“You Make Your Own Luck”: Building Cultural and Social Capital in a Major-Based Career Course

Abstract

This teaching note presents a required proseminar for sociology and criminology and justice studies majors. The American Sociological Association reported that about half of U.S. sociology program curriculum integrate career resources and about one-third offer a course. On a spring 2021 proseminar pilot self-assessment pretest, 18 students indicated it was important to them to get help on developing professional skills and materials. On that same pretest, most indicated that already developed materials would not support their professional needs for the next one to three years, and few were confident about soft skills related to networking, searching for jobs, or in translating major skills to job needs. Data based on proseminar assignment completion indicate students mitigated these shortfalls by engaging heavily in resume building, networking, and soft skills development. The author argues this work may mitigate first-generation inequities in both the type of jobs secured and related satisfaction.