A Career MOOC: Development, Implementation, and Assessment for the Future |
Career practitioners at Stevenson built and delivered a massive open online course (MOOC) to share their career exploration and development model with colleagues in the profession, and gained valuable insight into how this platform could help them deliver career content. |
Advisory Opinion: Rescinded and Deferred Employment Offers |
Rescinding a job offer or acceptance is unfortunate and should only happen in rare instances. This advisory from the NACE Principles Committee considers the relevant ethical issues. |
Career Development Models for the 21st Century |
A career development model helps us to better answer the question of how people come to select or acquire a career. Four models—narrative theory, career construction and life design theory, chaos theory, and planned happenstance and happenstance learning theory—are among those models that address 21st century issues. |
Coaching the Coach: Becoming a Leader in Your Career |
How many career counseling professionals have taken the time to deeply examine their own career paths—where we are now and where we are going? How many of us have taken a potentially valuable idea or goal (“I’d like to publish an article”) and mapped out the necessary steps, including finding the time to do it? |
College Nondiscrimination Policy Statement |
The [name of college] is committed to equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status (as defined under the Immigration Reform and Control Act), disability, or veteran's status. (Inclusion of other protected categories such as sexual orientation or marital status depends upon the school's policy and state law.) The [name of college] is also committed to provide all of its programs and activities to its students and alumni on a nondiscriminatory basis. |
Developing the Industry-Centric Career Cluster Model |
Rutgers University Career Services staff implemented an industry-centric and tailored career interest cluster approach to service delivery on counseling, programming, academic engagement, employer development, assessment, technology. |
Directors, Assistant Directors Have Most Experience Among Career Center Staff |
Among career center professional staff, directors and associate directors have the most experience, according to results of NACE’s 2015-16 Career Services Benchmark Survey. |
Advisory Opinion: Supporting Appropriate Recruitment and Employment Practices: Guidelines for Career Center Staff |
Career centers can support appropriate practices by developing policies to govern employer access to students for employment recruiting purposes. |
Implementing a New Career Development Theory: A Case Study |
The authors discuss the steps to selecting and implementing a new career development model. In this case, the new model was the Chaos Theory of Careers (CTC). This article is the companion to “Career Development Models for the 21st Century.” |
Into the Future: A 21st Century Career Services Framework Part 1: Strategic Partnerships |
There is no one model for the ideal career center, as the broad diversity of institutions makes it impossible to apply one that will work for all. NACE’s 21st Century Career Services Model Team identified three themes that provide a framework for the successful 21st century career center. Part 1 addresses the strategic partnerships theme. |
Into the Future: A 21st Century Career Services Framework Part 2: Student Engagement |
There is no one model for the ideal career center, as the broad diversity of institutions makes it impossible to apply one that will work for all. NACE’s 21st Century Career Services Model Team identified three themes that provide a framework for the successful 21st century career center. Part 2 addresses the student engagement theme. |
Into the Future: A 21st Century Career Services Framework Part 3: Talent Development |
There is no one model for the ideal career center, as the broad diversity of institutions makes it impossible to apply one that will work for all. NACE’s 21st Century Career Services Model Team identified three themes that provide a framework for the successful 21st century career center. Part 3 addresses the talent development theme. |
Major in Happiness: Debunking the College Major Fallacies |
The major is often viewed as the stepping-stone for a career that can repay loans instead of as the first step to a meaningful life based on leadership, purpose, and services. |
OP-ED: Transforming Lives Through Education? |
What does it mean to transform someone’s life? How exactly are institutions of higher learning delivering on this promise? Career services offices can and must play a vital role in helping students undergo transformation by helping them to think beyond the classroom to process and own what they have learned. |
Parental Involvement in the Career Development Process |
With ever-increasing emphasis on accountability and return on investment, career centers continue to retool and reinvent, delivering innovative services to increase credibility, reach, and efficacy. One area of emphasis that has potential for expanded contribution is parental and family involvement. |
Advisory Opinion: Setting Reasonable Deadlines for Job Offers |
The timing of job offers and acceptances is market-driven. NACE encourages employers to set reasonable deadlines that work for their organizations and students. |
Sample: Hold Harmless Agreement |
Sample Hold Harmless Agreement, courtesy of Florida State University. |
A Career Services Fundraising Model Built on Strong Relationships |
