LGBT College Student Career Development: Goals and Recommendations for Faculty Members

Lgbt College Student Career Development: Goals And Recommendations For Faculty Members

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) college students need informed guidance regarding their career development. The process of choosing and preparing for a career can be challenging for many students (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), and marginalized populations, including LGBT students, may experience particular challenges in planning for their careers (Nauta, Saucier, & Woodard, 2001). Faculty members are in a unique position to offer career guidance to LGBT students (Lewis & Ericksen, 2016); however, faculty may not know how to mentor LGBT students’ specific career development needs. An informed approach, grounded in a theoretical framework and supported by empirical research, is needed for faculty members to provide suitable and effective career guidance for LGBT students.

Although support is often provided by counselors and university career centers (Beck, Rausch, Lane, & Wood, 2016), faculty members play a vital role in fostering college students’ career development (Alexitch & Page, 1997). The National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) emphasizes career planning as a central tenet of the “academic advising curriculum” (NACADA, 2006). Accordingly, research supports faculty members’ role in student career development (Alexitch & Page, 1997). Faculty report frequently providing career advice. College students, in turn, look to their faculty members for career guidance, perhaps more so than other university resources. A study by Alexitch and Page (1997) found that students rate faculty advice as more useful than advice received from university counselors. Faculty advising efforts also positively relate to student development of career goals (Andrews, Andrews, Long, & Henton, 1987). Taken together, these findings suggest that faculty members should be prepared to offer their students appropriate and helpful career guidance.

Yet, LGBT students face unique issues in their career development that may render traditional career guidance insufficient and unhelpful, given barriers that arise and cognitive demands associated with sexual identity development (Schmidt & Nilsson, 2006). A useful framework for faculty members to better understand and foster career development for LGBT students is Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). Extensively researched, SCCT offers a sound and empirically validated context for faculty advising (Erlich & Russ-Eft, 2011) and is one of the few career theories effectively applied to LGBT populations (Lent & Sheu, 2010).

SCCT focuses on the concepts of career self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and perceived barriers to help move students forward in choosing their careers (Lent et al., 2002). SCCT highlights how LGBT students face unique barriers and self-efficacy issues related to their sexual orientation and gender identity that may interfere with positive outcome expectations (Lent et al., 2002), which then predictively limit life goal pursuits (Lent, 2005). Research has extensively documented these influences on career development (e.g. Betz, 2006; Lent, 2005), and studies have highlighted unique predictive trends for LGBT populations (e.g., Morrow, Gore, & Campbell, 1996; Schmidt, Miles, & Welsh, 2011). For example, one study found that LGBT students’ vocational indecision was directly impacted by career barriers of perceived discrimination; however, this relationship has not been substantiated in other populations (Schmidt, Miles, & Welsh, 2011). Thus, the career mentorship needs of LGBT students are distinct. SCCT provides faculty members with a context for understanding the challenges, needs, and interventions to help LGBT students achieve career success.