Resource Web links to integrated of career and academic advising centers
The Handbook of Career Advising
Career Advising: An Academic Advisor's Guide

Career Advisors: A New Breed

Authored By: Dorothy Burton Nelson
2006
 

Three out of four students entering the university for the first time have no clear career/occupational goals, and only 8 percent of declared students have an understanding of their majors (Virginia Gordon, 1995). First-time freshman need and expect a roadmap for successfully resolving indecision, a roadmap typically provided through contact with an academic advisor. John Gardner (1995) notes that "advising will be more connected to an early, intrusive career planning process to heighten the probability of a more appropriate major selection earlier in the baccalaureate experience." (p. 165). Advising is a form of teaching, and all effective teaching (thus advising) begins with the identification of student learning outcomes. Helping a student clarify and set career goals becomes a paramount task in the academic advising process. Knowing when to give information, and understanding what kind and how much information is needed, requires expertise and attention from an advisor. Advising is a personal experience; academic programs are impersonal. The advising process serves as the venue for personalizing the academic program, as it provides for curricular adaptations, pacing, and, possibly, a more relaxed definition of progression and retention (Glennen & Vowell, 1995).

Content of the advising sessions can be considered bi-faceted: 1) educational/academic planning, and 2) career/life planning. Students often lack awareness of the relevance and impact of college decisions on their futures, and miss opportunities for identifying with key faculty and staff for developing career salience (formulating identity/role within one's field of study). Neither facet can afford oversight. Studies have shown the impact on persistence and satisfaction from having at least one meaningful faculty/staff advisor in the university (Astin, 1993; Crockett, 1978; Gardner, 1983; Noel, 1985; Rendon, 1995; Tinto, 1987).
 
Guiding students through the decision-making process requires skillful interviewing on the advisor's part. Individualized, student-focused advising is often diminished due to time constraints and limited knowledge of underlying theory. In these cases course scheduling becomes the hallmark of the advising session. To increase opportunities for incorporating career and life planning into the advising session, prescriptive information could be delivered in group settings prior to registration activity, reserving the remainder of the semester for individually addressing student concerns.
 
The first year of college is a time for students to explore, mature, and lay the foundation for a lifetime of making sound, rational choices. Matching college majors with occupations and professional opportunities is most often addressed in the office of a career counselor while the selection of courses necessary for the completion of the degree, to get the job, and engage in professional activities, is most often addressed in the office of the academic advisor. Career planning and academic advising overlap and intertwine, requiring choreographed decision-making. For convenience, efficiency, and seamless operations, units often integrate the two services, training personnel for transitioning between the related topics during any given advising session. The trained, more versatile advisor expedites systematic, rational decision-making (Damminger, 2001; Gordon & Habley, 2000).

Chickering and Reisser (1993) suggest that there are several developmental tasks that must be resolved before adequate career and academic choices can be made:

• Development of physical, emotional, social and intellectual competence
• Assessment of interests and awareness of options
• Identification and clarification of work values
• Development of a clear sense of self in a vocational context

This is a challenge for even the most seasoned of advisors. If they are to adhere to a student-focused developmental process, advisors must maintain knowledge of student development and of career-related concepts in the advising process. Training is essential and should include information on theory, processes, and application techniques. A quick to-do checklist for career advising may look like this:

• Establish a caring, working relationship
• Help students clarify goals; create a personal mission statement
• Discuss relevance of higher education and liberal studies
• Encourage thinking about life and career goals
• Relate interests and abilities to plans
• Assist in exploring and selecting majors and minors
• Provide rationale for course and curriculum requirements
• Help select and schedule courses
• Monitor academic progress
• Encourage students to explore options, become involved and use campus resources throughout their time in college.

Again, to seek out time for such quality interactions, delivery of general (prescriptive) information can be disseminated through group sessions whenever possible.

The challenges for expanding the scope of advising are almost as varied as the student issues. First and foremost, advisors must understand the importance of their knowledge of both career development and student development theory. They must view their work as meaningful and value their own set of job duties (thus, demonstrating their own levels of career salience). Secondary are several logistical challenges that include 1) securing funds from internal and external sources (grant writing) for additional staff, materials and equipment, 2) advisor selection and training, 3) the reduction of case loads for increased time and availability of advisors, 4) identification of meaningful student learning outcomes, 5) clear definition of procedures for the use of intrusive, prescriptive and developmental approaches, as warranted by the situation (and profile of the advisee), and finally 6) program assessment. The nuts and bolts of program expansion can impede progress when advisors lose sight of the purpose. A good general mission statement for comprehensive advising is to educate and graduate qualified individuals with the skills needed to enter suitable employment and contribute to the economic development of surrounding communities and beyond, may keep advisors focused and appreciative of the small gains.

The resources needed for advisor training and development for career advising do not significantly differ from the resources necessary for more traditional advising practices that focus on course selection and scheduling. Incorporation of the theoretical underpinnings of career and life planning may be the only real difference. The resources listed in Appendix A are by no means exhaustive. Networking among advisors becomes a platform for the discovery and sharing of new ideas and resources. Successful programs have successful advisors who typically seek out other successful programs and successful advisors for the advancement of the theory and practice of comprehensive advising.
 
Programs of study take on new meaning through the ensuing conversations between advisor and advisee that concern career and life planning. As Glennen and Vowell (1995) stressed in their concluding editorial statements in the monograph Academic Advising as a Comprehensive Campus Process,
 
It is far more important that the advisee evolve his or her own plan of action than it is to adopt any plan that an academic advisor attempts to impose on that individual.They (advisors) must help students set goals, examine options, choose a course of action, and evaluate the results of that choice. (p. 141)

For advisors who have been trained in traditional advising approaches, making the leap into career advising may require additional reading and preparation, but will add new dimensions for assisting students. The first step in expanding advising practice, involves a paradigm realignment or student needs; we must shift from information focus to student focus, from focus on the immediate time frame to connections in the future, and from curriculum completion to career salience. Advising programs, services, and resources are merely window dressing without the psychological positioning of the advisor. The real difference is made when a student enters his or her advisor's office and says "I'm not sure what I want to do with my life", and the journey begins as the advisor responds "what and exciting opportunity, let's talk about that."

Appendix A

Resources for Career Advising

• Student Development theory
• Bean's Model of Student Departure (Bean, 1980, 1983)
• Tinto's Student Integration Model (Tinto, 1975)
• Career Development theory
• Super's Self-Concept theory (Super, 1957)
• Holland's theory of personality and work environment congruence (Holland, 1997)
• Roe's theory of occupational selection (Roe, 1956)
• Equipment and materials
• Computer(s) and software for occupational exploration
• Publications, periodicals, journals, and other occupational literature
• Career assessment instruments (self-reports) and correlated occupational information
• Videos, websites, and other work-related multimedia presentations
• Other resources
• Workers in the field
• Career Counselors
• Career courses
• Faculty in other majors
• Network with other advisors
• State, regional and national conferences
• Professional organizations
• Program evaluation and assessment
• Measurements of outcomes (criterion tests, course grades, percent of classes completed, etc.)
• Measurements of student satisfaction (survey, opinionnaire, questionnaire)
• Advising session guidelines
• Topics checklist
• Student contact log
• Transcripts and other official curriculum records
• Student profiler (interests, abilities, values, strengths, challenges)

Dorothy Burton Nelson, Director
Career and Academic Planning Center
Southeastern Louisiana University

References

ACT, Inc. (2002). Return/Graduation Rate Data for 2002. Retrieved March 28, 2005 from http://www.act.org/news/releases/2002/update.html.

ACT Newsroom (2004). Many U.S. colleges overlooking a potential cure for college dropouts.

ACT Student Opinion Survey (2003). www.regents.state.la.us/pdfs/Planning/ Survey/S41600.pdf

Astin, A. W. (1975). Preventing students from dropping out. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Astin, A. W. (1977). What matters most in college: Four critical years. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Astin, A.W. (1993). What matters most in college: Four critical years revisited. S an Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bean, J. P. (1980). Dropouts and turnover: The synthesis and test of a causal model of student attrition. Research in Higher Education 12: 155-187.

Bean, J. P. (1983). The application of a model of turnover in work organizations to the student attrition process. The Review of Higher Education, 6, 129-148.

Bedics, R. (1984). Program mapping: quality control for academic programs. Paper presented at the National/International Institiute on Social Work in Rural Areas (9th /2nd,Orono,ME,July 28-31, 1984). ERIC ED257524.

