You see it every year. Students are right on track with their job search, but then they go home for the holidays. They’re torn between family events, shopping, and catching up with their old friends. Then your job seekers return to school stressed out because they’ve fallen behind in their plan to land a job after graduation.

While it’s important for students to enjoy the holidays, if they don’t make time for the job search, they will miss out on great career opportunities. Luckily, with a little bit of forethought, they can find ways to incorporate their job search into the holidays. All it takes is a little guidance from a career services professional, like you.

Help your job seekers make the most of their break by showing them how they can participate in the holiday revelry while focusing on their careers. Here are three tips to keep your job seekers on track during this busy time of year:

This post was updated in September 2022

As a career counselor, you focus on the same things when helping job seekers research companies. You plan how to find out about salary, benefits, development opportunities, and company culture. But there’s a major factor that you might be forgetting: employee well-being.

2022 research by Gallup revealed that employee well-being is a new global imperative. For most global workers statements such as “living for the weekend,” “watching the clock tick,” and “work is just a paycheck” ring true.

This is why career counselors should help job seekers research well-being programs. Their primary focus is often money. Unless you educate them, they won’t understand how employment and wellness can go hand-in-hand.

Here are three factors your job seekers need to know about employee well-being programs:

(This post was updated on 7/6/2020)

Many years ago, the interview process was simplistic. 

I would still consider it nerve-wracking, but not as demanding of a process. Today’s college students need to worry about more than aligning their skills, qualifications, and experiences with the job description. 

Now they’re facing phone and video interviews for jobs that may start completely virtual. Plus, they need to understand and prepare so much more. Students need to learn the company’s mission and culture (which might be different, now that it’s virtual), find a network using social media, stay professional while texting recruiters, and discover themselves all along the way. 

The pressure of finding a well-paying job immediately after graduation is already toppling. Especially when about half of college graduates in 2020 may be headed for unemployment, according to The Hill. Adding the weight of the changing interview process is overwhelming for many of your students. 

Here’s how you can help them tackle those fears and effectively prepare for the changing interview landscape: 

(This post was updated on 6/22/2020)

The summer months typically offer a quiet time for career counselors to tie up loose ends from the previous school year, check in with students working summer internships, and prepare for the fall semester career fair. Even with the world operating virtually this summer, it’s still a valuable time for networking and sparking new relationships with employers. 

Career counselors are the bridge to building lasting connections as students transition from academics to the business world. No doubt, you’ve witnessed firsthand the positive impact networking has on your students’ careers. It allows students to connect with mentors, find internship opportunities, and even land jobs before graduation. This year is no different.

Of course, you’ve already guided students toward building a strong network, but times are changing. Share some of these networking ideas with your students to help them make new connections this summer:

Josie Chiao, a second-year Computer Science/East Asian double major at UVA, had a daunting first experience at one of her school’s job fairs. She was overwhelmed at all the activity when she walked in 30 minutes after the start time.

“There was already so much going on,” she said. “Some students were changing into dress shoes, some already had their arms deep in swag, others were diligently taking notes and researching employers.”

As Chiao tried to get her bearings together, she was approached by a recruiter. Even though she practiced her pitch, she only got through 60 percent of what she rehearsed. Fortunately, the conversation went well enough and she was able to make a good connection.

Chiao’s story is just one example of what eager new job seekers might experience as graduation season comes into full swing. Soon-to-be graduates are already in full job-search mode and job fairs are a great way to get their foot in the door of promising companies.

In fact, the National Association of College and Employers (NACE) survey published in 2015 stated employers attend around 31 career fairs a year.

It’s imperative for career counselors to give grads proper instructions so they can gain successful networking experience through these fairs. Here are the four things you need to tell your graduates before they set out for the job fair:

Christa was one of the lucky few students who had a job lined up for after graduation. But when that workplace didn’t pan out a few years later, she quickly learned how rough the job market could be. After a month of her search going nowhere, Christa decided to turn to the place that helped her get her first job: her alma mater.

A graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, she went back to their career services site and began to look at the resources they had to offer her. She found open positions that interested her and, to her surprise, every application she sent out received a response. After four job offers in nine weeks, she started a job she loved — all because of her alma mater.

Before you t

hink, “Good for Christa, but what good does that do me?” know that your university probably has support for you, too. Gallup and Inside Higher Ed’s 2016 survey, Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers, found 83 percent of colleges are creating programs to help students get “good” jobs.

If you think your university career services department or alumni center have nothing of value to offer, here are four reasons to reconsider:

A new generation is preparing to enter the workforce, so it’s time to change our approach once again. While Generation Z is similar to millennials in many ways, knowing their differences is crucial in effectively communicating and helping them reach their full career potential.

Here’s what you need to know about Generation Z’s career expectations:

This post was updated to bring you the most up-to-date tips, October 2020.

As your career services team is prepping the future leaders of America to enter the workforce, it’s important to treat students as both mentees and employees. Exercising employee engagement techniques will not only prepare them for how employers will treat them, but also they’re a great way to keep college students focused, passionate, and motivated. 

While some students are ready to run full-force into their chosen career path, many are unaware of the challenges they’ll face upon arriving in the workplace. Unfortunately, 45% of employees do not feel their employer promotes a healthy work-life balance, according to a 2019 study from The Execu|Search Group. Additionally, 66% of professionals said that there isn’t much support for those wishing to take on leadership roles.

Keeping college students sheltered from the harsh realities of the working world is impossible. To lessen the shock, it’s essential career services gives them the tools and resources necessary to begin preparing for a career. In fact, you can use employee engagement strategies that employers use in the office every day to set them on the right path.

Here’s how to start training your college students for the big jump into their careers:

The first few years of college can be overwhelming — well, for some, all four years of college are a challenge. Maybe that’s why college internships aren’t usually held by freshmen and sophomores. According to Vault’s October internship survey, two thirds of internships are held by juniors and seniors. Underclassmen may still be getting acquainted with the college lifestyle, responsibilities, and mounds of reading material, but the benefits of interning early can’t be ignored.

Encouraging these college newbies to add an internship to their workload might not be an easy task, so here are a few ways to convince them of the benefits: