A New York Times article early in the year discussed the growing imperative of “Making College ‘Relevant’”. The article cites a UCLA survey of incoming first-year students, 78 percent of whom responded that it was essential or very important to be “very well-off financially” (compared to 37 percent who responded likewise in 1971).

If the common priority for students (and parents) is a wealth-accumulating career, the coherent response would be to develop a career office whose major assignment is selling your graduates to employers. Rather than solely teaching students to prepare for interviews or search for a job, career advisors should consider their primary task as marketing the college and its grads to prospective employers. If we’re as good as we say we are, employers should be knocking down our doors to capture our graduates.

Last week in the Chronicle we read about J.J. Cutler’s interesting role at the Wharton School, where he serves as a relationship manager for students from the moment they enter the door through their exit into the world. This “enrollment to career office” model may afford new opportunities for achieving higher levels of coherence and delivering on expectations.

How is your career and placement team empowered to market your institution? What activities are you investing in to promote your graduates to employers? How are you conveying this investment to your prospective students and their families?

What are you doing to promote your graduates to employers now? We’d enjoy hearing about your successes…and learning from your failures.