Security of
Employment
In the previous blog post, we asserted that students,
parents and alumni expect their universities—whether public or private—to care
deeply about every student’s employment aspirations and to help each student get
a first good job after graduation as well as a great lifelong career after
that. In support of this assertion, we noted that security of employment was close to such basic human survival requirements as breathing, food, water, sleep, etc., on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It follows that students aspiring to college and anticipating the need to become financially self-sufficient, will be concerned about their employment future, and expect their college or university to help them secure it.
Since this felt need would arise with students at both
private and public universities, the great success which private universities
have demonstrated, e.g. with alumni participation rates, suggests that the most
successful private universities are satisfactorily meeting that powerful need
of their students.
The Career
Development Process
The 2012-13 Policy and Procedures Manual of the National
Career Development Association defines the process of career development as
follows:
“Career development is a
continuous life process through which individuals explore activities, make
decisions, and assume a variety of roles.
Careers are formulated by the continuous evaluation of personal goals
and the perception, assessment, and decisions regarding opportunities to
achieve those goals. Career development
occurs as educational and vocational pursuits interact with personal goals. It continues over the life span.”It is clear from this definition that, in pursuing security of employment after college, a great deal of exploration and decision-making is needed, both internally and externally, i.e., with respect to the employee on the one hand, and the universe of employment opportunities on the other. In that sense, the career development process may be visualized as a matching process in which the aptitudes and goals—professional and personal—of the future employee get matched against the opportunities and goals that the job market provides at any given time.
Note also from the definition, that the process is actually a three-way matching process involving an educational component, a vocational or employment component, and a critical personal goals component.
Career professionals often speak
of career success and career satisfaction as being two sides of
the same coin. Career success implies
a situation where the employer believes the employee performs the job satisfactorily.
Career satisfaction, however is
very different because individuals often possess the ability to do different jobs
to the satisfaction of different employers and, in that way, remain gainfully
employed. However, not all jobs will
provide the same level of fulfillment for the employee in question. I have met lawyers, accountants and
engineers who suddenly decide in middle age that they’ve always really wanted
to be something else, for example, a teacher.
The Quality of the Relationship
As a university president for 20 years, and a faculty member
and university administrator for 22 years before that, I had countless opportunities
to learn the expectations of students, parents and alumni at three different
kinds of universities: state-related, private and state owned, and their
expectations could all fit comfortably under one easy-to-remember label: they all
wanted the very same opportunities for their student that you or I or any good
parent would want for their own child in the same situation.
So once again, it gets back to the quality of the
relationship which the university is able to establish with its students. If that relationship is seen and felt by the
students as a caring and trusting one—in which trusting is defined as
“believing that people tell the truth and will keep their promises,” then those
students, parents and alumni would trust that university as long as institutional
promises were made and kept, and they would respond in kind when annual alumni appeal letters
appear in their mailboxes years later.
Building and maintaining high-quality relationships with
students require great integrity on the part of the university and its people
over long periods of time. But once promises
are broken or very keen expectations are
not met, the damage to institutional credibility can be severe and long
lasting.
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