Case Study: Career Class at a Leading Business School in Arizona
- Feb 17
- 11 min read
Updated: Feb 18
How One Required Classroom Assignment Delivered 89-91% Self-Awareness and 96% Student Activation—Here's What 101 Students Said
The Problem
A leading business school in Arizona faced a challenge familiar to educators nationwide: how do you deliver measurable career exploration and readiness in the classroom to large groups of students with unique needs and interests?
Faculty and career center staff knew their students needed more than theoretical business knowledge. To succeed in today's job market, students need:
👉 Self-awareness of their professional strengths and areas to develop
👉 Clarity about career paths that aligned with their interests and skills
👉 Confidence to take proactive steps toward their career goals
👉 Real-world exposure to professionals and diverse career options who "are actually in the job"
But here's what wasn't working:
Traditional approaches (one-off guest speakers, case studies, job descriptions) couldn't scale to meet every student's unique interests. With hundreds of students in multiple sections, faculty faced impossible constraints:
❌ No personalization at scale: One business major wants marketing, another wants finance, another entrepreneurship. How do you give each student relevant exposure without 50 different guest speakers?
❌ No way to measure learning: Did students actually gain self-awareness? Career clarity? There was limited data to prove the class was working.
❌ Too much faculty burden: Curating content, coordinating speakers, and creating meaningful assignments for hundreds of students was unsustainable.
❌ Low engagement: Students completing assignments without genuine transformation. Checking boxes without gaining actual career direction.
The external problem: A required career class that couldn't deliver personalized exploration at scale.
The internal problem: Students felt uncertain and overwhelmed about their career direction. They didn't know what they didn't know. Faculty knowing their students needed more but lacking the tools to deliver it within classroom constraints.
The philosophical problem: Every student in the class deserves personalized career exploration—not just generic career information that applies to no one specifically.
What was at stake? A required course that reached thousands of students but couldn't prove it was developing career readiness or meeting NACE competency standards. Students completing the class but still graduating uncertain about their career path—leading to late major-switching ($10K+ per student for the university), dropout, and dissatisfaction with career support. Faculty unable to deliver an effective course.
The Solution: Advize Career Classroom Assignment That Changed Everything
The business school integrated Advize into multiple sections of a career exploration class during Spring 2026 as a required classroom assignment, reaching thousands of students across the program.
This solved a critical problem faculty had been struggling with for years. Previously, they sent students to watch career videos on another platform—but those videos were often outdated, of inconsistent quality, and completely random. There was no way to recommend relevant content based on a student's major or interests. Even worse, faculty had zero visibility into what students actually watched or whether they learned anything.
Now, every student instantly accessed 12,000+ curated, current professional interviews with AI-powered recommendations personalized to their specific interests and major. A marketing student got marketing professionals. A supply chain student got logistics roles. An entrepreneurship student got startup founders. And faculty could finally measure engagement and learning outcomes through structured reflection and assessment.
Rather than treating career readiness as optional, faculty embedded it into coursework—making personalized, measurable career exploration accessible to every student, not just those with existing networks.
This case study is based on survey responses from 101 students who completed the assignment and shared detailed feedback about their experience and outcomes.
The assignment was simple:
Students watched curated video interviews with professionals on Advize
They received AI-powered content recommendations and searched videos by the standardized "Advize 13" questions to explore careers authentically from professionals (including 600+ alumni interview videos from their own university)
They reflected on their own professional strengths and development areas
They identified concrete next steps for their career exploration journey
Why this worked:
✅ Scalable: One assignment reached thousands of students without adding burden to faculty or career services
✅ Authentic: Students heard directly from professionals about real career paths, not sanitized marketing
✅ Structured: The "Advize 13" interview question framework provided consistent, comparable insights across all careers; students stayed engaged with Reactions and Levels
✅ Actionable: Students reflected and left with specific next steps, not vague inspiration
The Transformation: From Uncertain to Activated
The assignment delivered measurable outcomes. Here's what the 101 survey respondents reported:
From Unclear to Self-Aware
After one assignment:
📈 89% of students could confidently name at least one professional strength
📈 91% of students could identify at least one skill to improve for their career
This wasn't vague self-reflection—students developed concrete language to talk about themselves professionally, a critical skill for networking, interviews, and career navigation.
From Passive to Proactive
The assignment didn't just inform students—it activated them:
📈 96% of students planned concrete next steps - averaging 2.8 specific actions per student
These weren't students saying, "I should probably do something about my career someday." These were students saying, "This week, I'm going to research marketing roles, schedule an informational interview, and join the consulting club."
What students planned to do:
Action | % Taking It |
| 66% |
| 55% |
| 51% |
| 44% |
| 31% |
| 28% |
| Only 4% |
📈 The activation rate—96%—means the assignment moved the needle for virtually every student, not just the already-motivated few.
In Students' Own Words
✅ "I wouldn't change much, it's been super helpful!"
✅ "I think it is perfect the way it is."
✅ "I would change nothing, because of this I had a better understanding of myself and my future career."
✅ "It gave me clear insight into how to get started in the profession I'm looking into."
✅ "The whole process was quite seamless and informative."
✅ "I found Advize as a great site to explore other people's experiences."
From Uncertain to Confident
Career confidence is a leading indicator of career success. Students who feel confident in their career direction are more likely to persist through challenges, seek relevant opportunities, and make informed decisions.
After the assignment:
📈 65% of students felt significantly more confident (rating 4-5 out of 5) about their major/career direction
📈 Average career confidence score: 3.9 out of 5
📈 Only 2% of students rated their confidence as low
This confidence doesn't come from vague motivation—it comes from clarity. When you can name your strengths, identify your growth areas, and see yourself in professionals' career stories, uncertainty transforms into direction.
