It’s job hunting season for new graduates, for those who didn’t leave college with a contract or with plans to continue their education in graduate school. And as my local TV news has been telling me lately, in this economy the jobs just aren’t there for young, fresh graduates full of debt, idealism, and enthusiasm. Baby boomers are working longer – in part because their health is better than the previous generations’, but perhaps because the pensions aren’t there, or their retirement savings aren’t enough. So while a demand for fresh blood was all the talk around the turn of the century, those waves of openings for new workers just didn’t come to pass for as long as expected.

The other side of the coin is that younger workers expect a heck of a lot more from an employer than previous generations. They know exactly what they’re looking for and they will keep searching, keep walking, until they find it. While I’m not technically a “Millennial” by about a half-year, I can tell you that among my college friends, most of us have already left our first job that we found out of college – within two years, in fact, we had all moved on to another, better situation. Maybe it was that cold, cruel wall of reality that slammed us in the face to remind us – oh, yeah, we have to work now. Yet we’d grown up always watching the wall of reality being torn down – It’s KoolAid time, Oh Yeah!

One of the longest definitions in the dictionary is for the word “work.” In fact growing up my teachers had misbehavers copy the definition a few times by hand as punishment. But it wasn’t until my senior year in college that I knew my own definition of work – of how my path in life led me to student support. I was an English major with notions of entering publishing but not sure where or how or why and not ready to commit to another expensive degree. I was also involved with and deeply devoted to a peer education group, student orientation, and the Writing Center, from day one of my college experience. Long story short, a chance encounter with an administrator informed me about my choices making a career in higher education and a match was found.

I was extremely lucky to have found my first job less than two months after graduating, luckier still to have only required a Bachelor’s degree and some experience – experience including the Writing Center. Throughout my graduate program this luck became ever more clear; as the economy tightened and “Master’s preferred” became the norm for entry-level jobs in higher education, many graduate students in higher ed said, “I can’t get the experience without the job; I can’t get a job without the degree.” Brick wall.

Today’s college students are savvy about selling themselves – they had to overinvest their time in extracurricular activities to get into college in the first place, but those peripheral activities don’t always have the same use when it comes to vying for a job; employers are looking for more specific connections between a person’s choices and their abilities. And your learning center is a great way to address students’ needs for competence and confidence and build their chances at job interview success at the same time.

Let them know what their job is. Develop a job description that is included in recruitment, a training manual or a tutoring handbook. Make it accessible so that tutors know how to word their working experience on their resume, cover letter, vita, or interview in a way other than “Helped students with calculus.”

Recognize their innate leadership. If you haven’t already, begin publicly recognizing your staff members for their daily contributions. The National Tutoring Association’s Tutor Week celebration is a great way to start building staff morale and appreciation for what they do. In monthly meetings or newsletters recognize tutors regularly, whether it be by acknowledging their leadership in another activity, including an appreciative note from a tutee to a tutor, or have a peer-voted tutor of the month or tutor of the year recognition.

Build ownership and an internal governing body. If you have a sizeable enough staff, consider forming small sub-committees within the staff to help you with certain planning and administrative responsibilities. Form a training committee to assist with choosing topics and presenters for staff training days. Create a website committee that can help you with updating the website. Use a programming or marketing committee to write, create, and distribute communications to faculty, staff, and students. If you don’t have the staff for these opportunities, create two or three leadership positions for experienced staff members to help with some of these tasks. You’ll be grateful for the extra hands, and they’ll be grateful for the ability to contribute in new ways.

Network with other student organizations and with career services. Other student organizations, activities, or student government may already have resources they refer students to about incorporating paraprofessional service into a personal selling point. If not, work with those other bodies and with your career services professionals to create a talk, resources, or connections that will benefit all of the student leaders at your institution.

In the long run, the better students understand themselves as workers and have a context for work, the more confident they will be in their ability to find a good fit in a post-graduate working environment. And being able to say, “I positively impacted the education of 30 fellow students and here’s how,” is something your staff will be able to thank you for now (for giving them a better reason to stay with the program) and later (for helping them get the job of their dreams). Now that’s what I’m talking about. Oh Yeah!

Questions or comments? Contact the author at scibettj@acp.edu.

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