A lot of times working in a career center is like swimming upstream; it’s tiring having to constantly illustrate how valuable our services are and make students believe us! Luckily NACE (the National Association of Colleges and Employers) has done some of the work for us by spotlighting –in tangible numbers– the value of using career services.
So in the great words of Hansel (he’s still so hot right now), “The results are in, amigo! What’s left to ponder?”
Results from NACE’s 2010 Student Survey show:
- The likelihood of a student getting a job offer increased with the frequency of career center use: Students who used the career center four or more times a semester were more likely to have job offers than those who used it once a semester.
- Use of career services resulted in higher median salaries, and median salaries climbed with increased use. There was a difference in median salary of more than $5,700 between students from the Class of 2010 who never went to career services ($35,978) and those who went four or more times per semester ($41,714). Students who went to career services once per semester had a median starting salary of $37,020, while the median salary for those who went two or three times per semester was $37,898.
- Freshmen have increased their use of career services over the past year. As the figure below illustrates, 2010 freshmen used the services of their career centers more than was the case with 2009 freshmen. In general, the increases are in the “prep”-related work, e.g., getting help in developing their resumes, practice interviewing, and researching employers. Clearly, freshmen understand that they need to be prepared, and are getting an early start.
So if you are pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking and plan on finding out what that is,” stop by the CDC!
Or we could settle this on the runway…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InIxKCa3H9g&feature=related
From: Spotlight Online for Career Services Professionals, September 29, 2010