Guiding Career Exploration and Planning Through a Career Course for Undergraduate Geoscience Majors

Karen Viskupic¹, Julianne Wenner², Claire O. Harrigan¹, Greg Shafer¹

^{1: Boise State University Department of Geosciences}

^{2: Clemson University Department of Teaching and Learning}

This work was supported by NSF award #DUE-1742215. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

“What kind of job can I get when I graduate?”

• Students are unaware of their career options beyond traditional resource industries
• Some students may not persist in the major if they perceive limited employment opportunities
• Some students do not think about careers until looking for their first post-graduation job

What strategies are we using to help?

Instructors of majors-level geoscience classes report:

• Making explicit connections between skills needed in the geoscience workforce and course assignments and outcomes (64.4%)
• Including information about geoscience and STEM careers and career pathways (57.0%)
• Highlighting alumni who work in geoscience (52.4%)
• Giving an assignment in which students explore geoscience careers (9.1%)

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Data from the 2016 National Geoscience Faculty Survey (Egger et al., 2019)

What strategies are we using to help?

Instructors of majors-level geoscience classes report:

• Making explicit connections between skills needed in the geoscience workforce and course assignments and outcomes (64.4%)
• Including information about geoscience and STEM careers and career pathways (57.0%)
• Highlighting alumni who work in geoscience (52.4%)
• Giving an assignment in which students explore geoscience careers (9.1%)

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Data from the 2016 National Geoscience Faculty Survey (Egger et al., 2019)

Passive– instructor is doing the work

Dedicated Course for Career Exploration & Planning

• Intended for sophomore or early junior geoscience majors
• 1-credit elective course, graded, meets once per week for full semester
• Developed to align with cognitive information processing (CIP) theory, which prioritizes gaining knowledge about self and about career options

Cognitive Information Processing (CIP) Theory

Pyramid of information processing

Figures after Sampson et al. (1992, 1999)

Course Outcomes�At the end of the course, you will be able to…

Students analyze and reflect on their personal interests, values, and abilities

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Analyze your interests, values, and abilities as related to potential careers

Course Outcomes�At the end of the course, you will be able to…

• Students explore Department of Labor and job search websites for career research
• O*NET, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Career OneStop, Idaho JobScape
• Students interact with geoscience professionals (mostly alumni) in a variety of positions as part of two career panels
• Opportunity to network, without calling it that!

Describe career options in the geosciences that match your interests, values, and abilities

Course Outcomes�At the end of the course, you will be able to…

• Students learn about and reflect on desired workforce skills (e.g., Mosher & Keane, 2021; Shafer et al., 2022)
• Students analyze advertisements for jobs of interest to summarize needed qualifications
• Students learn about the processes for professional licensure in the geosciences
• Students discuss graduate school applications and admissions processes

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Evaluate the skills and experiences needed to pursue careers of interest

Course Outcomes�At the end of the course, you will be able to…

• Students prepare a general resume and a targeted resume for a job of interest
• Students write a cover letter (sometimes aspirational) for a job of interest
• Students learn about interviewing procedures and practice preparing for an interview

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Tailor your job/internship applications so that they are competitive

Course Outcomes�At the end of the course, you will be able to…

Students write a step-by-step career development plan that includes:

• A goal and anticipated time for achieving the goal
• Credentials, skills, and/or experiences needed to achieve goal
• Sub-goals, or smaller steps to help achieve goal or develop credentials
• Identification of potential obstacles and strategies to overcome them
• Timeline

Write a career development plan

Research Questions

1. What challenges do undergraduate students face with respect to understanding geoscience employment opportunities?
2. Where do undergraduate students typically find career information in geosciences?
3. What benefits (if any) do undergraduate students derive from a geoscience career awareness and planning course?

Data Collection & Analysis

Quantitative Data

(course participants & comparison group)

• Self-created Career Resource Survey
• Respondents asked to rate 13 different resources for learning about geoscience careers
• Career center, faculty mentors, alumni, friends, professional societies, courses, etc.
• 3-point scale
• 0 = Do not plan to use
• 1 = Have not used, but might in the future
• 2 = Have used

Qualitative Data

(course participants)

• Assignments from the career course
• Beginning of course reflection, career panel reflection, career development plan
• End of course focus group discussion
• Led by education researcher outside of the department and uninvolved in the course design and delivery

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Where do students find career information?