Like most career centers, the University of Florida career resource center has a system through which employers are able to contribute to support the center’s efforts. But in 2011, it started shifting its fundraising focus and efforts to establishing relationships with employer and campus partners, creating value, and strengthening these bonds. |
A Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Employment |
The guide provides faculty with information about the ethical and legal implications associated with referring students for internship and employment opportunities. |
Appreciative Career Coaching: A Practical and Positive Approach for College Students |
Appreciative inquiry is a positive, solution-focused approach to problem solving and is sometimes labeled appreciative coaching, appreciative advising, and appreciative living. These labels tend to reflect the population served: Appreciative inquiry focuses primarily on organizations, while the other terms apply more to work with individuals. |
Authentic Leadership Hinges on Listening |
Authentic leadership requires a willingness to listen, plus trust, grit, and flexibility. The outcome: greater productivity and job satisfaction among staff. |
Career Center Physical Attributes: Square Footage, Number of Interview Rooms |
When it comes to measuring the physical attributes of career centers—square footage of the office, the number of rooms used for interviewing, and the number of rooms used exclusively for interviewing—it’s clear that there is nothing “typical” about these offices, according to NACE’s 2015-16 Career Services Benchmark Survey. |
Career Center Staff Salaries Then and Now: 2005 and 2015 |
Among career center professional staff, directors earned the highest annual base salary, followed by associate directors, according to NACE’s 2015-16 Career Services Benchmark Survey Report for Colleges and Universities. But, how have the salaries of career center professional staff members changed over the last 10 years, particularly from the perspective of inflation? |
Career Services Offices: Office Structure and Organizational Division |
The majority of career services operations continue to be centralized, and are most frequently housed in student affairs and academic affairs, according to NACE’s 2015-16 Career Services Benchmark Survey. However, there are noticeable shifts in these structures and alignments. |
Connections, Evaluation Key to Career Communities Model |
Indiana University’s College of Arts and Sciences has created a new office to serve the needs of its students through a communities approach to career services. |
Innovating in Times of Change |
As engaged professionals, we must be intentional and proactive in our efforts to best serve our stakeholders and avoid simply reacting to our environment. So, how, in the career services field, are we providing the innovations needed to keep up with and even get ahead of the changing times? |
Mentoring Guide for Career Services Professionals |
The Mentoring Guide for Career Services, by Gary Alan Miller, can help career services professionals onboard and mentor professionals new to the office. |
Advisory Opinion: Requiring Logins, Passwords Violates NACE Principles for Ethical Professional Practice |
Employers should not require a candidate’s social media account logins or passwords; it violates NACE’s ethical principles. |
OP-ED: In the Best Interest of Our Students: A Look at Recruiting Timelines |
Recruiting timelines are shifting, but students still need time to consider their options. Yale’s Jeanine Dames offers an answer that can work for students and employers alike. |
The Chicken and the Egg: How Maslow’s Theory Can Contribute to Career Planning |
How can career services professionals link the abstract ideas of values and mission to concrete opportunities in the economy? Building on the work of Abraham Maslow, examine the concept of career choices from the angles of motivation and needs. |
Virtual Reality in Career Development |
Virtual reality has the potential to transform the way career centers engage students in preparing for the world of work. |
What’s a Name Worth? Career Center Directors, Operations, and Salaries |
It has been speculated that the title of a college career center’s top professional position may have an effect on its staffing size and operating budget. This article addresses this question by exploring data from NACE’s 2013-14 Career Services Benchmark Survey. |
Developing a Two-Team Structure for Employer Relations |
To effectively handle employer relations, Wake Forest University created a two-team structure that addresses outreach and employer care. |
Assistant Director Job Descriptions |
Assistant Director Job Descriptions |
Associate Director Job Descriptions |
Associate Director Job Descriptions |
Career Services Director Job Descriptions |
Career Services Director Job Descriptions |
Employer Relations Job Descriptions |
Employer Relations Job Descriptions |
Internship/Cooperative Education Job Descriptions |
Internship/Cooperative Education Job Descriptions |
Job Descriptions |
Sample job descriptions for a variety of professional positions in career services. |
Letters of Reciprocity: Sample Letter #1 |
Sample Letter #1: Letters of Reciprocity. |
Letters of Reciprocity: Sample Letter #2 |
Sample Letter #2: Letters of Reciprocity. |
Letters of Reciprocity: Sample Letter #3 |
career-development/organizational-structure/letters-of-reciprocity-sample-letter-1Sample Letter #3: Letters of Reciprocity.
