HBR-What Career-Focused Curriculum Looks Like - Harvard Business Publishing Education

7/1/2021 What Career-Focused Curriculum Looks Like | Harvard Business Publishing Education
COURSE DESIGN
What Career-Focused Curriculum Looks Like

Deans Share Leading Practices to Ready Students for What’s Next
featuring Michael H. Casson, Gonzalo Chavez, Ralph Jagodka, and Brigitte Madrian
June 21, 2021
A
nyone who has ever studied in a secondary or post-secondary program is likely familiar with the question, “What job will this
degree get you?” And for good reason. With industry trends constantly changing, the needs of the job market are always
evolving, and higher education institutions haven’t always kept pace.
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Students have traditionally expected their school’s career services department to be a place to explore possible careers upon graduation—
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to receive resumé assistance, prepare for interviews, or find job and internship postings. Students have also typically turned to career
counselors for help with job basics such as filling out applications or submitting cover letters. For today’s student on a specific career path,
this classic run-in with career services often still holds true. But for others, the way career services can best meet their needs is less clear—
particularly as more students set their sights on entrepreneurship.
Higher education institutions must better serve these students and the evolving demands of the job market by offering programming
options that help students justify the high costs—in both time and money—that they’re spending pursuing an education. We spoke to
three deans and a professor about how their schools have responded to these changing needs by taking an integrated approach to career
services and fostering powerful but subtle career counseling programs that seamlessly blend in with the curriculum. These four examples
demonstrate the possibilities that exist when we remove the four walls of career services offices and reimagine what career readiness
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means for students.
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/what-career-focused-curriculum-looks-like?cid=email%7Cmarketo%7C2021-07-01-july-inspiring-minds-digest%7C12254… 1/10
1. Bringing Career Services into the 21st Century
HOW ONE EDUCATOR HELPS CONNECT STUDENTS WITH THE REAL WORLD
At Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, business management professor Ralph Jagodka developed two
career-specific initiatives for students, inspired by feedback he received from his students regarding a need for
resources to help them with their post-graduation aspirations and goals.
The first initiative is a semester-long program called the Entrepreneur Interview Project (EIP), in which students
contact and interview entrepreneurs who have answered an eight-question survey that tackles topics such as
competitive practices and starting up. The first question on the survey asks entrepreneurs to advise students on
three things they must do well to survive and thrive as an entrepreneur.
“In our Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship class, we discuss the importance of networking,” says
Jagodka. “Students identify and secure an entrepreneur to interview, conduct the interview, write up their project
report, and post it to the web.”
More than 1,200 students have now shared the results of their EIP experiences on ConsultaPedia.com, a website
designed and run by Jagodka, who says students appreciate having learned directly from entrepreneurs about the
sometimes-harsh realities of running a business. Students have also reported valuing the opportunity to sit with
entrepreneurs and not only ask questions, but get practical answers.
Jagodka also discovered that his students lacked access to a single web page that gave them comprehensive
career and job resources that were also easy to use. The ConsultaPedia site, Jagodka’s second career-focused
initiative for students, gives them something to help reduce the overwhelming nature of career exploration and
focus their preparation efforts.
Through the website and EIP, Jagodka has bridged some of students’ career exploration gaps by blending human
interaction and technology. EIP and career resources are freely available to instructors who want to use them.
“Students these days need help at every level with their career paths,” he says. “There used to be life planning
classes in high school that helped students go out and explore careers and start trying to decide what major to
study if they wanted to go to college. Those classes are now few and far between.”
Integrating career services into the student experience can take many different forms for career-conscious higher education
environments. This integration relies on technology and plays to its strengths. It provides safe spaces for students to explore their ideas
and gain valuable inspiration to help them better inform their future decisions. At Delaware State University (DSU) College of Business,
there are several such initiatives, even one that looks like a garage.
When students enter The Garage, located on the mezzanine of the school’s Bank of America building, a silver-and-black sign reminds
them that they are “Students of Problems, Not Disciplines.” Once inside the school’s innovation and maker space, students are greeted by
a bright room decorated with modern furniture. They know they are there to solve problems, innovate, and cement their positions as
people who may one day change the world.
The 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are plastered on the walls, and “it is through these goals that we tie our investment
in students,” says Michael H. Casson, dean of DSU College of Business. Students here are challenged “to strive for academic, professional,
and social excellence; the world needs their [gifts and skills] not tomorrow, but now.”
According to Casson, The Garage’s name and concept pull inspiration from notable legacy unicorn startups such as Apple and Microsoft,
which quite literally started in garages. Casson, a second-generation college student himself, remains mindful that the student body
coming to The Garage is comprised of many first-generation students; he wants to see to it that they are both mentored and nurtured. The
space’s name choice “was not a coincidence, but rather a means to assist in the leveling of the playing field, both physically and
psychologically,” he says.
At The Garage, students, faculty, and even community members are given the space and resources to help bring their ideas from
conception to development. It is also a place for students to attend faculty lectures or participate in networking opportunities with outside
entities, helping them make the most of their time outside of the classroom. “It is essential for higher education institutions to develop a
sound infrastructure to effectively deliver programming necessary to prepare our next generation of leaders,” Casson adds.
“It is essential for higher education institutions to develop a sound infrastructure to

