What should I do for a career?

What systems or software can Millennial college students use to establish careers (industries and/or functional titles) to attain personal fulfillment or career success? "Career counselors" and college career centers have been ineffective at delivering effective guidance.

• I teach at a major private university following 35+ years in the commercial sector.  I'm witnessing a tremendous disconnect between the realities of what colleges and universities promise (a good job, great career)  and their abilities to deliver on those promises. Senior educators tell me "universities aren't trade schools, they exist to teach students how to think."  Yet these institutions' advertising and promotional materials, and the trade school-like majors they offer, focus on the career-readiness of their graduates.  Regrettably, their curricula do not. Resources for career direction provided by these institutions are substandard by commercial standards, making selection of a major and the hope of acquiring job-related skills (including a modern protocol for finding and interviewing for jobs) a costly gamble via a college or university. I want, in the most urgent terms possible, to become aware of software, systems or other resources that can help students gain clarity so I may help set them on a path of fulfillment instead of leaving them to select majors that seem at the outset "fun," "glamorous," or "cool." I've introduced the Meyers-Briggs assessment, an outside colleague is a Master Practitioner who administers and interprets my students' results as a favor to me. But for as much insight as the instrument brings, it doesn't provide the specific direction for which my students suffer near-desperation.  Millennials, as the largest and most educated generation of all time, will enter the workforce at a time when 120 million of them will  compete for fewer available jobs -- plus they'll be competing for those jobs on a world stage, wherein brilliant graduates in other countries can, and are eager to, perform those jobs at substantially lower salaries than American students, the result of lower overseas costs of living. Most university career counselors and similar professionals  have never worked in the commercial sector and don't fully understand the needs and wants of employers.  HR professionals and recruiters work on the periphery of the corporate sector. They serve hiring managers but, as they don't have authority, budget, or job-specific knowledge to say "you're hired" or dispense meaningful advice and direction, they can provide only an "educated guess" regarding careers for recent grads. An HR professional from a large, globally-known corporation laughed and shook her head "yes" when recently I referred to HR as the "Job Prevention Department."  'Nuff said? In this era of open information sharing and big data, there must be a reliable system or protocol to set students on a path toward success or, at least, a path toward a fulfilling and enjoyable career. What's the answer?

• Answer:

  Not everyone is willing to work hard and put the effort to grow into successful individuals. Even a menial career requires time and devotion to build. So don't expect that there could be a sureway method for everyone to succeed, because everyone wants to be successful but not everyone is willing. Every individual has their strengths and weaknesses. They should have at least the skills to acknowledge and identify it to themselves. So there's is no one-size-fits-all answer to your question. What I would suggest is that you help your students realize what careers do they want to take as early as you could, by explorin things, gand make them be dedicated to grow fit for it. Every entry-level job for each career has a different set of skill set required. The path to success is hard work and smart work, persistence and adaptability, a mix of soft and technical skills. It is a question that exists for ages. Even if we have the big data and analytics, technologies, advancement in pedagogies and educational science today, the answer still remains the same.