Because faculty are frequently asked by their current and former students for career advice, there is an opportunity to increase faculty awareness of the career and labor market resources available to them, especially those on their own campuses.

The survey on which Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors: The Integration of Career Readiness Into the Curriculum is based found that 92% of faculty report that students in their disciplinary area asked them for career advice in the past year.

Students tend to ask faculty for more substantive advice—ideas about the types of work available to them and how to apply to graduate school, for example—than they do about the mechanics associated with a job search, such as help with their resume or with conducting a job search.

Faculty tend to draw on their own personal networks—particularly colleagues in their academic department (53%) and former students (51%)—to advise students.

However, many faculty members acknowledge that there are resources they need to better serve students’ career needs, namely professional development on career readiness and access to labor market information.

Taken together, these results point to an opportunity to increase faculty’s awareness of the key resources available to them.

The study on which Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors: The Integration of Career Readiness Into the Curriculum is based was conducted October 18 through December 21, 2023, by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in collaboration with American Association of Colleges and Universities and the Society for Experiential Education. There were more than 6,800 usable responses from faculty members, representing four- and two-year institutions, both public and private. Among those who identified their ranks, more than 60% were full, associate, or assistant professors and either tenured or a tenure-track professor. The report can be accessed for free on NACEWeb.