These ideas shape the advising tips and prompts throughout this Playbook:

• College as a Lab: Students should treat college as a space for experimenting, testing ideas, and learning from feedback. Every course, job, activity, or project can be seen as a prototype that generates new insights.
• Blank Spaces: The opportunities within the curriculum and co-curriculum that students can shape around their interests and purpose. These include electives, Shared Passages courses, study abroad or away, and co-curricular experiences. Blank spaces enrich education and make it more relevant to future aspirations.
• Field of Study: A process that helps students use their blank spaces with intention. Rather than being the same as a major, a field of study is the set of courses, questions, and interests a student intentionally connects across and beyond disciplines. Through this process, students can:
  • Discover hidden intellectual interests and vocational purpose
  • Explore potential career paths (including the hidden job market)
  • Find faculty, staff, alumni, and other professionals who can offer expert guidance in their areas of interest
  • Design an educational plan that integrates academic and experiential learning
• Hidden Intellectualism: Personal passions such as sports, music, gaming, fashion, or activism may not look “academic” but often develop skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, or creativity. Advisors can help students see these interests as valuable for learning and career readiness.
• Hidden Job Market: The hidden job market is more than having personal connections, it’s also about discovering unanticipated roles you find deep within an organization. It refers to opportunities students uncover when they follow their questions, build relationships, and connect their field of study to the wider world. Advisors can encourage students to explore this hidden market by talking with alumni, faculty, staff, and community members who can reveal possibilities not visible through job postings alone.
• Investigative Inquiries and Career Conversations
  • Investigative Inquiries are curiosity-driven discussions with faculty, alumni, or other experts that start with questions and issues students care about rather than job titles. These help students expand their understanding of their field of study and practice reflective storytelling.
  • Career Conversations are discussions with alumni or professionals about roles, industries, and career pathways. These help students explore careers, and gain insight into specific industries, build networks, and prepare for transitions after graduation.
• Wicked Problems: Complex, interdisciplinary challenges with no single solution. Engaging with wicked problems through Shared Passages courses, the SIP, or co-curricular experiences helps students develop adaptability, collaboration, and critical thinking that will serve them in any field.

First-year students are adjusting to college life and beginning to reflect on how their education connects to future possibilities. They take their First-Year Seminar, begin their PE/Wellness requirement, and attend the required First-Year Forum: Crafting Your Why: Connecting College to Career, where they are introduced to PathwayU.

Questions you might ask:

• “How might you get involved on campus in ways that connect with your interests?”
• “What surprised you about your PathwayU results?”
• “What has sparked your curiosity so far in your classes or activities?”
• “What blank spaces (outside your anticipated major or outside the classroom) do you want to use to test ideas?”

Encourage students to:

• Log into PathwayU to revisit their results.
• Use the Career Connection Toolkit to build a starter resume.
• Visit the Career Studio to get their resume reviewed or talk about campus jobs.
• Explore campus jobs and other opportunities through Handshake—their first step into work-based learning.

Advising tip: Normalize exploration. First year is about trying things, building community, and starting to make connections. Encourage students to experiment with new classes and activities, and introduce the idea of blank spaces (electives and co-curricular experiences that they can shape around their interests and purpose). They may also discover a hidden intellectualism (curiosity, skills, and passions in areas outside traditional academics).

Sophomore year is when students declare a major, complete their Sophomore Seminar, continue building PE/Wellness credits, and typically apply for Study Abroad/Study Away. It’s also a crucial year for career exploration and building early experiences.

Questions you might ask:

• “What interests led you to choose your major, and what experiments could you try outside the classroom to test those interests?”
• “How might courses outside your major help you stretch skills or explore new directions?”
• “How might you use your summer to test ideas or build experiences?”
• “How do your hidden passions (sports, arts, activism, gaming, etc.) connect to intellectual or career skills? How might these inform your development of a ‘field of study’?”
• “What questions are you curious to explore through a Investigative Inquiry with an alum, faculty, or staff member?”

Encourage students to:

• Explore career ideas in What Can I Do with this Major? and view K grad outcomes in the Explore Your Path Dashboard.
• Complete the Career Conversations Module in the Career Connection Toolkit.
• Sign up for KConnect and search for alumni in fields of interest.
• Use Handshake to look for internships, summer jobs, or research experiences.
• Review options for gaining experience in the Guide to Internships & Other Work-Based Learning.

