I was absolutely thrilled to give my first presentation “seminar” yesterday at Northwestern University.

I was brought in to meet with seventeen undergraduate seniors and we took just under two hours to discuss where they are in their process and where they would like to go. Of course I learned a lot through the process; I refined my materials and participated in an excellent discussion. Smart folks.

Most of all I learned that there is a massive need for workshops in “career self-management.” The simple idea of taking inventory of self-management activities and comparing that with your peers really resonated and made for a great learning environment.

Some folks had developed a good set of skills, but most scored fairly high marks on activities they “Would like to do, but don’t yet do.” This class of undergrads averaged:

• 18 out of 53 activities that they currently do
• 28 out of 53 activities that they do not do but would like to
• 6 out of 53 activities that they say do not apply

We focused our discussion on that set of 28 items. Most were in the finances category. I would like to keep track of expenses but I don’t. We were able to find a few students that do keep track of professional expenses and ask them how they do it — some saved receipts, some pen-and-paper, some had a family accountant help out. Now those that don’t track expenses have connected with a peer resource. That is much more likely to stick.