Everything is digital nowadays. You likely shifted to sending out regular email campaigns to keep students informed years ago. Unfortunately, your outdated newsletters are likely going to the trash bin, and it’s unlikely students are opening the links buried in career resource pages.

Even the best intentions to engage students can fail if you’re not keeping up with the pace of technology and expectations of today’s job seekers. The good news is, you may not need to do more to grab their attention. You just need to do it differently. And sometimes less is more.

Here are a few ways you can create career resources that get through to students:

Many business owners are concerned about the impacts of the skills gap and talent shortage, so they are zeroing in on trainability in the hiring process. In fact, according to a recent LinkedIn Learning Report, 64% of L&D pros globally agree that L&D shifted from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” in 2021. 

The skills required for many positions will change in the years ahead, meaning job seekers don’t need to scramble to meet all the skill requirements before applying. Instead, job seekers who can show they are able to enrich and develop skills independently prove to future employers that they are willing and motivated to learn. After all, the top area of focus for L&D programs in 2021 is upskilling and reskilling (with 59% of pros saying it’s their top priority, up 15% since June 2020), according to the LinkedIn report.

Demonstrating determination and desire to develop personally and professionally proves they will be easy to upskill and reskill down the line. It’s important to encourage job seekers to dive into independent learning through experiences such as apprenticeships, part-time jobs, internships, and volunteering. Here are four ways job seekers can be even more intentional with their learning and development: 

When students come to the Career Center asking for help with an internship resume, you know you’re doing something right. Your reach should expand beyond just identifying the right major or starting the job search process. All those steps in between, including landing a great internship, should take up a significant part of your wheelhouse as well. 

It is an enormous relief for many graduates that the working world they’re now entering is much closer to “normal” than it was a year ago. Some aspects of it, however, will never be the same. The pandemic has undeniably made policies like remote work and flexible work hours more appealing to employers and employees. 

As much as the adjustment is an exciting step forward for work-life balance, this kind of change can still feel daunting to new job seekers.

Willis Towers Watson’s research indicates that 37% of organizations had no policies or principles to manage nontraditional work arrangements before 2020. And as of last October, 59% of employees now telecommute. It’s no secret that such a dramatic change can feel overwhelming for leaders and workers. But it impacts job seekers as well. 

Since they weren’t in the workforce when remote work became common, it can all feel unknown to young job seekers. As such, they likely have a lot of questions about how remote or hybrid work schedules will all shake out. And while it’s impossible to have all the answers at this stage, you can offer a 101 overview.

Here’s how to successfully walk students and recent grads through a basic breakdown of what to expect from flexible work hours:

Young adults often hear that if they pick a career path they love, their job will never feel like work. But not everyone has that opportunity. Whatever industry your job seekers have in mind, the burden of student loan debt can make finding job satisfaction difficult. 

The topic is unavoidable in the career center. Many students have already signed their loans and are worried about potential consequences. In fact, a 2021 study from ResumeLab reported that half of respondents experience medium to high levels of stress over their student loan debt. 

And there’s no doubt that this stress interferes with their career development. The study also found that almost 40% of borrowers accepted a job they didn’t want because of the salary. 

Those are some pretty bleak statistics, but conversations about it shouldn’t have to be all gloom and doom. Instead, be honest and informative. Offer support on how to tackle the job market when students feel like debt is hanging over their head. 

Here’s what you can do in your position at the career center to provide beneficial conversations on student loan debt: 

Being mindful of professional growth at the job seeker stage will improve students’ job satisfaction in the long run and improve their chances to push forward in their careers. 

With today’s competitive talent pool, it’s natural for students to lower their job search standards. But they aren’t doing themselves any favors by defining their job criteria as merely “a job.” 

Although it is essential to have somewhere to land after graduation, it’s never too early for students to consider what they would want beyond that first step. 

A crucial factor for job seekers to consider is how a position will help propel their professional growth and career development. Right now, not nearly enough students about to graduate know how to look for that. 

Here’s what you need to do as a career services professional to promote the importance of students’ professional growth: 

Trying to prepare for the future has never felt more impossible for college students. With most classes online, life for many students feels limited to the size of a single room. In that setting, the future feels too far off to plan. 

Fortunately, this odd semester will soon end, and students can look forward to exiting their isolation. Between going home for winter break and crossing fingers to return to in-person learning, it seems like things should look better for students shortly. 

However, the effects of such a long time in isolation can still impact students after they’ve reconnected with family and friends. 

According to Cigna’s 2020 Loneliness Index from January, 61% of American adults are lonely, and college-aged young adults are even more lonesome than people over age 72. Being a population already prone to loneliness, it is no surprise that the CDC reported in June that younger adults were among the demographics disproportionately experiencing hardships with mental health, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. 

These challenges will not magically disappear when students come out of isolation, and that change in and of itself will likely be a difficult transition for many. 

One crucial way to help is to encourage students to use the counseling services available through the school. But what else can you do? What can you say to help students prepare for the future of the next couple of months?

Here are four ways to support students and help them prepare for the upcoming transition: 

It’s time to set expectations for yourself for the new school year. The year of virtual. 

If your school is going completely or mostly virtual this year, your typical day of career counseling is not going to look the same as it once did. But that’s OK. Frankly, it shouldn’t.

Working from home means more than just a lack of face-to-face time with students and colleagues. There are many considerations for your return to career counseling this school year.

Your productivity will change, so reset your expectations. According to NACE’s Career Services Benchmark Survey, career services folks spent 55% of their time student-facing last year. If that’s what your day used to look like, don’t feel like you need to hit those same quotas in a virtual environment. 

For one thing, it’s not as easy to access your students since they won’t be walking by your office throughout the day. Therefore, walk-in appointments are a thing of the past. 

For another, you need to avoid burnout. In a recent survey from Monster.com, 51% of workers said they’re experiencing burnout while working from home during the pandemic. You need to take care of yourself in order to successfully take care of your students.

Adjust the way you think about helping your students. Instead of meeting with them in person, support students virtually through a number of platforms:

Career services have always supported students in all stages of the job search process. Going virtual doesn’t mean that will change, but it does mean the traditional approaches of reaching those students needs some adjustment.

According to a recent poll by NACE, while 69% of career centers exclusively offered drop-in career counseling in person pre-COVID-19, only 5% plan to do so this fall.

This means career centers will provide more services either entirely online or in a hybrid format (in person and online).

It’s important to determine the best ways to make virtual methods work for different types of students. Here’s how: