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Be a Career Coach for Your Student

Playing the role of career coach means that you should ask questions and expect reports from your son or daughter throughout their career development process. While you cannot directly steer your son or daughter to the right career path, you can motivate him or her to be self reflective and actively involved in the process, so that they are intentional about planning course schedules and college activities that reflect their interests. Your most important roles are as listener, advocate and network resource:

Listener

  • Spend 90% of your time listening and 10% talking. Provide non-judgmental listening and honest feedback. The key word here is non-judgmental.
  • Initiate conversations on career plans. Talk with your student about the courses and activities she or he is enjoying and how your student is doing. Remember to ask if their interests have changed; most students change majors at least once.
  • Seek to understand. Listen, respond and ask questions. Ask your student what s/he wants to do that s/he has (so far) failed to do. Your willingness to listen and be a sounding board will keep you in the loop.
  • Help your student clarify ideas, priorities and concerns. Break tasks down into smaller more manageable pieces so that the goals seem more achievable. 
  • Give feedback on specific abilities you see in your student to help develop a solid sense of self. Encourage them to develop independent decision making skills.

Advocate

  • Encourage your son or daughter to avoid procrastination and begin the career planning process early. Support your student’s exploration of new areas of study and interests and encourage them to take advantage of all resources available to them. Be prepared to support them through the ups and downs of the career search process.
  • Encourage involvement in campus activities which provide the opportunity for them to gain valuable skills including leadership, planning, organization, and time management.
  • See the situation from your son or daughter’s perspective. Empathize with your student about the difficulty of the process and the number of decisions they have to make. Remember what it was like when you were their age.

Network Resource

  • Refer your student to colleagues, friends, family, neighbors and community members with experience related to his or her interests.
  • Help your student develop contacts with your acquaintances who might be able to offer information, advice and assistance about particular career fields.
  • Offer encouragement and help them learn how to approach people and ask for this kind of information.
  • Suggest your student make connections with faculty. All faculty have open office hours to help students with questions and course materials or academic progress. Students ultimately need professors to write letters of recommendation for internships, scholarships or graduate school applications. The strength of these letters is often dependent on how much effort the student has made to get to know their professor.
  • Make suggestions for part-time jobs or internships.

What is NOT Your Role

  • Pressuring them into selecting a major. (70% of students say they feel pressure from parents.)
  • Showing your bias or prejudice against certain careers. Don’t panic if your son or daughter wants to major in something you consider “impractical.” Ask them in a non-judgmental way about their future career plans and how their major will help them meet their goals.
  • Constantly asking the question, “Have you made a decision yet?” Listen for indications from the student that you are nagging and back off!
  • Never attend a career or job fair with your student, send out a resume for them or call an employer or recruiter for any reason. Your help needs to be completely invisible to any potential employers.

/ Center for Career Planning

The Center for Career Planning is located on the corner of Grove and Home streets near the center of campus behind "The Rock."

Office Hours
M-F: 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Contact
Ryan Brechbill, Director
e / rbrechbill@otterbein.edu

Ashley Strausser, Associate Director/Internship Coordinator
e / astrausser@otterbein.edu

Marilyn Williams, Admin. Asst.
e / mwilliams@otterbein.edu
p / 614.823.1456
f / 614.823.3052

Mail
Center for Career Planning
1 South Grove Street
Westerville, OH 43081

 

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