"Not All Career Centers are Created Equal": How Career Services Professionals Make Sense of the Evolving Nature of Their Work Amidst Resource Constraints in U.S. Higher Education

Fanni Faragó

Advisor: Blake Silver, PhD, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Committee Members: Dae Young Kim, James Witte, Chrystal George Mwangi

Online Location, Zoom
July 14, 2026, 11:30 AM to 01:30 PM

Abstract:

University-based career services have emerged at the epicenter of current debates about the value of higher education and the “return-on-investment” of a college degree. Public universities are experiencing increasing pressure to be accountable for students’ workforce outcomes, with career services emerging as a major institutional strategy to achieve these goals and market the value of postsecondary institutions. Most research to date about career services has focused almost exclusively on students’ individual experiences; less is known about how career services professionals understand their work and navigate the marketized conditions of higher education. This dissertation reports on an in-depth qualitative investigation of career services through the following guiding research questions: 1. How do university-based career services professionals make sense of ongoing changes in U.S. higher education and how these changes impact their work?; and, 2. How do they respond to the needs of an increasingly diverse student body, including immigrant-origin students? 

Based on 44 in-depth interviews with career services directors and practitioners across 37 public universities in 13 states that enroll the highest-shares of immigrant-origin college students, this study’s findings reveal key sociological insights. First, university resource environments impact the scope and infrastructure of career services supports, as well as the capacity of career services professionals. This means that across Resource Abundant, Resource Moderate, and Resource Constrained Universities, career services are unequally positioned to substantively support student outcomes. Second, while most career services professionals deeply value and aspire to more equitably support students from a diverse range of backgrounds, their social context within and beyond their institutions differentially position them for enacting these pursuits. Third, the institutional resource environment shapes how professionals make sense of the future of their role and purpose of their work in the years to come. As a result, professionals and institutions are positioned in more and less advantageous ways for defining the future priorities and practices of career services. Overall, these findings reveal the complexity of career services work across public universities, expanding sociological understandings of the influence of the marketization of higher education and the growing diversity of postsecondary student enrollments. Implications for future research and practice are explored.

Join us on Zoom: https://gmu.zoom.us/j/91332026857?pwd=IAufCaEzTniGV2qyDq4xQyW925V5oR.1