Join/Renew
The expectations of career services in higher education have never been greater. Families, students, and institutional leaders are asking tough questions: What support do you offer students in finding jobs after graduation? How will a degree translate into a meaningful career? What is the return on investment for a college education? The answers to these questions are complex, but they point to a broader shift in our field that calls for systemic transformation rather than incremental improvement. At Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), we responded to this call by reimagining career services as a campus-wide ecosystem of support, not a standalone office.
Over the past four years, PLNU has significantly transformed how we deliver career services. Historically, our career services functioned in a traditional, appointment-based model, housed in separate undergraduate and graduate offices with distinct reporting lines and minimal academic integration. Today, we are building a Career Ecosystem that embeds career readiness across the institution, reaching students in classrooms, co-curricular spaces, and through digital platforms.
This article outlines the evolution of our approach, including key milestones, challenges, and the strategic frameworks that have guided our work. It also provides practical insights for other institutions seeking to scale career education and create inclusive, integrated models that meet the diverse needs of today’s students.
University Context and Career Services History
PLNU is a small, private, Christian liberal arts university in San Diego, California. Historically, our campus operated with two separate career services offices: The Office of Strengths and Vocation served undergraduates, while Graduate and Professional Studies Career Services supported graduate students. These offices operated with minimal collaboration, reporting through different chains of command, resulting in siloed practices and a lack of strategic alignment.
The pre-2020 model was traditional and reactive. One-on-one advising sessions dominated staff time, career advisers administered strengths assessments to all incoming students, and academic engagement was limited to about 15 classroom workshops per semester. Events like networking nights and job fairs had low attendance and limited follow-up. Despite the dedicated work of the small team, the structure and model could not meet the growing demands for career development across campus.
Foundational Ideas and Frameworks That Shaped Our Work
In summer 2021, PLNU appointed us (the coauthors) to co-lead career services. We’re nontraditional leaders—one of us has a background in strategic partnerships, the other in community engagement. We inherited a department in transition. Despite having no prior career services experience, we were inspired by thought leaders who called for a complete reimagining of how colleges prepare students for life after graduation. Three key pieces shaped our early thinking and laid the groundwork for our transformation:
Andy Chan’s “ Career Services Must Die”: This provocative piece urged institutions to rethink career services entirely, shifting from reactive models to systemic, future-oriented structures.1
Farouk Dey and Christine Cruzvergara’s “Five Future Directions in University Career Services”:2 This article offered a blueprint for innovation, calling for career services to systematically integrate into academics, build scalable structures, teach life design and work skills, measure impact over input, and redefine the narrative around career readiness.
The NACE 21st Century Career Services Framework:3 This framework became our north star, offering clear focus areas—student engagement, talent development, and strategic partnerships—that allowed us to align our efforts with best practices and institutional priorities.
These pieces didn’t spark a radical ideological shift for us. They simply made sense. They provided the foundation for our early strategies. They validated our belief that career readiness must be embedded in the student experience, not left to chance or reduced to an “opt-in” model. The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education, by Jeremy Podany, later helped us articulate our work more clearly to stakeholders, giving us a shared language to describe the culture shift we were trying to enact.4
Turning Point: Moving Under the Provost
In March 2020, a significant structural change occurred: Undergraduate and graduate career services moved under the office of the provost. This shift aligned career services with other academic support departments such as the library, tutorial center, and the Center for Teaching and Learning. More than a change in reporting lines, this signaled to the campus community that career development was now a core academic concern. This move allowed us to build trust with faculty, increase access to students, and frame our work regarding learning outcomes and institutional priorities.
Three Strategies for Scaling Career Readiness
To transform our small team into a university-wide engine for career readiness, we adopted a three-pronged strategy: structural changes, strategic initiatives, and digital expansion.
