As part of our Student to Student video series, College Matters reconnected with its former student Molly, who is studying nursing in college. She explains which extracurricular activities she did in high school, what she considered when applying to nursing programs, and shares other helpful tips for high school students.
How to Succeed in College and in Life, According to a Communications Professor
Ever visualize yourself as the next Mindy Kaling, Martin Scorsese, or Trevor Noah? If you’re fascinated with podcasts, TV shows, film, journalism, or design, a communications school might be right for you. We caught up with Professor Anthony Adornato to give communications (and really all) students an idea of how they should be spending their time in college. Adornato is an associate professor at Ithaca College who teaches on social media and broadcasting. Adornato has also taught classes at Syracuse University and Utica College.
When asked about his most successful students, Adornato answered that it’s usually the ones who make the most of the school's opportunities. No one is going to tell you precisely what you should do, he said. Students need to be hungry and passionate to do work independently and, most importantly, be innovative. Technology allows students to create their own projects easily. However, he did warn that some students try to chase every opportunity that comes their way, which causes them to spread themselves too thin. He advised that students go deeper into the projects they’re passionate about and make sure those are excellent before moving onto something else.
His advice for students was to try to find their passion and spend time dabbling in activities they've never tried before. Follow what you feel good about and if it’s not working after a while, start pivoting. He emphasized the importance of producing actual content to demonstrate learning and show off creativity.
Based on his observations, the students who are most likely to get a job out of college are ones that build relationships through their internships. Particularly with communications, they do a good job branding themselves through creating personal websites and having an industry-related social media account. They’re sharing relevant content before they even become professionals.
Is Getting a Job Really the End Goal?
The message often received in high school is that you have to work hard to get a job. The problem is, I’ve seen plenty of people get jobs, but then what? Is that it? Of course not. I know people in the working world who can’t manage multiple tasks. I know teachers who struggle to communicate with their students. I know people who are in leadership positions and fail to lead. All these people have high school diplomas and college degrees. So what’s the problem?
Many high school students see the diploma and the job as the final destination. The truth is the diploma and job are just the beginning of a lifetime of learning. Most people end up getting that first job, but many don’t do the job well or don’t enjoy the work. They feel confused about which city to live in, how to make friends in that city, and whether living in that city really makes financial sense. Climbing up the academic ladder is a series of planned out steps. You take the SAT and climb up a rung. You get into college and climb up another. You graduate from high school. Your professors give you assignments and exams. With each one you complete, you make your way to the top of that ladder until graduation day. Now you’re at the top of the tree when all of a sudden, the ladder gets removed from under you, and you have to figure out a way to get down. There are no more rungs laid out for you. There’s no next graduation or homework assignment. There’s no moving on to the next grade. Professors and advisors aren’t telling you what to do anymore.
That’s where those skills from school—critical thinking, organization, communication, grit, self-reflection—come in. They help people to keep learning and to figure out what the next best steps for them are. People have to get truthful with themselves and think about what actually gets them excited and motivated. They have to create the path for themselves for the first time instead of letting others create it for them. They do this process again and again for years and decades. To say the end goal is the first job is foolish because it’s actually when the real learning begins.
Get “Game-On” for that Internship or Job Search!
This post is an interview with Rich Vancil, a College Matters resource. Rich is a Madison resident and is a career coach for college students, specializing in the “effective networking” part of the job-search process. He delivers his workshops and seminars at the Connecticut College Career Center and Academic Resource office as part of the college’s Distinguished Alumni series.
Q. What’s new in today’s job-search environment for students?
A. Well…technology disruption…of course!
The career platforms (Indeed, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, etc.) have achieved an impressive “scale” of content and audience, much like Google or Facebook or Amazon. These companies aggregate job listings from job boards, employer posts, and staffing companies. This aggregation is a huge magnet to the job-searcher as a perceived one-stop-shop and “one-click” experience. A downside is that a magnet can also be a black-hole. Resumes go in, but the odds that something comes back out are very low. Example: Bank of America receives about 2 million resumes per year for about 20,000 job postings. 97% of those resumes will be tossed out by software before ever being reviewed by a human. With these odds, it is more critical than ever that the job-searcher identifies and nurtures an “insider” to help them. To do that, they have to network.
Q. Does a student have to know someone on the “inside” personally?
A. Although it certainly helps, you don’t have to know someone personally to network. This means making actual phone calls or leaving voice mails, crafting thoughtful and concise emails, and taking assertive/appropriate follow-up steps. It can be uncomfortable work for the student. It makes them feel afraid and vulnerable. Where do I find these insiders? How do I contact or connect with them? What should I ask them? It’s a scary process, but it’s likely to be the most effective.
