Thais Burmeister de Campos Pires
Educational Advisor
Associacao Alumni
Al. Ministro Rocha Azevedo,413
São Paulo, SP, 01410-001
Brazil
Tel: 55-11-3067-2913
Fax: 55-11-3067-2936
E-mail: thaispires@alumni.org.br
www.alumni.org.br

The Professional Advising Leadership (PAL) Fellows Program is designed for senior-level educational advisers in the EducationUSA network sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. The objective of the program is to improve leadership and research skills through training and visits to American Educational institutions.

Each of the 11 PAL fellows had a research theme related to EducationUSA advising and mine was about “career advising”. I think this would be an important theme to investigate since many times our advisees come to our office seeking not only for information about study in the U.S but for help to define their career goals in a world that is changing so fast. We are living in a very competitive era when jobs are becoming scarce, the technology is advancing rapidly and, many times there is a social-economic depression in our own Countries. Besides that, the students usually think they have to fulfill not only their own career expectations but sometimes also their parent’s that are investing a big amount of money in their education.

In this way, my research objective was to obtain information about career advising services offered by educational institutions and organizations in the U.S and find out how they are helping their students in this matter. After this research, I would like to be able to serve as a source of information for the EducationUSA advising offices that could also offer these services to their advisees and bring more profitability and visibility to their offices. Therefore, my research has focused on what resources are used by the institutions for this kind of service (special techniques, software, books, tests, and researches) and how they organize the information and offer their services. In addition to visiting career advising offices at the high school and college level, I also wanted to learn about the profession of career advising and how career advising skills are taught in college and university academic programs. I also wanted to learn how to ensure that career advising can address the future labor needs of my country, Brazil.

An important aspect of the PAL program and, I believe has helped me a lot for the success of it, was the online Self-Directed Orientation program, organized by the College Board and coordinated by Deborah Hefferon. The program was taken during the two previous months of our travel to the U.S. and was divided into four modules that had tasks about Goals and Objectives, Developing a Template of Guiding Questions, Making Effective Presentations, Teambuilding, How to Measure Success, Mind Mapping, How to process the Experience and Journalizing. So, by the time we were in the U.S for our research, we already had a good preparation for it and a ready schedule for our visits.

The first part of our program in the U.S., was at The College Board , in Washington D.C where all of us, 11 PAL fellows, have met and exchanged ideas about our research themes and got to know better about each other and culture. We had workshops about Leadership, Presentation Skills and Marketing and, also some cultural activities like the play at the Ford’s Theatre: “Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, a musical played by deaf actors using the American Sign Language and other non-deaf actors. After those two-days and a half activities in Washington D.C each of us had followed our own itinerary that included different cities in the U.S.

After finishing our research, all of us went to Seattle, WA, to participate at the NAFSA Conference. There we had our debriefing and a meeting with other PAL fellows to discuss the future of the PAL program.

The Research: Career Advising

I started my research about career advising in Washington D.C visiting the Council of Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) which vision is to provide leadership and to promote excellence in professional preparation though the accreditation of counseling and related educational programs. CACREP is dedicated to (1) encouraging and promoting the continuing development and improvement of preparation programs, and (2) preparing counseling and related professionals to provide service consistent with the ideal of optimal human development. Students that are interested in choosing a career in Counseling (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos067.htm) are encouraged to check if the program chosen is accredited by CACREP.

My next visit was to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) that is an organization founded in 1937, comprised of 8,000 professionals from around the world dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing post secondary education. NACAC is committed to maintaining high standards that foster ethical and social responsibility among those involved in the transition process. The organization has many tools that have helped College Admission Counselors to provide better services for their students. It has many publications with important information for people involved in this profession and, one of them is the “State of Admission College” that analyzes the results of the Admission Trends and Counseling Trends Surveys.

My visit to the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) had the objective of getting information about the projects related to labor issues in Brazil.

The Career Services Center at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS - provides Counselors that work with students in three primary areas: career exploration and goal setting, securing substantive internships, and assistance in all aspects of the job hunt process. Their Career Services Library Catalogue is a good resource for all that are interested in this issue.

The University of Maryland, College Park Career Center prepares and positions its undergraduate students, graduate students and alumni to understand their unique abilities and how to identify the next steps in investing these talents to meet employment demands. Their Career-Related Web Links provides a list of useful sites on career advising.