Advising tip: Remind students that choosing a major ≠ choosing a career. Introduce the idea of a field of study (the set of courses, questions, and interests they intentionally connect inside and outside the classroom). Their field of study can guide how they fill their “blank spaces,” linking academic choices with experiences that support exploration and career development. Sophomore year is also the perfect time to encourage Investigative Inquiries (curiosity-driven discussions that begin with questions students care about, not job titles). These conversations help them expand their field of study, uncover possible directions, and practice building relationships.

Junior year often includes study abroad or study away, the start of SIP planning, and continued PE/Wellness requirements. Students should also begin shaping how they’ll talk about their experiences to future employers or graduate schools.

Questions you might ask:

• “What did you learn about yourself from study away or study abroad? How will you tell that story?”
• “What questions from your field of study are you carrying into your SIP?”
• “What do you want your SIP to help you learn or showcase?”
• “What have you learned in courses outside your major that you could connect to your SIP or future work?”
• “What are some questions you’d love to explore in an Investigative Inquiry with an alum or professional?”
• “As you prepare for senior year, what do you feel confident about, and what would you like to strengthen?”

Encourage students to:

• Reflect on intercultural and adaptability skills from study abroad, and compare with skills employers seek in Career Readiness Competencies.
• Explore alumni connections through KConnect.
• Begin planning their Senior Integrated Project (SIP) with an eye toward transferable skills.
• Visit the Career Studio or set up a career coaching appointment to explore next steps.
• Browse Handshake for internships, fellowships, or summer research.
• Think about how summer before senior year could combine SIP work with an internship or other work-based learning.

Advising tip: Emphasize feedback loops: encourage juniors to practice describing experiences and get feedback, not just collect experiences. Frame the SIP as more than an academic requirement—it’s also a professional story students can use in resumes, interviews, and grad school applications.

Seniors complete their SIP, take their Senior Seminar, and prepare for life after K. This year is about pulling everything together.

Questions you might ask:

• “What do you want to highlight from your K-Plan as you move into your next step?”
• “How are you telling the story of your SIP to potential employers or grad programs?”
• “When you tell your story, how do you connect both your major and the blank spaces (courses outside your major, seminars, experiences, etc.) to show breadth and adaptability?”
• “How does your ‘field of study’ shape the story you want to tell about your K-Plan?”
• “What support do you need as you transition to Life after K?

Encourage students to:

• Visit the Career Studio for resume/cover letter review and job or grad school prep.
• Practice with Big Interview and polish resumes with Big Resume.
• Leverage KConnect for networking and mentoring.
• Frame internships, campus jobs, and their SIP as stories that demonstrate career readiness.
• Review the Career Readiness Competencies to connect their experiences to the skills employers value most.

Advising tip: Encourage seniors to weave together both their major and blank spaces in their storytelling. A well-rounded narrative shows adaptability, curiosity, and career readiness.

Laff, N., & Carlson, S. (2019). Hacking College: Seven Strategies for Better Learning, Student Success, and Advising in College. Stylus Publishing.
Introduces the concepts of blank spaces, field of study, hidden intellectualism, and big question conversations that inform this Playbook.

Hoover, E. (2023). “A Crusade Against Terrible Advising.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Available at: https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-crusade-against-terrible-advising
Profiles Ned Laff’s work and critiques transactional advising; highlights creative mentorship and the importance of hidden intellectualism.

McNaughton, D. (Host). (2023). “Transforming College Advising: A New Approach to Student Success.” Changing Higher Ed Podcast (featuring Ned Laff & Scott Carlson).
Available at: https://changinghighered.com/transforming-college-advising-new-approach-to-student-success
A conversation with the authors of Hacking College on how to reframe advising and career preparation around experimentation, relationships, and purpose.

Carlson, S. (2025, August 21). “Hacks for ‘Hacking College.’” The Edge Newsletter, The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Available at: https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/the-edge/2025-08-21
Shows how Champlain College put Hacking College ideas into practice through interdisciplinarity and student agency.

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). (2022). Career Readiness Competencies.
Available at: https://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies
Defines the eight essential skills employers seek and provides a bridge between liberal arts learning and the workplace.