Q. What are the colleges and the college career centers doing to help the student?
A. The Career Center is a great resource. And your alumni network is hugely valuable. Learn how to access and nurture this network! I help students on how to do this professionally and effectively.
Bear in mind that the Career Center staff can be spread thin. The national average for all colleges and universities is about 1,800 (!) students to one staff member. At a small top-tier college, the ratio is better, but still, each career-center staffer might have to serve 200, 300, or more very anxious students and parents.
Liberal arts colleges, in particular, are under significant pressure to produce a better “product”… that product being a job-ready graduate that an employer wants to pull on-board.
In response to this, many colleges are scrambling to increase their investments in career-readiness. They are now offering “life-skills” workshops in their resource centers. They are adding subjects such as finance and accounting cohorts to their core curriculum.
At Connecticut College, where I volunteer, a new “Fast-Forward” program has been launched. Students come back to the college during winter break for an intensive week of job-search skills, interview role-plays, presentation skills, and more. I will be on the staff!
Q. What are the successful first steps that a student should take on their job-search path?
A. Begin to develop the networking process skills early. An underclass student should begin to develop these skills during the internship search. This includes learning the tools; getting a sense for the “numbers game” that a job search is (lots of “no’s and lots and lots of ghosts); learning the process of developing a network; becoming more comfortable with professional-grade correspondence and interactions. By the senior year, when the stakes are high, the student is “game-on” ready.
It is not unusual for me to meet with a “Help-Me, Please!” student in March of their senior year. I start off by asking, “OK…. So, what do you have going on?” And a frequent response is, “Well...not that much…but my Dad is REALLY on my case!”
The greatest obstacle to starting is paralysis about personal interaction and networking. Because of that fear and to avoid those process steps, the student quickly turns to the mechanical steps such as submitting resumes on-line. In this way, the student can now respond to Dad: “Well, I submitted 20 resumes this week!” But as discussed above, the results of that will likely lead to rejection, which will lead to discouragement, which could lead to less effort. A bad spiral! But moving out of this and into a virtuous spiral is highly coachable as a learnable skill, and this “Effective Networking” process will become a career-long asset.
The Peril of Asking a 16 or 17-year old: What do you want to do with the rest of your life?
What do you want to do with the rest of your life? Counselors, teachers, parents, and friends often ask this question of high school students as they begin to think about post-high school graduation plans, and it makes sense: we want goals to inform planning. However, it is essential to recognize that many kids this age don’t know what they want to do… or be. They may be more drawn to STEM classes or love literature and writing, but their goals may still be quite vague. And they may not have identified a major or area of interest for college.
In the wake of the prolonged recession that started in 2008 that resulted in a rising number of unemployed college graduates, we have found that families want their kids to identify careers earlier and make that a key criterion of the college search and match process. The students we work with are feeling the pressure, increasing anxiety for some.
“Let’s stop stressing out our kids with career choice pressure” an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer by the psychologist, speaker, and author, Janet Sasson Edgette reminds us that forcing our children to decide on a career before they are ready can lead to false starts and unintended consequences. She also makes a case for raising children who are adaptive — who value education for the opportunity to explore and discover as they will be better prepared for futures where they will have to change as the career landscape changes. Parenting our children to seek a balance between security and what brings them joy is a goal worth promoting.
Computer Science: The bugs in the system
The number of undergraduates majoring in computer science has more than doubled from 2013 to 2017. We have seen this trend in our practice as more and more students are expressing interest in a career in tech. At the university level, the number of students interested in studying computer science is outpacing the supply of professors, and students are starting to feel the impact of this imbalance. From an admissions perspective, it is getting more competitive to get accepted as a computer science major. Colleges are trying to manage the increase in demand but are finding it difficult to attract faculty when salaries in the private sector are more lucrative. Some colleges have made computer science a limited enrollment major meaning they are only allowing a certain number of students in. Other universities are limiting the number of courses computer science majors can take in their major in order to open up space to others in the department who are trying to fulfill their requirements. And, many colleges are facing issues of overcrowded classes, and have started using lottery systems to allocate coveted spots.
As it relates to high school students thinking about applying into computer science, realize that it has gotten more competitive and building your resume to show your experience and commitment to the subject will help.
What Should You Do For a Career?
A recent Pew Research poll found that 34% of Americans would recommend a STEM focus for a high school student seeking career advice. Another third would advise that students follow their passion or pursue something that they love. Among this group, however, younger respondents tended to favor the "do what you love" path, unlike older respondents who favor STEM or technology careers.