For the last few years the focus of College Consultants has been on “getting your kid into the best college possible.”  But now with the cost of college elevated beyond reason, and the market demanding that Millennials be focused, capable, and fully prepared post-graduation, the days of “hoping your kid will figure it out in college,” are over.  As someone who has helped raise and launch many young adults into the world, I firmly believe that Millennials must now look to coaches and consultants for support beyond the traditional line up of list development, resume building, essays and interview skills.

Meandering Millennials – Unsatisfactory College ROI

Over the past 14 years, the number of stressed, anxious college students and recent graduates who walk into my office has quadrupled! Their parents (YOU) hire someone (US), because their kids are trying to choose a major, a career path to inform their internship search, a service or research project that is relevant to their career ideas, or a first job that gets them remotely excited.  Except they have no direction, and the career services folks aren’t helping them enough.  It pains me to know that they are choosing a college because of the “expansive alumni network” but have no idea how to leverage it when the time comes.

Some clients have graduated college with honors, random internships, a fraternity membership, and a study abroad program, but still have no clear career direction or Identity Capital. They move back home and it doesn’t take long for their confidence to drop and job search momentum to stop.

Early Career Ideas – Creates Purpose and Drives Motivation in High School

It is our belief that helping college applicants to figure out some basic career direction before or during the college application period is a critical and valuable exercise, especially if you want your Millennial to launch and not re-inhabit your new yoga room after they turn the college tassel!

An Example of our Process for Identifying Purpose – Before the College Application Process

Before even beginning to ask the college criteria questions about geography, Greek life, environment, size, major, etc., we spent a few Purpose Finding Sessions with Peter, a high school Junior.   At the end of those sessions he began to see the connections between his natural math talents, his interest in biology and anatomy, and his purpose, which we uncovered to be helping veterans and children with physical disabilities. We then spent our time researching strong biomedical engineering programs, with a focus on artificial intelligence and it’s intersection with artificial limbs.  We helped him with professors and professionals in the field, and uncovered job-shadowing experiences so he could “check-out” his ideas. Then we continued with the process of finding colleges that met his other criteria.

This intersection of purpose, talents and interests is a truly valuable outcome of our work with Millennials.

So we strongly recommend that in addition to your college coach being a member of the IECA (and thereby having the basic information needed to help you navigate the college application process), that they also have the connections, experience and dedication to help your child see the big picture and work with them to paint that picture for themselves and for the colleges to which they are applying.