“But Will She Have a Job?”
John E. Dargan, MA, EPC
Department of Exercise Physiology
The College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN 55811

I can’t imagine a person becoming a success who doesn’t give this game of life everything he’s got.” – Walter Cronkite

One of the duties those of us who teach in small college settings is to help recruit prospective students.  At the College of St. Scholastica this includes representing our department at “open houses” by answering questions that students may have about specific programs or courses of study.  Generally, most of the challenging questions come from the parents of these high school seniors as they try to ensure that their child makes the perfect choice in schools, and sometimes, in professions. 

During a recent open house I talked with a young woman and her mother.  After a short discussion of the types of courses required to complete our program, the mother raised the question of job prospects after receiving a degree in exercise physiology.  This is a question that is only occasionally asked by the prospective student but it is, without a doubt, the number one question of parents.  In answer to her question I gave her a pretty general answer that about 40% of our students end up working in cardiac rehabilitation, 20% work in related health care positions working with obese or diabetic patients, another 20% work with healthy people in corporate wellness programs, health clubs or with athletes at various levels and the rest are in diverse positions ranging from research work to academics through the pursuit of the doctorate.

This satisfied the prospective student but her mother pointedly asked “But will she have a job?”  Faced with such a blunt question I responded defensively: “Well nobody in any major can guarantee a student will have a job when she graduates.”  Obviously, this was not too persuasive and I wouldn’t doubt that Mom spent most of the trip home lobbying hard for some other more “employable” major. 

The fact that a particular major doesn’t guarantee employability was highlighted by a recent conversation with my niece, who graduated last May with a degree in mechanical engineering.  She was offered a job before her graduation date, which evidently is not unusual for engineering students from her school.  However, she told me about a friend of hers that had graduated a year earlier with a degree in chemical engineering.  This friend had still not found a job in her field because she had limited her job search to employers within than 50 miles of her hometown.  This is a clear example of one way that students limit their job opportunities by placing restrictions on the type of job they will accept. 

Other students limit their opportunities by being unwilling to work on weekends or evenings, or won’t work outside a very narrowly defined area within the broad field of exercise physiology.  Sometimes they are simply unwilling to work at a position that is anything that doesn’t meet the standards of their “dream job”. 

At the other end of the spectrum, some students are not selective enough in their first job after graduation.  The danger here is in taking a job that is not satisfying or rewarding and sours them on the entire profession.  They may take a job in which their knowledge, education and skills are not valued monetarily, emotionally or psychologically.  In some cases, the students may decide that they should return to school and start over in another profession when they may have been better served by continuing to search for another job within the profession of exercise physiology. 

In the few years that I’ve been teaching exercise physiology, and in teaching chemistry before that, I have seen other characteristics in students that do not bode well for finding a quality job or advancing within their chosen field.  I’m sure that anybody who has taught for a reasonable length of time, has observed these characteristics to varying degrees in at least some of their students.  These characteristics include many things that would be considered very unprofessional in any work environment but seem acceptable to students such as: failing to show up for class, labs or appointments, failing to turn in assignments on time, turning in work that is of poor quality such as papers that obviously haven’t been proof-read, failing to respond to email requests, being unwilling to participate fully in laboratory projects or departmental activities, or simply being unprepared for an exam or presentation.

Most of these characteristics have little to do with aptitude, but are much more a function of attitude.  Generally, attitude is a personal quality that not only shows up in class but also comes across during internships and in job interviews.  An attitude that is unprofessional or immature is a barrier that is particularly hard to overcome.  It seems that one of our most significant challenges as teachers is instilling an attitude of professionalism in our students.  Developing professionalism within our field requires many of the same things as in any other field – defining a distinct body of knowledge, continuing research to expand that body of knowledge, publishing journals and organizing professional meetings to disseminate that knowledge, establishing a code of ethics, accrediting academic programs, certifying members of the profession, establishing licensure, and so on [1].  But without members, including students that will become members of that profession, that display personal qualities of enthusiasm, integrity, persistence, adaptability and a willingness to work hard and work together, the profession will not gain the respect and status it deserves.

In retrospect, I would tell the skeptical mother that acquiring a job is much more dependent on the student than it is on the chosen major.  I would also explain that the American Society of Exercise Physiologists and its accredited institutions are not simply preparing students for a job, but rather, are preparing students to be Certified members of a health care profession that has tremendous potential for anyone with the aptitude and attitude of a professional exercise physiologist.

References

1.  Boone W.T. (1999).  Rising to the Level of “Profession”. Professionalization of Exercise Physiologyonline 2:2. [Online]. http://faculty.css.edu/tboone2/asep/feb1.htm