|
Letters of Reciprocity: Sample Letter #4 |
Sample Letter #4: Letters of Reciprocity. |
Letters of Reciprocity: Sample Letter #5 |
Sample Letter #5: Letters of Reciprocity. |
Letters of Reciprocity: Sample Letter #6 |
Sample Letter #6: Letters of Reciprocity. |
Miscellaneous Job Descriptions |
Job Descriptions - Miscellaneous |
Reciprocity Resources |
Sample Reciprocity Resources - Career Services |
Reciprocity: A Sample School Policy |
Policy on Reciprocity. |
Recruiting Policies |
Sample Recruiting Policies - Career Services |
Sample 1: Recruiting Policies |
Engineering Career Services (ECS) adheres to the NACE Principles for Professional Conduct for Career Services and Employment Professionals and expects employers to do the same. These principles are available on the National Association of Colleges and Employers web site. |
Sample 2: Recruiting Policies |
The mission of the Engineering Career Services (ECS) office at (redacted) is to link engineering students who seek pre- and post- graduate career opportunities with employers who wish to hire them. ECS does not provide resumes, access to student candidate information, or access to our on-line job listing service to third parties; nor are third parties permitted to attend career fairs or schedule interviews on campus. |
Sample Faculty Reference Letter |
Sample Faculty Reference Letter Dear [Name of Employer]: This reference letter is provided at the written request of [name of student], who has asked me to serve as a reference on [his/her] behalf. It is my understanding that [name of student] is being considered by your organization for the position of [job title]. |
Case Study: Confidentiality of Student Counseling |
This case study discusses the role of the career center when a student’s identifiable demographics are shared by staff via email with others outside the university. |
Case Study: Discussing Students by Email |
This case study discusses ethical considerations when career services professionals seek opinions and feedback of other career services staff on challenging student situations. |
Case Study: When Employers Seek Connections With Students From Diverse Identity and Affinity Groups |
This case study discusses ethical considerations when a career center an employer seeks to connect with specific student populations through the career center in order to enhance diversity recruitment efforts. |
Case Study: Should Career Services Select Students for Employers? |
A career center is asked to select students for an employer to interview. |
Case Study: Career Services for Diverse Identity and Affinity Groups |
This case study discusses ethical considerations when a career center seeks to attract students from diverse identity and affinity groups to engage with its services. |
Case Study: When a Student Reneges on a Job Acceptance |
This case study examines the ethical issues involved in reneging on a job acceptance. |
Case Study: When an Employer Rescinds a Job Offer |
This case study describes the role of the career center when a student’s job offer is rescinded right before graduation. |
Case Study: When Faculty Refer and Rank Students for Employers |
This case study looks at how career center staff can address the ethical issues involved when faculty refer and rank students for employers. |
Building a Student Staff Helps Maximize Resources |
Student employees are the backbone of Rutgers University Career Services as their support allows the office to maximize its resources. |
Being a Successful Mentee: A Guide for Career Services and URR Professionals |
“Being a Successful Mentee,” by Diane Safer, Yeshiva College, provides guidance on how to get the most out of relationships with mentors. |
Diversity and Inclusion Self-Assessment |
The Diversity and Inclusion Self-Assessment is a tool that can be used to gauge current status and progress toward diversity and inclusion goals. |
Required Career Development Program Targets Skills Gaps |
In response to data about its students, Kennesaw State University’s Coles College of Business created a required three-course career development program. |
Managing Up and Down: 5 Strategies to Excel in Middle Management |
Assistant and associate directors have one foot in vision and strategy and the other in day-to-day operations. How do these professionals excel as middle managers? |
Reimagining Career Services |
At Princeton University, career services is reimagined along the themes of purpose and meaningful work. |
Benchmarks: Staffing, Students Per Professional |
Director is the most common staff position among career services operations, according to results of NACE’s 2016-17 Career Services Benchmark Survey Report for Colleges and Universities. |
Career Services Benchmarks: Time Off |
Outside of vacation days, career services practitioners received an average of 12 paid holidays and nine other days off last year. |