 
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (2003). New study on value of a college degree in Georgia shows payoffs for graduates, state; Highlights disciplines in demand. http://www.icapp.org/pubs/education/reports03/gainesville.pdf

Cappelli, P. & Iannozzi, M. (1993). Challenge: To develop incentives for investment in educational attainment in order to produce a more   productive, more competitive workforce. Philadelphia: Office of Educational Quality of the Workforce. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Ed 359 353)

CAS (1986). Council for Advisement Standards: Guidelines for Student Services and Development Programs. CAS,Washington,D.C.

Chickering, A. W., & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and identity (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Gilligan, C. (1977). In a different voice: Women's conceptions of self and morality. Harvard Educational Review, 47, 481-517.

Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange (1999). TheUniversityofOklahomaOutreach. Published on the web at   http://www.ou.edu/csrde/consortium.html

Crites, J. O. (1969). Vocational psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Crocket, D. S. (1978). Academic advising: A cornerstone of student retention. In L. Noel (Ed.), Reducing the dropout rate.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Daley, B. (2002). Facilitationg learning with adult students through concept mapping. Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 50 (1), 21-31.

Damminger, J. K. (2001 ). Student satisfaction with quality of academic advising offered by integrated department of academic advising and career life   planning. ERIC Technical Report, ED453769.

Earl, W. (1988). Intrusive advising of freshmen in academic difficulty. NACADA Journal, 6 (2), 27-33.

Elkins, S. A., Braxton, J. M., & James, G. W. (2000). Tinto's separation stage and its influence on first-semester college student persistence. Research in Higher Education, 41 (2), 251-268.

Freeman, S. (1993).Donald Super:A perspective on career development. Journal of Career Development, 13 (4), 255-264.

Frost, S. H. (1991). Academic advising for Student Success: A System of Shared Responsibility. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, no. 3. Washington, D. C.:School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University.

Frost, S. H. (1993). Developmental advising: Practices and attitudes of faculty advisors. NACADA Journal, 13 ( 2), 15-20.

Frost, S. H. (1995). Advising alliances: Faculty and first year students team up for success. In: First Year Academic Advising: Patterns in the Present   Pathways to the Future. Monograph Series, no 18, National Resource Center for the Freshman Experience and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.

Gardner, J. (1995). Perspectives on academic advising for first year students:   Present and future. In: First Year Academic Advising: Patterns in the   Present Pathways to the Future. Monograph Series, no 18, National Resource Center for the Freshman Experience and Students in Transition,University of South Carolina,Columbia,S.C.

Gardner, R. E. and Kramer, H. C. (1983). Advising by Faculty. National Education Association,Washington,D.C.

Glennen, R. E. and Baxley, D. M. (1985). Reduction of attrition through intrusive advising. NASPA Journal, 2 (3), 10-14.

Glennen, R. E. and Vowell, F. N. (eds.) (1995). Academic advising as a comprehensive campus process. NACADA Monograph Series, no. 2.Manhattan,KS: National Academic Advising Association.

Gorden, V. N. (1995). The Undecided College Student: An Academic and Career Advising Challenge (2nd Ed.) .Springfield,IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Gorden, V. N. & Steple, G. E. (1995). Toward a theory of academic advisement. Paper presented at the National Academic Advising Association, 17 th   National Conference, Nasville, TN.

Gordon, V. N., Habley, W. R., and Associates (eds.) (2000). Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook. National Academic Advising Association. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Habley, W. R. (1993). Fulfilling the promise: Final report of the ACT 4 th National Survey of Academic Advising. Iowa City, Iowa: ACT, Inc.

Habley, W. R. (1994). Administrative approaches to advising undecided students.  In V. Gorden (Ed.), Issues in advising the undecided college student. (Monograph No. 15), Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina National Resource Center for the Freshman Year Experience.

Habley, W. R. (2000). On a clear day-ja vu all over again. NACADA Journal, 20 (1), 5-11.

Habley, W. R. (2003). ACT Report. On the web at www.ACT.org

Habley, W. R. and McCauley, M. E. (1987). The relationship between institutional   characteristics and the organization of advising services. NACADA Journal, 7 (1), 27-39.

