How Yale University is helping US students find meaningful careers

Widely regarded as one of the most prestigious universities in the world, Yale University’s reputation as an educational powerhouse is reflected in the QS World University Rankings 2023, where it’s ranked 18th.

One of the indicators Yale scores particularly well on is the Employment Outcomes indicator – an institution’s ability to ensure a high level of employability for their graduates, while also nurturing future leaders who go on to make an impact in their respective fields. Although this indicator is unweighted (meaning it doesn’t count towards their overall score) for this year’s ranking, impressively Yale ranks in fourth place, ahead of the likes of Princeton University and the University of Oxford.

To learn more about how the Ivy League university is empowering its graduates to find impactful careers, we spoke to Meredith Mira, Senior Associate Director at Yale University’s Office of Career Strategy.

As someone who has been in this role for nine years, there are a few things that come to mind when thinking about this question. My first thought is, “who is this student? What do they care about and what are their core values? What makes them tick as a person?”

Students often come into my office thinking that I’ll be looking through their resumes and cover letters, which we definitely do, but if I don’t start with who the student is and what they care about then I haven’t done my job well.

My primary goal for these appointments is to elicit each student’s story regarding the things that matter to them; I then use this story as a jumping-off point to engage them in a broader discussion about their career trajectory and next steps. Sometimes students don’t even realise that the things that matter to them can inform their career decisions. I’ll hear stories about the things they enjoyed in high school, such as theatre or playing violin, and they assume they can’t pursue those things – or things tangentially related to those things – as a career.

My response to that would be, “What drove you to want to do those activities to begin with?” They would have spent hours and hours perfecting their craft whereas a lot of their peers hadn’t and there’s something behind that. I’m interested in knowing if we can lift that up into something that translates to a career path. I think that is a huge part of helping a student move towards a fulfilling career that makes an impact that matters to them.

In terms of the technical side of advising, we have honed our craft in teaching how to write resumes and cover letters that are reflective of each student’s skills. What most students don’t realise is that resumes can also be a narrative that tells their story.

We want students to pay a lot of attention not just to what they did in an internship, but also how they contributed and what imprint they made on the things they did. Many students will just write their tasks or responsibilities; I’m asking them to take this a step further to highlight how they contributed, how they helped someone or something, and what impact they made. By focusing on these details, we can dig further into the things they care about and the things they’re good at as a way of supporting their story.

It is absolutely my job to understand and to think about what it means to be Black at Yale, or Latinx or Hispanic, or a first-generation low-income student, or any other underrepresented group on campus.

The reason I’m able to support students from a wide range of backgrounds is because I’m not afraid to have difficult conversations about potentially sensitive and challenging topics. I’ve thought a lot about my own racial identity and I think that’s a huge part of being an advisor of any kind. I feel comfortable talking to students about race and inequality, knowing I’ve done the work on myself and understanding the intersection of my identity.

What also helps is having knowledge of the different academic disciplines and majors at Yale, which enables me to have more complex conversations with students. Being able to talk to students about what they're spending the vast majority of their time doing at Yale with their academics really matters, as well as understanding the kinds of classes and majors that have an analysis of power and inequality.

Importantly, I invite these students to share their story and lived experiences. There have been numerous times where I'm talking to students about their lives, and they’ll tell me they didn't imagine they’d be talking about this topic in our session and they’ll thank me for asking them about it.

When they see me writing things down about their lives, and referencing back and drawing little maps and circling things, I think they see that their lives matter. It's really profound and I think it especially matters for students who come in initially thinking they don't belong here.