitioners (e.g, McGrath, 2002; Olson & Matkin, 1992). This narrow focus fails to document and explore the ways in which CSCs may (or may not) influence students’ career-related skills, social networks, and professional identities. This focus on program utilization and “client” satisfaction not only limits the field of higher education’s understanding of the impacts of CSCs, it aligns poorly with the new, broader mandate career service professionals are adopting to help students cultivate their professional networks and identities (Dey & Cruzvergara, 2014; Schaub, 2012). A broader focus on the effects of career services on students’ skills, networks, and identities is consistent with developmental theories in vocational psychology (Brown & Lent, 2013). Prominent theories of vocational development such as social cognitive career theory (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), the happenstance learning theory (Krumboltz, 2009), and the theory of career construction (Savickas, 2013) emphasize that a diverse range of sociocultural, institutional, and structural factors contribute to an individual’s occupational choice(s) and vocational identities throughout their lives. They assert that early life experiences influence people’s career choices and identities. For college students, their career development must be considered in the context of their emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000). In this phase, students are able to delay assuming adult roles Role of Career Services Programs 3 and responsibilities in order to explore career interests and options more freely (Murphy, Blustein, Bohlig, & Platt, 2010). College, thus, provides a transitional space for the career explorations and vocational identity development of many emerging adults (Messersmith, Garrett, Davis-Kean, Malanchuk, & Eccles, 2008). Here, students encounter new opportunities and people from different backgrounds that allow them to merge their past and current experiences and shape their career interests and identities (Arnett, 2000, 2015). However, while emerging adults have more autonomy compared to adolescents, they continue to be influenced by significant figures, such as parents and caregivers, in their career explorations (Arnett, 2000; Whiston & Keller, 2004). Adopting a developmental perspective, career construction theory postulates that individuals cultivate their career interests and identities based on the perceptions and values that they have acquired through their actions and roles in their family, civic, and educational lives (Savickas, 2013). Grounded in social constructivism, career construction theory views vocational trajectories as a lifelong processes, influenced by an individual’s adaptations to social contexts and life circumstances. The theory further organizes career development in three phases, which are not strictly linear, but all help a person create a “story of [their] working life” (Savickas, 2013, p. 150). They are: self as actor, self as agent, and self as author. The self as actor phase is prominent during early life, when an individual internalizes messages and models about who they should become. Significant figures in a person’s early life serve as role models or guides that influence career interests and choices. During the self as agent phase, the individual takes a more active role of responding to educational and career-related challenges such as normative vocational tasks (e.g., identifying area of interest) and work transitions (e.g., switching into and out of jobs). College students become agents when they carry out vocational tasks such as career planning and exploration, and when they experience career indecision (Kelly & Lee, 2002; Savickas, 2013). Students may straddle