Higher education has spent years building career services infrastructure. The offices exist, the staff are trained, the resources are there. And students know about it, according to the 2026 State of Higher Education Report. 84.3% of students are aware that their school offers career services. The catch? Only 38.8% have ever used them.
A major gap between awareness and engagement is not a visibility problem. Career services is not a hidden resource. The gap exists between knowing something is there and believing it's relevant enough, accessible enough, or valuable enough to actually walk through the door.
That gap is a design problem, and it's one of the most consequential fixable problems in higher education right now.
What the Gap Actually Tells Us
When a majority of students know a resource exists and have never used it, the question isn't "do students know where career services is located?" The question is "why does a student who knows career services exists choose not to engage with it?"
The answers, across most institutions, cluster around a few consistent themes:
- Timing: Most students are introduced to career services at the beginning of their senior year, right when they need it most and have the least time to develop a productive relationship with it. Students who first encounter career services in September of their final year have roughly one semester to extract value from a resource that works best when engaged over multiple years.
- Positioning: Career services is widely understood as a resume service and job listing board. Students who have already written a resume and can find job listings on LinkedIn see no marginal value in visiting. The higher-value services (career counseling, professional skill development, employer relationship access, networking support) are either unknown or inaccessible to most students.
- Accessibility: Office hours that conflict with class schedules, physical locations that aren't convenient, and limited digital presence all create friction that students will reliably avoid when the perceived value is uncertain.
- Relevance by field: Students in fields where career services has strong employer relationships (business, finance, engineering) experience more visible career services value. Students in fields where employer recruitment is less institutional (arts, social sciences, education) often perceive career services as less directly relevant to their career path.
The Resource That Exists But Doesn't Activate
Kevin Prentiss, Head of Product and Technology at the NSLS, identified a dual failure in how career services is currently functioning during the State of Higher Ed webinar, pointing out that it is not just failing students. It's failing employers too.
Employers who want to hire strong candidates can't identify them through existing institutional pipelines. Resume volume and GPA screening don't help employers discern quality candidates. Career services offices that function primarily as job posting boards, without actively developing and showcasing candidate competency, aren't providing value to employers any more than they're providing value to the students who don't show up.
The most effective career services function is as a two-sided marketplace: developing student career readiness and professional communication skills on one side, and building active employer relationships that match prepared candidates to real opportunities on the other. Most career services offices are running the equivalent of a one-sided operation: posting listings and hoping students apply.
The gap between what career services could be and what it currently is for most students is also a gap in institutional competitive positioning. Institutions whose students consistently land good jobs through strong career services support differentiate themselves in enrollment, retention, and alumni engagement. The investment in real career services activation is not just a student welfare investment; it's an institutional strategy investment.
What Better Activation Looks Like
The 45.5-point awareness-to-engagement gap doesn't require massive structural investment to close. It requires intentional redesign of when, how, and for what purpose career services engages with students.
- Embed in the first year: Students who are introduced to career services as a resource for professional direction, not just job applications, in their first or second year develop a productive relationship with the resource before the senior-year scramble. First-year career programming that helps students articulate their interests, explore career paths, and begin building professional direction creates engagement well before it's urgent.
- Reposition beyond resume help: Students who understand that career services can help them identify transferable competencies, practice professional communication, connect with alumni networks, and navigate internship access are more likely to engage than students who see it as a place to fix their resume formatting.
- Make it accessible: Digital advising tools, flexible scheduling, and embedded programming in academic departments reduce the friction that keeps students from engaging. A career services touchpoint doesn't have to mean walking into an office; it can mean a virtual appointment, a workshop in a required course, or an advising note in an academic advisor meeting.
Amy Everson, a panelist on the State of Higher Ed webinar and Senior Director of University Recognition and Institutional Events at the American Public University System, identified what the highest-value career services intervention actually is: skills language coaching. Not resume formatting, but teaching students to identify, articulate, and communicate the competencies they've developed in terms that employers recognize. That's a higher-order service than most students associate with career services, and it's the one that would most directly address the gap between student qualifications and employer perception.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why don't students use career services more even when they know it exists?
The most common reasons are that students don't see it as relevant to their specific situation, don't know what to ask for beyond resume review, and encounter access barriers (inconvenient hours, physical distance, no strong digital presence). Redesigning for accessibility and repositioning beyond resume help addresses both.
When should a student first engage with career services?
As early as possible, ideally in the first year. Early engagement doesn't require having a specific job in mind. It might mean a conversation about what careers are possible in your major, a skills inventory to understand what you're already developing, or learning about internship pathways in your field. The value of career services compounds with the length of the engagement.
What should a student ask for if they've never visited career services?
Ask for a career exploration conversation, not a resume review. Tell them where you are (what you're studying, what interests you, what concerns you about the job market) and ask what resources they have for students at your stage. A good career services advisor will help you identify a direction and a next step, even if you don't have a specific job application to work on.
How can career services offices improve their value for the students who aren't currently engaging?
The highest-leverage changes are timing (engage students earlier), positioning (reframe as career strategy, not resume service), and skills coaching (teach the professional language that helps students communicate their value to employers). These changes don't require budget increases; they require intentional redesign of how career services is delivered and when students encounter it.
The gap is wide from awareness to engagement. The institutions that close it will differentiate themselves on the outcomes that matter most. For the full data on career services utilization and what drives student career readiness, read the 2026 State of Higher Education Report.
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