A Human Capital Approach to Career Advising

We began this series by addressing the challenges of career advising in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. In this article, we define human capital and suggest that advisors encourage students to utilize the principle of maximizing human capital when making decisions. We describe the personal traits and attitudes needed to succeed in the new economy as well as the working lifestyle of continuous, lifelong, self-directed learning that characterizes knowledge workers of today. We also emphasize the strategic importance of acquiring the transferable skills that allow workers to move from one job opportunity to another, and we advocate advisors helping students develop the habit of documenting their human capital development by starting portfolios early in their college careers.