Generally speaking, from my experience, most introductory textbooks in a field mentions the type of jobs in that field, which may or may not be covered in class.

Little detail is given to specific skills for each job. But then a four year Bachelor degree just gives the basic skills needed for a number of jobs within that major.

Now when I went back to college as an older non-traditional student, such things are discussed as part of the adult orientation.

For graduate level, I really don't have any experience on the subject to share.

http://www.unn.edu.ng

Dear Peter,

It seems to me that your question is twofold. On the one hand, do universities disclose valuable career information and guidelines to their students? On the other hand, are there any career development courses offered at universities or other institutions to help graduates pursue the career they aim for after graduating based on their skills and education received?

Unfortunately, I tend to agree that few professors and curricula plan to provide students with this information and career guidance. From my experience in Greek education, the degree in which a student will explore a satisfactory career in their field and learn about scientific possibilities, seminars, vacancies, important persons they could collaborate with, ways to make theirself "visible" in the scientific and professional field are all mostly dependent on individuals' will, professional and scientific network, information processing competency, great effort and chance, as well. In my opinion, however, an ideal, "dream job" does not exist. Regarding the second question, at least as I understood it, it makes sense that a student should expect to receive career counseling and guidance in order to clarify goals, interests and perspectives before graduating but first, work market is constantly changing so the results of a process like this are not guarranteed especially if not accompanied by ccounselee's strong interest for career exploration, second, there is a huge mass of scientists and specialists so it is difficult to enter a specific field (e.g. psychology) and be visible and successful when you have not already acquired all the necessary steps to reach a high-performance level. Persistence, flexibility and ongoing positive thinking should be considered as important skills for any individual during this process of career development which is most of the times full of "ups" and "downs". Third, in my view it is better for a student to seek for career counseling, educational and vocational guidance before studying in a specific School, in order to be prepared for their studies and get informed about all the alternative choices they have when taking a diploma from a specific school, how they could use their certificate, the degree in which their vocational and scientific interests are similar to the field of study the person is intending to choose and pathways needed to follow in order to achieve a successful career. However, there is not such a thing as a recipe, guidelines and meaningful information only exist.

In Greek Educational System, University Liaison Offices are operating in some universities and do quite good work organizing career counseling seminars, and providing students with counseling services, however, most of the times they lack specialized personnel and material. Also,students have the opportunity in some big Universities such as the University of Athens to visit Counseling Centers which mainly offer psychological counseling as well as vocational guidance and collaborate with specialized highly educated counselors. However, I feel like that few students know that these services are provided in University and they are free of charge. Furthermore, few students know they could receive career advice and information in these centers because emphasis is mainly given to the confrontation of psychological difficulties despite that personal and career counseling should be intertwined. Finally, most professors except for overhearing professors as you mentioned above give relative advice to their students due to the fact they are mostly interested in accomplishing their classes but the fact is that this information and informal counseling gets highly increased in the postgraduate and doctorate levels.

Peter, your experience is not unique and is the norm rather than the exception. Students must ask questions of professors, peers and people in the career fields we are interested in about real-world job information. Most college career centers are staffed with people who have no knowledge of or no work experience in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career fields. The best things that students can do is to invite professionals to their university (as guests of a student organization) to learn what real-world careers demand of professionals. They can ask their professors about research, teaching, and consulting careers in academia.

As a faculty member in Biology, I would take a few minutes of class time (undergraduate courses) to talk about exciting developments in biotechnology, bioinformatics, bioengineering, when warranted by the topics they would be studying. I also set up a website so all the biology- and biology-related majors would know that there are healthcare fields beyond medicine, dentistry and veterinary science, that they could go into fields such as media communications, art, that they could go into patent law based on a strong background in science. A few students take advantage of that information. I do it for those few. Most don't pay attention because they are too focused on the goal that they had chosen or their families expect them to follow, whether or not their goals are realistic relative to their academic performance.

In my opinion there is many researchers focused on their work, that have limited knowledge about possibilities (grants, international projects etc.). So even if students ask questions they may not get the answer they would expect. As for classes concerning this topic there is none at my University.

Thank you all for your answers! Anna, kudos for offering that kind of information to your students. Based on these answers, universities have still a way to go in this manner.

I'd add that "real world" information may be reached in a most straightforward manner by looking at the requirements list in job advertisements. I've never looked at those until I started actively looking for positions and I think I missed out on a great source of information. Something to check out - not necessarily because one is hunting for a job, simply to orient themselves as to what is expected of people at different levels and job types. For example, some colleges will put emphasis on one's teaching experience, while other positions will only focus on research achievements with many somewhere in between.

I fully agree that academics can help their students by knowing about jobs outside academia either browsing through ads (in my general area of biology, BioSpace is very informative.), back pages of Science, and just to follow industry trends, Chemical and Engineering News. Of course, I learn a lot from our alums - jobs in CROs and CMOS besides the well known pharmaceutical, biotech and agricultural seed companies, jobs in government like the FDA and the FBI, entry through temp agencies like Aerotek. There is also a whole world dealing with patents. I also learn a lot about what it really takes to get into medical, dental, pharmacy, vet, physical therapy schools from students who are extra-motivated and organized about their applications. i have also found that the best use for this information is to give to students one-on-one as they come for advice, on as as-needed basis.