A recent survey of 600 college graduates found that only 30 percent of respondents like or love their current occupations.
The study, conducted by the Rockport Institute, a career-counseling firm, surveyed college graduates living in the Washington D.C. area. The other 70 percent of respondents stated that they felt either neutral about their occupations or felt their career did not suit them well.
“Mostly people would say that they didn’t feel like their talents were used fully,” Rockport Institute Director Nicholas Lore said, adding that many other unsatisfied respondents felt “uninterested in the subject matter” or “bored in their work.”
He said those who were dissatisfied or neutral about their career paths displayed a recurring theme in their responses.
“They’re looking at a lot of things in their life that they hadn’t thought of before,” Lore said, adding that in a college or university setting, “there really isn’t any way to find out how your talents would fit together for a career.”
Kendra Nelsen, director for student services of University Career Services, said she did not find the results surprising.
“A lot of folks don’t take the time to do the front end self-evaluation,” she said.
Lore added that when searching for careers, people tend to neglect their unique talents and do not focus on areas of learning that may challenge them.
“The way people pick careers is still pretty primitive,” Lore said.
Nelsen also said it is difficult to know how satisfied someone will be with his or her career.
“A lot of people don’t do the research before they choose a career,” Nelsen said. She emphasized that students should take advantage of opportunities such as internships and the services UCS provides to help in their career decisions.
Lore, however, said the services college and university career centers provide cannot always successfully map out satisfying career paths.
“Most college career centers do the best they can, but they don’t really have the time or tools to take people through a career design process on an individual basis,” he said.
Despite this, Nelsen said she would like to think University graduates would show a more positive outlook about their careers if subjected to a similar survey.
“My assumption would be that U.Va. students do give it a significant amount of thought,” Nelsen said.
Lore, though, said even many elite university graduates felt dissatisfied with career choices.
“What we noticed was that the results from more elite colleges weren’t really that different from other ones,” Lore said.
—Emily Poe contributed to this article.
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