Most used resources:

• Department faculty or academic advisor
• Internet job board, listserv, or online searches
• Department classes

Least used resources:

• Campus career center
• Alumni
• Professional society

Data from comparison group (n = 82) and course participants (n = 30)

Course Participants

Findings 1:

At the beginning of the course, students report not knowing what career possibilities exist for geoscience majors, and little understanding of specific job titles for the types of work that interest them.

“I had zero idea [what careers exist in geosciences]. I knew that mining was an option, but I knew I didn’t really want to do that.”

“When I entered the geoscience program my knowledge of careers within the field was limited… I have come to realize there are hundreds of fields of study within Earth science.”

“I thought that you graduate with a degree in geology, and you become a geologist.”

Findings 2:

Students appreciated being guided through the steps of the CASVE Cycle. Breaking the process of career planning into smaller steps, and providing concrete examples of things like networking, kept students from feeling overwhelmed.

“You’re so caught up in school as a student that [job searching] is not at the forefront of what you’re trying to do… but now that it’s incorporated into a class assignment… it forces you to put effort and attention into something that’s going to help you out later.”

“We talked about networking… and the guest panel was not only a great chance to talk about careers, but to actually start that process.”

Findings 3:

Self-reflection helped students feel more connected to geoscience careers, and more confident that they could plan steps to find and get a job that they want.

“There were a lot of people from my classes that graduated before me, and they had no idea what they were going to do. I was worried that that was going to be me, and now it’s not.”

“I have gone from feeling unfocused and a little lost to having a reasonable plan of action. I didn’t even know if I had made the right choice of major, and I was afraid that there was only one path that geosciences could take me on… These fears have been assuaged now.”

Findings 4:

The career panelists provided outside perspectives and a wide variety of example career options. Key ideas from panelists included courses/ experiences to look for, and details about specific work environments.

“I’m beginning to realize that a geoscience degree can be utilized for more than geoscience, as long as you can show you know how to solve problems and communicate. I feel like you can apply a geoscience degree to a lot of technical career paths.”

“It was just really interesting to hear what I consider a whole breadth of what you can do with your degree.”

The class is working.

• Students learn about themselves
• Students learn about career options
• Students connect what they know about themselves and career options
• Students make a plan
• Students feel prepared

Recommendations

• Help students explore the breadth of careers available to them
• Help students recognize the skills they are developing in our programs and reflect on their interests, values, and abilities
• Help students to think about their career options early in their program (sophomore year) so that they can make intentional choices during their undergraduate experience
• Help students to network by providing structured ways for them to connect with alumni and other professionals

References

Egger, A. E., Viskupic, K., & Iverson, E. (2019). Results of the National Geoscience Faulty Survey (2004-2016). National Association of Geoscience Teachers. https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/CE_geo_survey/index.html

Reardon, R., & Fiore, E. (2014). College career courses and learner outputs and outcomes, 1976-2014. (Report No. 55). The Center for the Study of Technology in Counseling and Career Development. Retrieved from https://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:545107/datastream/PDF/view

Mosher, S., & Keane, C. (2021). Vision and Change in the Geosciences: The Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education. American Geosciences Institute, 176 p.

Sampson, J.P., Lenz, J.G., Reardon, R.C., & Peterson, G.W. (1999). A cognitive information processing approach to employment problem solving and decision making. Career Development Quarterly, 48(1), 3–18.

Sampson, J.P., Peterson, G.W., Lenz, J.G., & Reardon, R.C. (1992). A cognitive approach to career services: Translating concepts into practice. Career Development Quarterly, 41, 67-74

Shafer, G., Viskupic, K., & Egger, A.E. (2022). Analysis of skills sought by employers of bachelors-level geoscientists. GSA Today, 32(2), 34-35.

Course Outcomes & Activities