The MBNA Career Education Center at Georgetown University mission statement is to teach students and alumni how to identify career opportunities that suit their individual strengths and interests and equips them with resources for life-long career management as confident, self-reliant professionals.

After Washington D.C, I went to California to visit the career center of some universities in San Diego and in the Los Angeles area.

At the Career Services of San Diego State University, Division of Student Affairs they offer the following services: Career Counseling, Job Listings, Workshops, Career Fairs and Employer Information Sessions, On-Campus Interviewing, Career Resource Room, Computer Assisted programs, Aztec Career Connection, Career Consultants Network, Placement Files.

The University of California San Diego Career Services Center helps students with any career-related concern and offers a comprehensive set of programs and services throughout the year: Job searching, resume writing, interviewing, assessment tests, networking, graduate and professional school information and reference areas.

The University of California Los Angeles Career Center offers a complete array of personal and online services that help the students to make and re-evaluate career choices, write resumes, practice interviewing, build networking skills and gain work experience through internships.

At The University of Southern California Career Planning & Placement Center , the student can obtain a variety of services that include: career counseling, workshops, company profile events, career panels, internships, job listings & searches, Trojan Network and Career Fairs.

At the California State University, Northridge the students can get help from the Career Center to make informed, active decisions about careers and employment opportunities.

California Lutheran University provides to the students Career Services that help them deal with career related matters.

The visits to those educational institutions and their respective career centers have provide me a good understanding on how their services can help the students make a successful career planning.

The universities usually offer the following services:

1. Career advising: one-on-one meetings with career advisors or counselors
2. Assessment tests: tests that can help the students determine which occupations match their own skills, interests, values, motivation and personality (ex: Myers- Briggs and Strong Interest Inventory).
3. Interviewing: how to deal with the different types of job interviewing: traditional face to face interview (one-on-one conversation); panel/committee interview (three to ten members of a panel may conduct an interview); behavioral interview (the students’ past is the best predictor of their future: can be by telephone, panel, or one-on-one.
   Some of them provide mock interviews.
4. Resume writing: it is a summary of the student’s education, work experience and relevant skills. It has to be clean and clear, with a focused employment objective. There are three basic format for resume preparation: chronological, functional, and combination. Some of the centers offer online resume critique, sample resumes and resume tips for specific fields. Usually it is the first step to get an interview.
5. Networking: helps the students to clarify and define their interests in various career fields as well as connect them to internships and full-time opportunities. Can be through career consultants, professors, alumni, previous employers, friends and families.
6. Job searching: there are many ways to look for a job: employment agencies, internet searching, target mailing, want ads, in-person visits, on-campus recruiting, networking, resume referral, consult directories (Hoover’s Handbook of Emerging Companies and The Almanac of American Employers), search periodical indexes for articles in newspapers, business publications, and professional journals and career fairs.
7. Workshops: Graduate and Professional Planning; Resume Writing; Internships and Study Abroad Information; Career Options; Interview Techniques; Salary Negotiations
8. Alumni Career Services: many universities offer career assistance for recent graduates, first-time career changers, mid-life career changers and retirees.

1. Council of Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)
2. National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC)
3. Johns Hopkins University-SAIS
4. University of Maryland, College Park
5. Georgetown University
6. San Diego State University
7. University of California, San Diego
8. University of California, Los Angeles
9. University of Southern California
10. California State University, Northridge
11. California Lutheran University

1. Career Counseling of College Students: Darrell Anthony Luzzo; American Psychological Association
2. The Career Counselor’s Handbook: Howard Figgler & Richard N. Bolles;
3. What Color is Your Parachute?: Richard N. Bolles
4. Do What You Are : Paul D. Tieger & Barbara Barron-Tieger
5. Career Development Interventions in the 21st Century: Spencer G. Nilles & JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey
6. Career Counseling- Applied Concepts of Life Planning : Vernon G. Zunker
7. KISS- Guide to Managing Your Career: Ken Lawson
8. Taking Charge of Your Career Direction: Robert Lock
9. College Board Book of Majors
10. Occupational Outlook Handbook
11. The Career Counseling Casebook: A Resource for Practitioners, Students, and Counselors Educators: Spencer G. Niles, Jane Goodman and Mark Pope
12. Career Choice and Development: Duane Brown, Linda Brooks and Associates