Career Services Budgets: Dipping Medians, Slow Growth |
The overall median career services operating budget has dipped slightly to $34,650, compared to last year’s overall operating budget of $35,000. |
Corporate Advisory Board Features Flex Spending Account |
Michigan Technological University’s corporate advisory board features a flexible spending account program to assist members with branding initiatives. |
FAQ: Principles for Ethical Professional Practice |
Get answers to frequently asked questions about the revised NACE Principles. |
Principles for Ethical Professional Practice |
NACE’s Principles provide everyone involved in the career development and employment process with an enduring ethical framework on which to base their operations and interactions. |
The Physical Attributes of Career Services Offices |
By Carnegie Classification, career services offices at R1 and R2 institutions have the greatest amount of square footage and number of interview rooms. |
Op-Ed: Diversity, Inclusion, and Career Services |
Career centers play a critical role in supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion. |
Career Services: Most Common Divisions, Names |
More than half of university career services operations are based in the student affairs division, while “career services” is the most commonly used title. |
Primary Focus: Career Coaching vs. Career Counseling |
Coaching is the primary focus regarding the career development of students and the professional development among career services staff. |
Holding No-Show Students Accountable |
NACE Community members share the ways they deal with students who register for information sessions or other events with employers, but don’t show up. |
Infusing Career Counseling With Academic Advising |
Rowan University is currently undertaking a plan to infuse career counseling with academic advising, and make this arrangement as seamless as possible. |
Yeshiva Students Have Requirements to Meet Prior to OCR |
Yeshiva University’s career center requires students to complete a series of requirements before participating in on-campus recruiting. |
Index: NACE Principles for Ethical Professional Practice and Ethics-Related Resources |
Use the index to find case studies and advisory opinions related to specific NACE principles, and to match up NACE principles to ethics-related resources. |
JMU’s Integration of Academic, Career Advising Evolves |
James Madison University’s structure of integrated academic and career advising provides strong collaboration and connection across campus. |
Integrating Career Services and Alumni Relations |
Richmond merged career services and alumni services to elevate career services, provide additional resources for students, and more deeply engage alumni. |
Merger of Academic, Career Offices Meets UNO’s Needs |
The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Academic & Career Development Center offers academic advising for students, and career services for students and alumni. |
Planned Workshops vs. Classroom Visits |
Which are more effective: pre-scheduled career workshops or unplanned career sessions in the classroom? |
The Career Studio: Flipping the Career Center |
At the University of Nevada, Reno the career center became the Career Studio, where students never need an appointment. All career advising is done by undergraduate students; the professional team focuses on all other aspects of career development. |
The Studio Method |
At the University of Nevada, Reno, career mentors are guided in the art of mentoring through the “studio method,” a framework built on four core principles of mentoring: appreciation, co-exploration, small loops, and walkaways. |
#RUTGERSWORKS: An Update on the Industry-Centric Career Cluster Model |
Five years ago, Rutgers University – New Brunswick adopted the career cluster model. How is it working? How has it evolved? |
Rubric for Responding to Ethical Dilemmas |
The rubric models the Principles Committee’s process in addressing requests for advisory opinions and can help career services and recruiting professionals address ethical dilemmas. |
Starting, Growing a Peer Advising Program |
What are some key considerations for launching and growing a successful peer advising program? |
Career Coaching: A New Paradigm for Student-Centered Career Services |
The coaching movement addresses the student as an equal partner, empowering them to close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. |
Career Coaching: The Wandering Map Activity |
The “wandering map,” a variation on the mind map, encourages students to explore their lives on paper. |
Book Recommendations From Career Services Colleagues |
Your colleagues in career services share recommendations for books that can round out your summer reading list or become additions to your office’s library. |