Habley, W. R. and Morales, R. H. (1998). Current practices in academic advising: Final report on ACT's fifth national survey of academic advising. NACADA Monograph Series, No. 6.

Hansen, K. (2005). What good is a college education anyway? The value of a college education. www.quintcareers.com/college_education_value.html

Higher Education Research Instutite, Inc. (2003). How "good" is your retention rate? Using the CIRP survey to evaluate undergraduate persistence. ERIC Document ED482227.

Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: A theory of vocational personalities and work environments, 3rd Ed. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

Kramer, M. (1982 ). Meeting student aid needs in a period of retrenchment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kramer, G. L. (ed.) (1995). Reaffirming the Role of Faculty in Academic Advising.   NACADA Monograph Series, no. 1. Manhattan, KS: National Academic Advising Association.

Kramer, G. L., Chynoweth, B., Jensen, J., & Taylor, L. 1987. Developmental advising: A taxonomy of services. NASPA Journal, 24, 23-31.

Kuh, G. D. (1977). The student learning agenda: Implications for academic advisors. NACADA Journal, 17 (2) 7-12.

Law, B. and Watts, A. G. (1977). Schools, careers and communities: A study of some approaches to career education in schools. London, England: CIO Publishing.

Low, L. (2000). Are college students satisfied? A national analysis of changing expectations. New Agenda Series. USA Group: Indianapolis, IN.

Marchese, T. (1987). Keynote address at the annual National Conference on The Freshman Experience, Columbia, S.C.

Martin, K. (2004). Academic advising: Responding from an administrative perspective. NACADA Academic Advising News, 27 (4), 1-2.

Newcomb, T.M. and Wilson, E.K.College Peer Groups: Problems and Prospects for Research. Chicago, IL: Aldine, 1966.

New Millennium Project on Higher Education Costs, Pricing and Productivity (1998). AAHE Bulletin, 50 (8), 10-13.

Noel, L. (1985). Increasing student retention: New challenges and potential. In L. Noel, R. Levitz, & D. Salari (Eds.), Increasing Student Retention: Effective Programs and Practices for Reducing the Dropout Rate.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Noel, L., Levitz, R., & Saluri, D. (Eds.) (1985). Increasing student retention: Effective programs and practices for reducing the dropout rate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Noel-Levitz (2003). 2003 National Student Satisfaction Report. On the web at www.noellevitz.com

Noel-Levitz (2004) National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Report. Noel-Levitz Research reports at    https://www.noellevitz.com/Papers+and+Research/Papers+and+Reports/ResearchLibrary/2004+National+Satisfaction+Report.htm

O'Banion, T. (1972). An academic advising model. Junior College Journal, 42, pp. 66-69.

Postsecondary EducationOpportunity(2002). Institutional graduation rates by control, academic selectivity and degree level, 1983-2002. The   Environmental Scanning Research Letter of Opportunity for Postsecondary Education, (March) , pp. 1-16.

Reisberg, L. (1999) Colleges struggle to keep would-be drop-outs enrolled. The Chronicle of Higher Education,October 8, 1999.

Rendon, L. I. (1995). Facilitating retention and transfer for the first generation students in community colleges. Paper presented at the New Mexico      Institute, Rural Community College Initiative,Espanolo,NM, (May 1995). ERIC ED383369

Roe, A. (1956). The psychology of occupations. New York: Wiley.

Super, D.E. (1957). The psychology of careers.New York: Harper and Row.

Texas Academic Skills Council's Committee on Advisement and Placement (1989). Personal notes from 1999 Texas Academic Advising annual conference.Corpus Christi,TX.

Tinto, V. (1975). Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45( 1), 89-125.

Tinto, V. (1987). Increasing Student Retention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving College: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition, 2 nd Ed.Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress.

Tinto, V. (2002). Promoting student retention: Lessons learned from the United States . Paper presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Access Network,Prato,Italy.June 19, 2002.

Vowell, F. and Karst, R. (1987). Student satisfaction with faculty advisors in an intrustive program. NACADA Journal, 7 (2), 31-33.

Cite this using APA style as:
 

Burton Nelson, Dorothy. (2006). Career Advisors: A new breed. Retrieved from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources website:
http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Career-advisors.aspx