Of course, the best answer to the question of how your college student feels about his first job is to ask him. Every student is different. Every student has different goals and ambitions, different strategies, different needs. Hopefully, as your student has maneuvered his way through his college career, you’ve had opportunities to talk about his dreams and ambitions, and about the realities he will face when he hits the job market.
In spite of all of the individual differences, however, there are trends today in college graduates’ attitudes and approaches toward their first post-college job. If you haven’t already had some conversations with your college student about his career thinking, some of the following information may be a good beginning point for discussion. This information comes from the 2010 annual survey of college students conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Between February and April of 2010, NACE surveyed more than 12,000 graduating seniors at over 400 colleges throughout the United States. Here are some of the things that they found.
by Jeffrey Arnett is slightly different from many of the other books we recommend for college parent reading. This book was not written specifically for college parents, but is of value and interest to parents, students, and college faculty and administrators alike. Dr Arnett, a researcher at Clark University, has focused his research on adolescents and young adults. His research has led him to propose a new phase of development for this age group — what he calls ”Emerging Adulthood”.
