Beyond the Self: Preparing College Students for a Meaningful Life at Work
These days, most people view higher education as a necessary step toward preparing for the world of work. Indeed, we confirm this belief in our just-published book, The Real World of College. In the course of carrying out interviews with 2000 individuals across ten disparate colleges and universities, we discovered a prevailing transactional mental model for college across most stakeholders—a belief that college is solely—or at least primarily—a necessary step or springboard toward a job or graduate school. This belief proved especially true for the students—who were preoccupied with maintaining high GPAs to pave the way for future careers.
This finding is disheartening for two reasons. First, we believe that unless college is explicitly vocational, preparation for the world of work should not be its primary mission. Higher education ought to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn, not only a way to secure a job. Learning about and preparing for work can certainly be a benefit of college, but it is not the sole purpose.
Second, if college is, at least in part, the site that prepares students for work, it ought to help students think about carrying out what we call “good work,” work that is at once excellent, ethical, and engaging. In other words, we would hope that colleges prime students to think about the future of a profession; how current influences, such as technology or even a pandemic, might shape the direction of work; and importantly, how, as a professional, one navigates difficult tensions and issues that arise—for example, a cheating scandal involving a close colleague or an occasion when a supervisor asks for something that violates a worker’s personal values.
The mention of a cheating scandal is not incidental. In our study of higher education we found that while most students report that cheating is rampant on campus—and many admit to cheating themselves—they see it as the least important problem on campus. We wonder: What does it mean to go to work if cutting corners is assumed to be part of the job, so to speak?
So, in sum, except for vocational schools, the primary goal of education should be student learning, not just getting a job with little or no notion of what happens next. But to the extent that a job is a goal, then colleges must help students become good workers.
To address these concerns, over the past two years, we worked with 150 students at four college campuses. The goal of this pilot project was to help students conceptualize difficult situations they face themselves, observe with others, and/or learn about in class. We asked them to document and discuss decisions in which they did not know or were uncertain what was “right” or “wrong.” As we followed students throughout the year, we prodded them to think more deeply about these dilemmas through one-on-one reflective conversations.
What did we find?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, nearly all students (92%) wrote about their future career(s) at some point during the academic year. However, even though we had specifically prompted students to think about dilemmas “beyond themselves,” still half of these students (48%) reflected on choices they personally faced in selecting a job—for example, “What do I want to do?” and “What am I most passionate about?” The focus of their discussions was about “I” rather than “we.”
In contrast, the remaining half of the students (52%) described work dilemmas as they pertain to others, to the sector, and/or to society. Within this group, we find that students discuss two different kinds of difficult situations: 1) dilemmas focused on a “misalignment” of personal values with the work of a domain or profession (e.g., a future teacher questions whether she wants to participate in tracking students); and 2) systemic issues within a domain (e.g., racism, irrational payment structures, socio-economic inequality). For the most part, over the course of the academic year, these students began to think more deeply about their future roles, responsibilities, and possible tensions they would have to navigate.
For example, one future teacher was prompted, in class, to reflect on biases, causing them to wonder whether the current student will be an effective educator.
“Today in my learning and curriculum class we spoke about potential biases we all have and especially when it comes to our own positionality… I realized through my readings that I have a lot of work to do in order to become an effective educator. That has been a cause of anxiety for me for some time now, since I chose education as my future career I have worried that I will not be that great at it.”
In another instance, a student studying organizational psychology posed a dilemma about helping an employee in a “bad work environment” cope with the situation.
“I have been interested in working in the field of industrial organizational psychology. In this field, psychologists focus on helping the workplace become healthier and more productive through research and psychological principles. One thing I’m worried about is helping employees cope with a bad work environment rather than fix the underlying issues… What I am afraid of is that I will end up teaching employees that the causes of suffering are inside of us instead of the economic, political, societal influences that shape our lives. I am afraid I will convince people that they need to constantly adapt to the workplace rather than seeking a more healthy situation to be in.”
On the one hand, it is gratifying that half of students did think more broadly—beyond themselves—when it came to contemplating work. However, students questioned their sense of agency given their sense of limited authority and wondered what their role should actually be—what they might do to solve such issues of concern. Though, as researchers, we nudged students to explore possible courses of action (even if they involved imaginary options), students often “concluded” their discussions with some version of the question, “What should I do?”
For example, a future aerospace engineer reflected, “My field really started existing because of the cold war… and so, the constant dilemma that I am left with is where does my field go now? Because I don't want to spend my life building weapons and hurting people... I love the scientific part, but I don’t want to do things that could be used to hurt people. Where do I go from here? And, who do I work for?”
In another instance, a future lawyer wrestled with the tension between her desire to help refugees and the need to pay off the loans she will accrue in law school, ending with a question about which choice is ethical.
“I want to work with/on behalf of refugees, but… it will involve working for a non-profit, in some fashion, and that this will not be an extremely large source of income. In other circumstances, I would not mind this—I do not feel like I need to live a very luxurious life, and my priority is to help people. At the same time, I am expecting around $140,000 in student debt from law school (possibly closer to $200,000 if I choose to get a Master’s beforehand). Because of this, I feel like I need to prioritize paying off that debt before anything else... It’s making me ask myself the following questions: Is it ethical to prioritize my own finances if it prevents (or delays) me from doing good in the world?”
It is important to acknowledge that these are students who are not yet working in professional domains. Many of them are learning about issues related to their future careers for the first time. However, it is clear that students feel that many of these dilemmas are out of their control. We wonder whether—and at what point—these young people will begin to take responsibility for these issues? And if they don’t, have they considered who, if anyone, should take responsibility?
Recommendations
Of course, we can’t expect students to have all the answers for their future careers before they even begin! But, at the same time, we view our findings as a “call to action” for colleges and universities. If they decide this is an issue of importance, institutions of higher education are well-positioned to prepare students to navigate complex ethical dilemmas in their careers—especially given that most current students believe that they are in college to prepare for work.
With scaffolding and exposure, students can learn to navigate these dilemmas. Interestingly, the majority of students who brought up ethical dilemmas related to their future careers encountered these issues through an academic experience or internship program. We believe that if schools intentionally “intertwine” ethics and character into the college experience—both on-campus and off-campus—college can help prepare students to become “good workers,” not only help them find jobs. We note with interest programs at other schools which seem to focus on ethics and character, for example, the La Verne Experience at the University of La Verne, the purposeful work initiative at Bates College, the current first-year curriculum at Stanford University. If we want students to do “good work,” we must help them to learn how to achieve that challenging but important goal.
We are grateful to the Kern Family Foundation for their generous support of this work.