effectively deliver programming necessary to prepare our next generation of leaders.”
— Michael H. Casson
In the building’s lower floor, students will find the school’s Innovation Café, another program at DSU, which “serves as that social
gathering, watercooler area,” he says. The Innovation Café also serves as a business training ground. Hospitality and tourism management
students can gain real-world, hands-on café and management experience there, for example.
While you won’t find a sign at The Garage labeling it Career Services, the program assists students by giving them experience with both
present and future obstacles. “The [program] inherently brings forth the collaborative spirit that is necessary for our community and for
our world to advance,” says Casson.
2. Readying Students for Discomfort and Challenges

A big part of entering the job market involves applying for jobs and preparing for interviews, a process that typically comes with more
failures than successes. Hult International Business School, headquartered in Boston, prepares its international student body for this
reality by heavily encouraging them to upset their proverbial apple carts early and often—by finding a comfort level with challenges such
as handling rejection.
“Students have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” says Gonzalo Chavez, dean of Hult’s Boston campus. At Hult, students are
asked to apply for various jobs, including those for employers with whom they are not particularly interested in working. While slightly
unorthodox, this career preparation guidance is helpful for students because, Chavez says, they get accustomed to the interview process.
“Students have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
— Gonzalo Chavez
By the time they interview at the companies they are interested in, they should have experienced the dreaded milestone most if not all of
us fear: rejection. “If you are exposed properly to rejection, but keep going,” he says, “by the time you get to a place you are interested in,
there’s more comfort level there.”
3. Paving—and Supporting—New Entrepreneurial Career Paths
Just a handful of Junes ago, one’s graduation from business school typically equated with employment aspirations at big firms such as
McKinsey or Deloitte. These newly minted grads held positions for a time before going after other pursuits. When contrasting this former
trajectory with the pathways students now often forge, the picture looks radically different.
Brigitte Madrian, dean of the Brigham Young University (BYU) Marriott School of Business in Provo, Utah, attributes some of this shift to
students’ mindsets and the campus’s relative proximity to what’s known as the “Silicon Slopes.” Students have easy access to internships
and networking opportunities with nearby operations and entrepreneurial alums, giving those intending to work for themselves concrete,
real-life examples and work experience to inform their paths.
One summer program called Founders Launchpad pairs a mentor with student teams, with the goal of working on new business ventures.
Together, students attend classes, write and refine business plans, learn about access to capital, and network with entrepreneurs each
week over dinner. In lieu of a traditional internship, Madrian says, Founders Launchpad prepares students to start their own companies
straight out of college.
“We have seen increasing entrepreneurship; we have many students who are not necessarily first looking for a job at an established
company that will give them the skills to then go out and start their own company,” she says. “They are starting their own firms straight
from college. A lot of startups don’t make it, but we have some notable examples of students who graduated, started their companies
straight out of school, and are doing quite well.”
4. Training for a New Kind of Employer

