What\u27s Next for Career Services: Increasing Well-being and Preparing Students for the Future of Work

With the world of work becoming increasingly complex and uncertain, career services at colleges and universities is having a hard time keeping up. The delivery of career services has typically evolved in reaction to shifts in societal and economic norms; however, this paper suggests that the theories and research of positive psychology – the study of what makes life worth living – can offer career services a proactive approach to improve upon the current delivery model and its impact on student well-being. While it is clear that occupational well-being is central to the satisfaction of college students with 86% citing job placement as a determining factor for their college selection, we are seeing a dramatic uptick in anxiety, stress, loneliness and hopelessness on college campuses. The career center of the future must consider well-being to address this tension, as well as to more effectively prepare students to navigate the changing employment landscape with confidence and clarity. This capstone project proposes a career services-sponsored group coaching intervention to both scale the traditional model of career services and provide structured opportunities for students to increase belonging and connection while exploring their career development with one another