I’ve been to a year’s worth of NACE and NACE regional affiliate conferences and am always intrigued by the number of sessions that discuss the issue of parents in career services and recruiting. Oh, the tales that are told: Fortune 500 corporations that fund elaborate “parent orientations” to coincide with their new hire orientation sessions; career service offices that spend just as much time and energy informing parents of their offspring’s career options as they do the students; and of course, then there are the stories about the parents themselves… The media has been focusing on this for several years; these articles from USA Today, Forbes, and MSNBC aren’t new.
I spent six years as a middle school teacher and saw this trend creeping up the education ladder. But while middle school seems like an understandable time period for parents to hover, college graduates seem a bit old for this kind of treatment.
One of the interesting studies I’ve read recently was published in December’s Journal of Family Psychology. In this study, 392 unmarried college students and at least one of their parents were surveyed about whether these students are perceived as adults or not. It stands to reason that if only 16% of the 18 to 26 year olds see themselves as adults, their parents’ perception may not be that different (16% of moms and 19% of dads perceive their children as adults). You can read more in this USA Today article or this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (if you have a subscription to the latter).
So while the negatives are fairly well documented, what do you see as the benefits of this kind of uber-close relationship between parents and children (aside from making sure that they get to interviews on time)? Is this trend going away anytime soon? What are you doing to accommodate parents, whether in terms of career services or organizational recruiting?
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2 comments:
Meg: We have tackled a similar issue at our small, liberal arts college. We are proud of our new plan designed to engage the actively involved parent. In addition to utilizing our alumni for job search, internship and shadowing opportunities, we are soliciting parents to join a student-friendly database of parents. Soon, our students will be able to connect with a parent- mentor to seek professional advice and gain much needed networking experience. Everyone wins in this pilot program. Parents can channel their energy into more than just their own children and students can benefit from the sage wisdowm of a larger campus community. We, in the career development office, hope this program will promote more positive conversations with parents who may begin to better understand the work we do on a daily basis.
-Melissa
Melissa,
What a great plan...if you can't beat 'em...join 'em (or have them join you!). Excellent way to harness the experience and networks and make parents a vital and valuable resource for your school.
Thanks for the example!
Meg
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