3… 2… 1… Career Launch

Why do you go to college? A common response is to get a job, which is a desired by-product of the knowledge you expect to learn. In Carlson’s article[1], he discusses how a new leader at Muskingum University in Concord, OH, with previous experience in industry, thought about the benefits of hiring the students at the school to analyze and drive efficiencies in the university, like how consulting companies might do with a private company. This would provide benefits in all directions, including providing the students with opportunities to build skills that they could use in the marketplace. Carlson refers to this as a hidden job market. The concept of a hidden job market is a market that perhaps has a different entrance door than traditional job searching (career sites, job boards), or is untapped opportunities such as this one.

Federal work-study programs have been a mechanism used to support students working within the university but are often work not related to students’ interests and the funding support is not progressive. Expanding this to include private companies can further expand the learning and interest alignment potential, although new concerns arise about how funding would be protected from not being used for its intended purpose, student learning. Determining an approach that would match up student interests, university needs, and alignment with private company positions, is a challenging matrix to align.

Critical thinking is a part of the learning process that is best taught in live scenarios, from simulations to real-life work tasks. The leader at Muskingum described it well as: “Everybody will get stuck, and everybody will get themselves unstuck – or we’ll show them how to get themselves unstuck.” This is a skill that is portable across jobs and industries.

Back to the initial question, why do you go to college? To learn how to think critically, expand your horizons to other subjects, cultures, and interests. To build skills. And learn how to use them.

 



References:

  • [1] Carlson, Scott. “The Campus as Career Launchpad” The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 71, no. 16, April 11, 2025, page 32 – 37.

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