Structural changes
We began by redefining roles, adding capacity, and streamlining our organizational design. The new structure included directors focused on talent development and strategic partnerships, a program manager to support employer relations and student engagement, career advisers responsible for academic integration and outreach, and a student support assistant. Student employees also played key roles in managing peer advising and marketing. Significantly, we moved our physical office to a central, high-traffic location across from the campus cafeteria, increasing visibility and accessibility.
Strategic initiatives: The “career everywhere” model
Our signature strategy, “Career Everywhere,” seeks to embed career learning throughout the student experience. This model is rooted in equity, scalability, and partnership.
- Group advising: We transitioned from primarily one-on-one advising to small-group formats, allowing for peer learning, shared experiences, and more efficient use of staff time.
- Curriculum integration: Career competencies were embedded into required first-year courses, senior seminars, and academic programs. Faculty were engaged through trainings, councils, and collaborations to co-deliver career education content.
- Competency assessment: We partnered with Career Launch to pilot a career readiness assessment. This tool is now used in our online career course and senior sociology seminar to track students’ growth across key skill areas.
Digital expansion
Recognizing the need for flexibility, we expanded our digital offerings to serve all students, including those enrolled in online programs. We developed a robust website filled with asynchronous resources, launched a suite of online learning modules, and built a social media presence to reach students where they are. Our modules cover networking, resumes, and personal branding and are currently being piloted in multiple online courses.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
While our transformation has been impactful, it hasn’t been without obstacles. One of the initial challenges was our reliance on an external technology platform intended to deliver scalable career content. While promising in theory, the platform failed to meet our needs. The modules lacked engagement, weren’t tailored to our students, and didn’t integrate well with our advising model. After a year of limited success, we ended the contract and reallocated the funds to hire a second career adviser. This pivot proved more effective, demonstrating the importance of adapting strategies to local context and student needs.
We also faced challenges securing faculty buy-in, navigating limited budgets, and addressing high staff turnover. These barriers required persistent advocacy, data-informed storytelling, and strong campus partnerships to overcome.
Looking Ahead: Sustaining a Career Ecosystem
Our plans build on the momentum we’ve generated. We are:
- Scaling our Welcome Week career competency session for all incoming students.
- Partnering with Career Launch to implement a university-wide career competency assessment, starting with pilots in STEM, child development, student employment, and co-curricular programs.
- Conducting a university-wide study on faculty and student perceptions of career readiness.
- Launching a grant-funded Faculty Champions initiative to embed career modules in more courses.
- Collaborating with academic deans to expand equitable access to internships.
In alignment with the emerging paradigm outlined by Podany, we are working toward a full-fledged career ecosystem characterized by:
- A promise for every student: Every PLNU graduate is equipped with the tools for lifelong career navigation.
- Career learning outcomes: broad, measurable outcomes such as skill articulation, professional portfolio development, and participation in internships.
- Embedded milestones: career readiness integrated into first-year courses, senior capstones, experiential learning, and online curriculum.
- An empowered community: a cross-campus coalition—including the president, provost, faculty, and student leaders—committed to holistic student success.
Career readiness can no longer be an opt-in experience. As students’ and families’ demands continue to rise, institutions must respond by embedding career development into the heart of the academic experience. Our journey at PLNU demonstrates that even small teams can lead big transformations if they approach the work with collaboration, creativity, and a commitment to equity.
Endnotes
1 Chan, A. (2013). Career Services Must Die [TEDx Talk]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/6Tc6GHWPdMU?si=deg84JWXCr-mm112.
2 Dey, F., & Cruzvergara, C. G. (2014). 5 Future Directions for University Career Services. Retrieved from https://imagine.jhu.edu/resources/five-future-directions-in-university-career-services/.
3 Gray, K. (April 2016). Into the Future: A 21st Century Career Services Framework. NACE Journal, 76 (4), pp. 16 - 22.
4 Podany, J. (2023). The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education: How Colleges Can Embrace the Emerging Paradigm in Career Services to Reap Significant Benefits for Students and the Institution. Fort Myers, FL: Collective Book Studio.
