Chances are if career services are not having the impact you seek, it is not a new problem. Creating solutions that improve services and unify a campus around career readiness may require a fresh perspective. Bringing in an external consultant to evaluate your unique situation and cultural context creates opportunities to mobilize and educate campus partners to the possibilities of change, while laying the groundwork for the implementation of innovative solutions.

Being immersed in your day-to-day work, it is not uncommon to get tunnel vision or only see things in one way. Bringing in an external consultant can help solve problems by simply applying a new approach or introducing a new perspective to the issue at hand. Career services consultants can help cut through the noise by evaluating your institution's career readiness culture, identifying strengths and opportunities, and creating a vision to improve services and outcomes.

Faculty and staff may be satisfied with the status quo, but you want to make change. Consultants are often brought in to assist leadership with making organizational change that may be unpopular with employees. As an objective, third party, a consultant is generally viewed as the "expert" and can help secure buy-in from faculty and staff, help them imagine the benefits of change, reduce resistance, and help leaders more effectively implement change.

Career services can be repositioned to positively impact many common higher ed challenges: value proposition, recruitment, retention and persistence, mental health, graduation rates, appeal with the community and employers, government relations, alumni and donor relations, as some examples.  Leveraging an external consultant who can spark your imagination for what's possible, craft a compelling vision and implementation plan in the context of your unique institutional culture, can accelerate your efforts.