Introduction to the Problem

After being in university for about three years, I observed how my peers and juniors still had problems identifying potential career paths or making decisions surrounding that.

I honestly thought that was a problem only I faced because I made up my mind early on that our school career services could not help me with career clarity at that particular point in my life since I was not even sure of who I was, so I was just going in circles.

When I started to talk to more students across different majors, I realised it was a widespread problem that could no longer be addressed. Here is a brief overview of how the Ashesi Career Services work presently:

1. In the first semester of the first year, they are introduced to the student body during orientation and later meet up as a group with their career advisor for the year. Students are then advised to set up meetings with their advisor at their own times. Most do not.
2. There are mandatory workshops and CV reviews in the second semester to prepare students for the annual career fair later that semester. First-year students are advised to do a job shadowing instead of an internship, although they are free to do either or both. Communication between Career Services and students is frequent this semester as they keep sharing more resources and opportunities.
3. This goes on for the following years. As each year group progresses, they get a new career advisor who organises a few meet-ups to get to know their concerns and pain points when it comes to career development, and that’s mostly how far it goes for most students. The majority do not follow up and prefer to be self-directed when it comes to career growth because they don’t like the constant back and forth while juggling demanding academic work.
4. This causes significant disruption in the value-proposition of the Career Services Department as they can not provide 1:1 tailored career help to the entire year group anymore since students do not even reach out. Students also feel lost and struggle when navigating decisions concerning career development.

From most informal and intimate conversations I had with students, everyone seemed to possess a sense of drive and wanted to have control over their professional development. That birthed the project Take Charge: A Career Development Guide for Ashesi Students.

Research Insights

For any great idea, there are greater obstacles to bring it to reality. One such obstacle is determining if there is an actual demand for your product/service or focusing on the right features. I conducted surveys targeted towards students to assess the feasibility of this project and gained some interesting insights.

• Approximately 80% of students surveyed reported that the career centre hadn’t been of great help in their career development.
• Students feel lost when navigating careers.
• Students find it hard to reach out to alumni and gain mentors.
• Students receive little relevant support from the university career centre in their career journey.
• Students want more avenues to work on impactful projects that would equip them with industry skills.

This led to a few jobs-to-be-done statements to help better develop the solution, and they can be found below in order of first written to last.

• When I seek career clarity, I want to have a guide with industry statistics to help me make a well-informed decision.
• When I am looking for career clarity and mentorship, I want to have access to a network of alumni and industry professionals to gain insight into their day-to-day activities at work.