Today’s employers are also radically different from those of decades past, and their demands and wish lists for ideal candidates have
evolved. Overwhelmingly, prospective employers now look for candidates who possess the technical skills to get the work done, as well as
softer skills, such as communications or the ability to work with or lead a team.
Madrian says BYU, encouraged by its advisory board, recently expanded its data analytics programs to help students be better prepared in
the workforce. She also notes that employers want to provide a work environment that is both tech-savvy and culturally sensitive. BYU
has responded by making inroads for students both professionally and personally. As part of the plan to provide “a robust placement
service in addition to our class preparation,” Madrian says, in a typical year, students can expect anywhere from 400 to 500 company
information sessions or class trips that provide on-site experiences at workplaces, including New York financial firms in addition to Silicon
Slopes startups.
“Evolving traditional career services into 21st-century ones requires outside-the-box

thinking and collaboration within and across institutions.”
On the softer side of things, BYU aims to “better equip students to go out into the workplace and collaborate with individuals from
different backgrounds and have conversations with people who they may not totally agree with,” Madrian says. “Students need to be
sensitive to the different circumstances that people have come from.”
Answering the Career-Readiness Call

Evolving traditional career services into twenty-first-century ones requires outside-the-box thinking and collaboration within and across
institutions—but graduates clearly benefit from the results. When students graduate from their respective schools or programs, they bring
toolkits with them that go beyond memorization and mastery of material. They’ve spent time working toward goals in programs that put
their skills and talents to the test, pushed them to leave their comfort zones, and shaped empathetic professionalism, setting them up for
better success in matters outside the classroom.
Despite never having set foot in an office labeled “Career Services” while in school, students in these programs have received the same
kinds of counseling and career assistance that have been at the forefront of career services departments in the past. By putting a modern
twist on traditional career planning and counseling, universities and colleges can give students the tools they need—whether they go into
business for themselves, head into the corporate world, or forge whatever path they choose.
Explore more
COURSE DESIGN EDUCATION STRATEGY EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Michael H. Casson is dean of students at Delaware State

University College of Business. He is also director of
University Center for Economic Development and
International Trade (UCEDIT) and director of Economic
Development and Leadership Institute (EDLI).
Gonzalo Chavez is dean of the Boston campus at Hult

International Business School. He has also served as
professor of finance at the school.
Ralph Jagodka is a professor of business management at

Mt. San Antonio College where he teaches small business
management (entrepreneurship) and international
business. He is also vice chairman of the United Abacus
Arithmetic Association (UAAA). Jagodka was appointed by
the US Secretary of Commerce to the District Export Council
of Southern California (DECSC) for a four-year term (2014-
2017).
Brigitte Madrian is dean of the Brigham Young University

(BYU) Marriott School of Business in Salt Lake City, Utah.
She is also a Marriott Distinguished Professor, Finance and
Marriott Distinguished Professor, Romney Institute of Public
Service and Ethics. She has a joint appointment in the
Department of Finance and the George W. Romney Institute
of Public Service and Ethics. Madrian’s current research
focuses on behavioral economics and household finance,
with a particular focus on household saving and investment
behavior.
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7/1/2021 What Career-Focused Curriculum Looks Like | Harvard Business Publishing Education

What Career-Focused Curriculum Looks Like

1. Bringing Career Services into the 21st Century

“It is essential for higher education institutions to develop a sound infrastructure to

2. Readying Students for Discomfort and Challenges

“Students have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

3. Paving—and Supporting—New Entrepreneurial Career Paths

4. Training for a New Kind of Employer

“Evolving traditional career services into 21st-century ones requires outside-the-box

Answering the Career-Readiness Call

COURSE DESIGN EDUCATION STRATEGY EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Michael H. Casson is dean of students at Delaware State

Gonzalo Chavez is dean of the Boston campus at Hult

Ralph Jagodka is a professor of business management at

Brigitte Madrian is dean of the Brigham Young University

Resist Old Routines When Returning to Campus

My Fixation on Time Management Almost Broke Me

A Course Designed to Get Students Hired

HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING

Harvard Business Review

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