An Opportunity for This Generation to Remake the World BY EMILY GRIFFEN
Insights from the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning
In December 2019, the career services team I lead at Amherst College was hunkered down for a retreat in a hotel ballroom. As we reflected on the previous year and planned for 2020, a graphic facilitator listened intently, creating murals to reflect and document our discussion.
Like everyone, we had no idea we were soon to step into a once-in-many-lifetimes event, where our assumptions about our work and the future would be tossed aside overnight. A few months later my team and I were gathering again — this time in our conference room as we made emergency plans to shift all our operations to a remote work environment. In the spring of 2021, those of us who work in collegiate career services continue to grapple with the ramifications of the global pandemic. We attend to our own children’s remote schooling while logging in to Zoom to advise your children on how to adapt to a world we struggle to analyze. We watch layoffs and furloughs happen in our own industry while worrying about the cautious planning of our employer partners and a far more competitive jobs landscape for our students. But we also see bright areas of promise — and are challenging ourselves to reimagine our very profession. While analyzing the external job market has been a priority, career services professionals have also been rethinking how we engage with students in advising conversations and programs. At my institution, advisors have had ongoing discussions with each other and with colleagues at other schools about how best to support students and help them meet this moment with resilience, creativity and hope. What we’ve discovered is that our best advice is evergreen. Bedrock career management skills matter today more than ever for young professionals.
Building relationships, for example, has proven again and again to be the most important lever in any job search. In the current climate, investing in outreach and conversation is also the best way to gain insight into real-time trends and opportunities in rapidly changing fields. Similarly, it’s always been true that investing in a broad skill set and versatility is a surer path to sustained success than a narrower, calculated approach to current job opportunities.
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Spring 2021
