Connecting college and work: examining the relationship between students’ college employment experiences and their professional and career attitudes

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relationship between U.S. students’ employment experiences during college/university and their fourth-year professional career attitudes as defined by the Wabash National Study Professional Success Scale, including obtaining recognition from one’s colleagues for contributions to their field of expertise, having administrative responsibility for the work of others, working in a prestigious occupation, making a lot of money and becoming successful in a business of one’s own. This study considered three types of employment experiences (on-campus work; off-campus work; and completing an internship practicum, field experience, co-op or clinical assignment), as well as the number of hours spent engaged in on-campus and off-campus employment, and whether these measures of student employment were associated with students’ fourth-year professional career attitudes. Results suggest that on-campus work experiences, off-campus work experiences; and completing an internship practicum, field experience, co-op or clinical assignment, as well as the number of hours of employment during college have the potential to influence students’ fourth-year professional career attitudes.

KEYWORDS:

• Student employment
• career attitudes
• internships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education was supported by a generous grant from the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College to the Center for Research on Undergraduate Education at The University of Iowa.

Notes on contributors

Teniell L. Trolian

Teniell L. Trolian, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Policy & Leadership at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Dr. Trolian’s research focuses on the educational experiences that influence college choice and college outcomes.

Elizabeth A. Jach

Elizabeth A. Jach, MA, is a policy and planning analyst in the Dean’s Office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. She is also a doctoral student in higher education leadership at Colorado State University.

Kacee Ferrell Snyder

Dr. Kacee Ferrell Snyder is the Assistant Dean in the Honors College at Bowling Green State University where she manages the national fellowship process, advises honor societies and scholarship programs, and provides academic advising to Honors students. She received a Ph.D. in Higher Education in 2011 and an M.A. in College Student Personnel in 2004, both from BGSU, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from The Ohio State University.