Today’s college students are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities as they enter the workforce, and many lack career readiness. Students pursue higher education (HE) with aspirations of a brighter future, as they should. There is the academic experience, the social experience, sports for some and the “coming of age” that college enables. But students may need to supplement what they are getting from HE in a “Do-It-Yourself” model with the support of family, friends, coaches, mentors, college alumni and others.

As somewhat of a “HE insider” now, I believe current students need to be critically focused on what HE is willing and able to provide — and how to solve for what it doesn’t provide.

Entry-Level Hiring Challenges

While we would like to think college students are interested in the pure joy of academic pursuits, many come to HE simply in the hope of landing a good job.

However, private sector hiring is down and that is impacting entry-level hiring. Employers have also soured on putting inexperienced new joiners in remote roles. Technology has made it too easy to apply for a job, so there is tremendous competition. The hiring process has become elongated, with multiple rounds of interviews. Employer expectations have significantly increased in an evolution (back) to a performance culture, and employers are increasingly focused on skills-based hiring and leveraging personal and professional networks to identify known talent (referrals). Work is rapidly evolving and the workplace is changing. This all makes for somewhat of a perfect storm for today’s college graduates.

At a high level, employers are looking for:

• Academic success
• Professional skills
• AI literacy — strategic and responsible use of AI
• Career pursuit readiness

Students need all of this — even if HE provides only part of it. While most institutions face funding issues, some leading institutions are on to this, and they are evolving their strategic focus on career and professional skills, which is fantastic. For example, Bucknell University’s Freeman College of Management is currently recruiting for a “backpack to briefcase” program director. The American Institute of CPAs and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (AICPA & CIMA) has established a “profession ready” initiative. Boston University recently updated its strategy to focus on the “career ecosystem” to translate classroom learning into professional success.

Soft Skills Falling Short

Employers are increasingly observing that the professional skills of Gen Z and other new joiners are falling short of their expectations. Professional skills include things like communication, teamwork and collaboration, problem-solving, ethical reasoning, self-awareness, motivation, resilience and empathy. Studies suggest that these eight professional skills (and their derivatives) represent as much as 75% to 85% of job success.

At the same time, many full-time professors have substantial academic experience and skills but do not always have as much real-world professional experience (e.g., many don’t have significant corporate experience; they haven’t “worked their way up” in a corporate environment and gained the experience and professional skills that come with it). This is where adjunct professors with significant business and real-world professional experience can play an important role.

Students may need to optimize what they can gain from academic experiences and then supplement with other experiences such as clubs and other organizations, sports, volunteering, part- and full-time jobs, and paid and unpaid internships.

Thinking of Classes Like Work

Classroom and campus activities represent one of the best in-person opportunities to develop professional skills such as relationship-building, communication, attention to detail, attitude and coachability. Approaching the classroom as if it were a work team, and actually participating in class, is a great way to practice managing work assignments, contributing to group discussions, presenting to groups and working within a team (teamwork) and with a supervisor. If students do this, they will not only build needed professional skills, but they will have some good storytelling for networking and interview discussions.

Imagine students participating in class to build and grow needed professional skills — now that’s a fascinating concept.

AI, With or Without HE

HE is deeply concerned with academic integrity, and there are diverse views about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by students. At the same time, employers are expecting new staff to have AI literacy and familiarity with the strategic and responsible use of AI. In addition, given the “human-in-the-loop” considerations (e.g., human genius, strategic thinking and analysis, problem-solving and decision-making, communication, trust, relationships, leadership and monitoring and oversight of responsible use), AI actually puts a premium on professional skills. Students may need to supplement their academic experiences to gain the needed knowledge and experience.

Career Readiness Takes Time

Students cannot get started with their career pursuit strategy early enough. It takes time to define career objectives, develop a value proposition based on skills-mapping (e.g., “mapping” their credentials and experience to job posting requirements and preferred attributes), refine their content and delivery, get started with intentional and purposeful networking to gain sponsors, internal coaches and mentors, and become more adept in “talking to people” and “storytelling.” In addition, they need to prepare and practice for interviews.