Rachel Piazza discussed job options, résumé, desired salary and long-term goals with her college’s career services office and lined up a job months before graduation. Then the job fell through.

Fortunately, Piazza, a 2024 Christendom College graduate, was connected with Christendom career adviser Kristin Stephens, who helped Piazza maximize applications during her final semester and ultimately connected her to the culture and politics website The Federalist.

Now, Piazza is executive assistant there, learning the industry and anticipating becoming a reporter. Piazza says career advising can “direct students toward the jobs they would succeed in [and also] help students achieve those jobs and prepare them for their post-graduation careers.”

Piazza’s story of having, losing and ultimately finding a job is not atypical. Employers are hiring, but graduates struggle to find jobs. Meanwhile, the mean college loan for the past decade is $40,570 with inflation, according to EducationData.org.

Today’s Catholic colleges recognize that students (and their parents) are looking for degrees that lead to jobs. That’s why many of the colleges in the Register’s annual college guide are doing more to steer students into the workforce. The results are encouraging regarding placement: Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida, places about 80% of its graduates immediately, and Christendom places 97% or more; at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, 92% are employed two years after graduation.

At Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, all students take a four-year career-prep course, “Education for a Lifetime.” It covers everything from career direction to interviewing, with required advisement meetings and assignments like résumé and cover-letter writing, equipping students with everything needed for a job, according to Stephens, the director of career and professional development. Stephens, who helped Piazza, acknowledges the jokes that depict liberal arts students asking, “Do you want fries with that?” But Christendom grads enter varied professions: sales, customer service, advanced degrees, marketing, communications, journalism, project and business management, to name a few.

Being proactive about seeking a job can pay off. When David Ivory, Class of 2024, entered Thomas Aquinas College (TAC), which has campuses in Santa Paula, California, and Northfield, Massachusetts, he joined the student-led business club, becoming its president as a sophomore. The college simultaneously hired career services adviser Dan Selmeczy and a synergy developed between club and advising office, leading to career days and visits from CEOs.

“The students did an awesome job of cultivating a club that encouraged fellow students to put in the work every week,” Ivory told the Register, “but it was a perfect storm, honestly. The college just had a fantastic career adviser that was able to connect and build this relationship with the students and get them jobs.”

Today, Ivory is working in a job he had lined up by January of senior year — with Star Insurance, a company that visited the college.

Jack Gardner, another TAC business club member and Class of 2024 graduate, also benefited from Selmeczy’s mentorship. After applying for “dozens of jobs,” he met with Selmeczy, who “coached [him] through some mindset and résumé adjustments,” enabling Gardner to land a job at McMaster Carr, a hardware and industrial supplier.

Christopher Weinkopf, TAC’s executive director of college relations, recommends that incoming students participate in its career days and cover-letter, résumé and interview-prep workshops and plumb the college’s alumni networks for unofficial advising and job opportunities.

Weinkopf said that “an increasing number of TAC grads are going into tech … confirm[ing] the college’s long-standing conviction that this [Great Books] program prepares its graduates for any professional endeavor.”

While liberal arts students benefit from an aggressive job search, students at Divine Mercy University in Sterling, Virginia, anticipate entering the burgeoning field of psychology and counseling.

“We have some employers coming to us asking for our graduating class,” said Tom Brooks, DMU’s VP of enrollment and marketing, an increased demand that has been developing for some time.

During her graduate studies, Ferrella March (DMU, ’21) gained practical work experience at Catholic Charities and at a certified community behavioral health clinic. It was a difficult job serving a vulnerable population and she feels DMU prepared her for it and for subsequently striking out on her own.

“There were a lot of people who I could talk to and receive mentorship from [at DMU],” March said, “people I could trust and get a better understanding of what it was like to go into private practice.”

Alexandra Fuller, another DMU grad, found the university helpful for determining interesting, well-rounded and evidence-based training sites and internships. She also used DMU’s alumni directory to reach other graduates, including her eventual employer, Sacred Space Psychotherapy.

The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio, has DMU’s pragmatic advantage with a twist: It lets students simultaneously pursue a trade and a Catholic studies B.A. Michael Gugala, vice president of enrollment, observes that skilled trade workers are increasingly needed as older workers retire. He hopes the college will produce graduates “passionate to build, not just houses, but God’s kingdom within their families, workplaces and communities.” Students take on apprenticeships and begin earning money toward tuition in order to graduate with a job and without debt. While time will tell whether the model works — St. Joseph’s opened this September — its program sounds like an enticing arrangement for Catholics wanting to pursue a trade while growing their faith.

Jennifer Dittemore, Benedictine’s director of career services, says her office’s student success plan includes getting to know the adviser, presenting a more professional persona on social media and pursuing internships and summer work. Her office coaches students in résumé and cover-letter writing, offers mock interviews and facilitates student-alumni connections.

Benedictine graduate Brennan Sweeney, Class of 2024, majored in marketing and music.

Associate professor of business Keevan Statz gave him the most interesting advice: “They obviously have a marketing department; so think outside the box.”

Sweeney took the advice to heart, landing a full-time position in August, at Serc Physical Therapy.

Sweeney recommends that new college students get “as much exposure as [they] can get to internships, taking advantage of career services or just asking questions. … You’re not going to know if you don’t ask.”

At Ave Maria University, John Paul Klucik, Class of 2021, also found himself facing an uncertain path.

A math and physics major planning to pursue a Ph.D., Klucik had recently worked a summer in Alaska on a commercial fishing boat.

The skipper, a high-school graduate who had read deeply in philosophy, expressed skepticism about Klucik’s plans.

Nearing graduation, Klucik was skeptical, too, and so changed plans in the spring of his senior year, switching his career goal to working in finance. He met with his professors and dean and began making connections. Six months after graduation, he started with JPMorgan Chase. (He now works at another New York City finance company.)

Klucik’s networking paid off, but he might have it easier today.

The Institute for Innovation and Industry at AMU teaches 80 first-year students (the number will grow each year) everything from decorum to artificial intelligence use and offers mentorship from professionals.

Daniel Schreck, the institute’s director, says its mission was “in the [university’s] DNA” from the time when businessman and Legatus founder Tom Monahan was inspired by John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae.

“We need accountants and scientists, to be sure,” Schreck said, “but we especially need exceptional mothers, fathers, priests and religious who pursue total excellence in their vocational and professional crafts.”

As for Klucik, now settled into finance, he doesn’t regret his degree choice. “I use that math background every day, honestly in everything I do,” he said. “The logical decision-making, problem-solving process is incredibly helpful for me.”