Data Insight #2 Graduate Student Career Engagement and Utilization Survey
In Spring of 2025, the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills surveyed graduate students to better understand their awareness, needs, preferences, and expectations related to career development. The survey also explored student engagement with the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills as well as career preparation in their academic departments. Respondents represented 50 departments across 11 colleges/schools with race/ethnicity and gender generally aligning with UConn’s Demographic Fact Sheet (2024).
The Dec./Jan. Career Everywhere newsletter featured a data insight that captured who UConn graduate students ranked as most responsible for their career development. This month’s data insight focuses on the “Areas of career preparation in which respondents think their academic department can help.” The top ranked “select all that apply” response options are as follow:
Top Ranked Responses (out of 11 response options)
Expanding my network – 129
Connecting with employers – 108
Identifying opportunities to develop skills needed for my career/job interests – 93
Exploring/considering different careers/jobs – 86
Connecting with alums – 77
Preparing for Interviews – 58
In reviewing this data insight an important reflective question emerges, “Is your department supporting career preparation in the ways that the respondents think it can help?” The top response options suggest that graduate students value real-world connections with an emphasis on career and job exploration, employer engagement, and access to professional networks. If your department is not resourced and structured to support career preparation in the specific ways respondents believe the department can help, there are opportunities to leverage campus partnerships and existing resources to provide graduate students with the preparation they seek.
Department-Level Opportunities
Based on this data insight, departments may consider:
- Hosting employer panels and/or site visits with focus on career readiness and networking.
- Implementing a structured program that connects students with alumni mentors.
- Integrating internships or case-based/consulting projects into courses or curricula.
- Communicating regularly about career readiness opportunities and resources available through the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills.
- Expanding skill-building opportunities if gaps exist between academic preparation and workforce needs, including micro-credentials or short courses.
How the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills Can Support Departments
- Coordinating alumni and employer presenters for classes, seminars, and programs.
- Sharing structured frameworks for alumni and employer panel presentations.
- Encouraging student participation in Employer Insight and Expand Your Career Options virtual events, promoted throughout the year on our Events Calendar and the daily Grad Student News email distributed by The Graduate School.
- Providing career presentations, HuskyCT Career Readiness modules, and resources to support career and job exploration, internship search, networking and LinkedIn, interviewing – and all other career need topics surveyed.
This data insight reinforces a shared model for career preparation in which departments and the Center for Career Readiness can play coordinated and complementary roles in guiding and supporting graduate students toward their desired career outcomes.
Please contact Kay Gruder, Associate Director for Graduate Student and Postdoc Career Programs & Services at kay.gruder@uconn.edu to discuss ways the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills can partner to support and guide the career preparation of your graduate students.
