Category — After College

They’ve been called many things – the Millenial Generation, Generation Y, Echo Boomers, Digital Natives, Generation Next, Generation Me.  Now they are earning the title of the Boomerang Generation.  If you have a recent college graduate, or a college student due to graduate in the next few years, chances are that you should be getting that bedroom ready to welcome your student home again.

It may be reassuring to some parents with students moving back home, and to those students as well, to know that they are not alone.  According to a survey conducted by the consulting firm Twentysomething, Inc., 85% of 2011 college graduates will be moving back home, at least for a while.   The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 survey America’s Families and Living Arrangements, found that between 2005 and 2011 the percentage of individuals between 18 and 34 living at home has increased for all groups.  In the age group 25-34, the percentage of males living at home has increased from 14% to 19%.  The percentage of females in the same age group living at home has gone from 8% to 10%.  In the 18-24 age bracket the percentage of males at home has gone from 53% to 59% and females from 46% to 50% (this includes students living in college dorms during the school year).

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College is a time of transition.  There is much discussion about the student’s transition to freshman year and to college in general.  But in many ways, college is a time of continual transition.  Your student moves into college, into and out of dorms and apartments, into (and sometimes out of) majors, and move on up the ladder of college class rank.  For some students the transition includes moving on to different colleges or to alternative paths.  Finally, students begin the transition out of college and into career.

Recognizing that this is a time of continual transition and change will help you support and encourage your student as he navigates his way through college.  We’ve included here some information about some of the transitions your student – and you – may face.

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As you send your student off to college, or as your student is settling into the college routine in his first year or two, it is difficult to imagine that joining a professional organization or two could possibly matter.  You and your college student may still be adjusting to college life and that professional career may seem a long way off.

Joining a professional association or organization related to your student’s chosen career may seem something that should be considered during your student’s senior year or as he is about to begin his professional career.  However, there are many benefits of joining professional associations early.  Although both you and your student may initially feel that adding the cost of membership to the already expensive college years may not be worth it, consider some of the following reasons why membership may be a good idea.  Then, talk to your student about his goals, interests, and opportunities.

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Congratulations!  Your college student is about to graduate, or perhaps has graduated from college.  He is ready to take on the world!  But, perhaps, he may not be as ready as he thinks for “real life” after college. He’ll still need you for advice, of course, but he may also need some guidance for other sources as he navigates his new life.

Your student may have a job and be out on his own.  He may have moved on to graduate school.  He may be returning to your nest for a while.  Current research and theory suggest that students who graduate from college are part of that group now being identified as “emerging adults” – certainly not children or adolescents, but yet not quite adults yet.

This post contains a list of books that may be useful to your student as he enters this new phase of his life.  A book or two might make a great graduation gift, or summer beach reading.  We are not necessarily endorsing these books, but we’d like to help you find material available.  Your graduate won’t necessarily want to read them all, but you might look for some titles and approaches that seem appropriate for your graduate’s needs

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Your college student is graduating.  Congratulations!  It’s possible that your student will move on to graduate school, or he may be beginning his career.  Whichever direction he takes, he is now at a milestone and you want to mark the moment with an appropriate graduation gift.  Your graduation gift may be large or small, practical or sentimental, but it may be time for some “real life” tools.

Here are some suggestions to help you begin thinking about what you’d like to do for your graduate.  Use these possibilities to start your own imagination working about what your graduate might like or need.

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Students attend college for many reasons; and students gain many things from their college education.  One of the primary goals for most students, however, is to find a job after graduation and to begin to build a career.  Students today are graduating at one of the most difficult times in recent history for finding that beginning job.  Some students will find themselves better prepared than others for the road to their ideal career.

We’d like to suggest eight factors that can help your student take charge and survive the difficult early career building stages.  As your student nears graduation, or perhaps well before that, you might share some of these ideas with him.  Help him begin to think about his attitude and approach and begin to see the proactive steps that he can take to move toward his ultimate goal.

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For many students, college life is a wonderful time living an ideal existence.  It is, in some ways, an escape from the real world.  In spite of the stress that many students experience over various issues, real financial worries, occasional social drama, and worries about career decisions once they graduate, college life has some benefits.  For many students, meals are prepared for them in a dining hall, someone cleans up after them in residence halls, someone else is responsible for shoveling, raking and mowing, their commute may consist of walking across the quad, friends live just down the hall and are available 24/7, and much entertainment is free on campus.  College life for some students is an idyllic bubble that lasts for a few years.

However, most college students do graduate, and then they face the reality of the world of work.  Is there anything in that idyllic life of college that prepares them for the expectations that will exist once they graduate?  For students who give some thought to a work ethic and to their college experiences, there are many lessons they can take away.  As a college parent, you may be able to help your student equate some of his college experiences to his future work life.  Students who recognize these college experiences as preparation and practice for later work expectations will not only experience more success in college, but will be better prepared later.

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Congratulations!  Your college student is about to graduate, or perhaps has graduated from college.  He is ready to take on the world!  But, as we all know, that doesn’t mean that your job is done.  You’ve done your work as a college parent, but now a different, and in some ways even more delicate form of parenting begins.  Your student may have a job and be out on his own.  He may have moved on to graduate school.  He may be returning to your nest for a while.  Current research and theory suggest that students who graduate from college are part of that group now being identified as “emerging adults” – certainly not children or adolescents, but yet not quite adults yet.  As a parent of an emerging adult, you now have a new role.

This post includes a list of nine books which may be of interest to parents of college graduates.  The list is not exhaustive, there are certainly even more resources available, but this list should give parents a good start on material to support them through this interesting time.  All of the books have different styles and approaches, so it is important to find the books which resonate for you.

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There are many opinions proposed, many surveys taken, much research done regarding what employers want and expect from college graduates.  The answers may vary over the years, and may vary depending on profession or field of study.  Some skills may be very specific and others more broad.

College students often do not consider the actual skills that employers want.  Students may be thinking in terms of all-college requirements, requirements in their major, and possibly a minor, and what they need to do to graduate.  They often miss the connections between what they are doing in college and what they will need to do once they graduate – especially regarding those courses outside of their major.

As a college parent, you may want to talk with your student about what he is learning.  Ask him about the skills he is gaining in his classes.  Ask him about internships and real world application of his learning. Help him explore connections between his learning and his goals.  Help him explore the meaning of a Liberal Education. The more that your student, and you, understand and consider the meaning of his college education, the more easily he will be able to apply his learning to his life.

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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.

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