Advisory Opinion: Working With International Students |
This advisory opinion from the NACE Principles Committee addresses concerns many career centers have in working with international students who are limited by work authorization restrictions. |
Case Study: Student Activism and Employer Access |
A senior university official requires the career center to bar a specific employer from on-campus recruiting events due to possible protests. |
Employer Partnership Programs Becoming More Common |
A significant percentage of career centers have implemented employer partnership programs, and the trend is for more schools to add these programs. |
Fraudulent Employers: Tips for Career Centers and Students |
Career centers and students must be vigilant about fraudulent employers and should identify steps to take to verify the legitimacy of an employer. |
Case Study: Employer Access and Partnerships |
An employer has a partnership arrangement with a career center and wants special access to diverse students. How does the career center balance its relationship with the employer and its responsibilities to students? |
Case Study: Whose Data Is It Anyway? |
A career center compiles first-destination survey data; other offices on campus want access to the raw data. |
Dismantling Perceptions, Attitudes, and Assumptions: Women Leaders Are Interested in Advancement |
Women in higher ed advance into top leadership roles at rate well below that of their male counterparts. Here’s what can be done. |
Inclusive Excellence: Materials From the NACE19 Session |
At NACE19, attendees took part in “Inclusive Excellence,” a mega-session led by Alma Clayton-Pedersen and dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Some of the materials from that session are provided here. |
Student Success Team Model Creates Integrated Ecosystem |
Five years ago, California State University, Fullerton made an intentional culture shift by creating an integrated ecosystem within its eight colleges and across its campus. |
Online Career Centers: Building for the Present |
Excerpted from Case Studies in Career Services, this describes the development and operations of Baker’s online career services office. |
Op-Ed: The Great Debate: Should Job Location Development Be Housed in Career Services? |
Where does the job location and development program (JLD) belong? The author makes a case for housing it in career services, where it can further employer engagement and career development. |
Hire Education: Getting Students to Think Like Hiring Managers |
To increase students’ understanding of the hiring process, NYU developed a Mock Hiring Committee program to help students assume the functions, responsibilities, and perspectives of those in charge of hiring decisions. |
Career Preparation: From Afterthought to Center Stage |
Rollins College’s R-Compass program arms faculty advisers with tools and resources that help them infuse career and life planning principles into the academic advising relationship with students. |
A Career Services Professional Asks: What Is Your Third-Party Recruiting Policy? |
Some universities and colleges require third-party recruiters to reveal the name of the organization they are recruiting for. |
Moving the Counseling Profession Forward: Strategies for Supporting the Personal and Professional Development of Counselors-in-Training |
Fatim Lelenta, NYU, discusses strategies for supporting the personal and professional development of counselors-in-training. |
Advisory Opinion: Managing Data Security With Technology Providers |
This advisory opinion, developed by the NACE Principles for Ethical Professional Practice Committee, offers guidance on working with technology service providers in managing data security. |
Leveraging Government Funding to Help Finance College and University Career Centers |
The U.S. Department of Labor allocates billions of dollars annually to support education and career development activities. Federally financed career development services is guaranteed and ongoing funding mandated by WIOA is potentially available to all college and university career centers. This article explores how Ohlone College’s career center tapped federal funds to help finance career services for its students. |
A Problem-Solving Approach to Career Exploration: Using the Lens of Challenge |
By encouraging students to engage in real-world problems using the Challenge Method, career professionals can help students take tangible steps toward career decision-making and planning. |
Creating and Improving a Career Success Strategies Course for Undergraduate Business Students: An Analysis of Outcomes and Future Directions |
Using before and after assessments, career coaches at the University of Cincinnati analyze the outcomes of their course for undergraduate business students and identify future directions based on the data. |