From Skeptical to Advocates
Perhaps the most telling metric: Net Promoter Score of +40
To put this in perspective: research from Hanover Research found that the average NPS in higher education is around 32 (based on surveys of nearly 40,000 alumni respondents). For career services specifically, scores above 30 are considered "doing very well." By general NPS standards, scores of 30-70 are classified as "excellent."
With 58% of students rating themselves as "promoters" (highly likely to recommend Advize to friends), the assignment didn't just check a box—it delivered the kind of genuine value that students actively want to share.
What This Means for Student Outcomes
When students graduate with strong self-awareness and proactive career management skills, they:
✅ Navigate the job market more effectively
✅ Make better-informed career decisions
✅ Build relevant experience during college
✅ Enter the workforce with confidence
✅ Reflect positively on their institution's career readiness outcomes
What the school avoided: Students completing a required class but still graduating without self-awareness, confidence, or the ability to articulate their value to employers. The preventable costs: major-switching that adds ~$10K+ per student in extended graduation, dropout from students feeling unsupported in their biggest concern, satisfaction scores that damage retention and reputation, and lack of ability to report on measurable career readiness outcomes tied to NACE competencies at scale.
What the school achieved: Measurable, scalable career readiness development embedded into curriculum with nearly 100% engagement — not dependent on students seeking out optional resources.
Why This Works for Everyone: Faculty, Career Services & Administration
Faculty | Career Services | Administration |
One-time setup, ongoing impact | Reaches students at scale who never book appointments | Smart investment: Reasonable per-seat cost prevents $10K+ per student losses from late major switching/dropout |
Students more engaged with education including "real world" context | Students arrive pre-activated with self-awareness | Improves retention through better career support |
No grading burden - reflection-based | Reduces "what should I do?" appointments | NACE-aligned outcomes with measurable data |
Clear outcomes for course assessment | Frees counselors for strategic guidance | Addresses equity in career access |
No content creation - 12,000+ videos curated | Complements services vs replacing them | Boosts student satisfaction (NPS +40) |
Industry Validation: NACE Career Readiness Alignment
These outcomes aren't just impressive numbers—they directly map to the career readiness competencies defined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the leading authority on college recruiting and career readiness.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) identifies Career & Self-Development as a critical career readiness competency, defined as the ability to "proactively develop oneself and one's career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking."
Advize directly addresses 7 of the 9 NACE sample behaviors for this competency:
NACE Career & Self-Development Behavior | How Advize Delivered | Student Outcome |
| Reflection prompts after watching professional interviews |
|
| Students observe professionals discussing their own skill development journeys |
|
| Exposure to diverse career paths and professional stories |
|
| Accessible video library of 12,000+ professional interviews |
|
| Professionals model networking and share career stories |
|
| Multiple career pathways showcased through authentic stories |
|
| Self-directed exploration of careers aligned with interests |
|
Why Self-Awareness Is the Foundation of Everything Else
Here's what the data reveals: when students see themselves reflected in professionals' stories—understanding both the strengths that helped these professionals succeed AND the skills they had to develop—students gain clarity about their own career readiness.
The pattern is clear:
✅ Students who can articulate their strengths 👉 Students who can effectively network and interview
✅ Students who identify growth areas 👉 Students who seek relevant skill-building opportunities
✅ Students with career confidence 👉 Students who persist through challenges and make informed decisions
This is why the 89-91% self-awareness metric matters so much. Self-awareness isn't a nice-to-have soft skill—it's the foundation that enables everything else:
✅ You can't build your network strategically if you don't know what you're looking for
✅ You can't evaluate job opportunities if you don't know your strengths and values
✅ You can't develop relevant skills if you don't know what you need to improve
✅ You can't interview effectively if you can't articulate your professional value
And here's the equity issue: Students with strong professional networks get this self-awareness through family connections, internships, and mentors. Students without those advantages often graduate without them.
The philosophical problem this assignment solved: Every student deserves access to authentic career guidance and professional role models—not just students with existing networks or the proactivity to seek out career services.
By embedding this into curriculum as a required assignment across multiple class sections, the business school ensured thousands of students had access to the same quality of career exploration, regardless of their background or natural networking ability.
How One Assignment Became a Catalyst for Action
Here's what separates effective career readiness from checkbox compliance: Do students actually do something different after the experience?
The answer from survey respondents: Overwhelmingly yes.
Students didn't leave the assignment with vague intentions like "I should probably think about my career more." They left with specific, concrete plans:
📈 2.8 actions per student on average—not one aspirational goal, but multiple specific steps
📈 96% activation rate—only 4 out of 101 survey respondents had no next steps
What does this look like in practice?
A student who watched videos about marketing roles plans to:
Research digital marketing salaries and job requirements
Schedule an informational interview with a marketing professional
Join the American Marketing Association student chapter
Start practicing data visualization skills mentioned by professionals
This is the power of authentic professional stories combined with structured reflection. Students didn't just consume content—they:
✅ Saw themselves in professionals' career journeys
✅ Recognized skills they already had
✅ Identified gaps they could address
✅ Understood what actions to take next
The guide: Advize provided the framework and authentic stories
The plan: Watch 👉 Reflect 👉 Identify 👉 Act
The result: Students moving from uncertainty to agency
The Implementation: Simple Steps, Powerful Results
What Worked:
1. Made it required, not optional
By integrating Advize as a required classroom assignment across multiple class sections, the school ensured nearly 100% participation at scale. Thousands of students completed the assignment. Every student got the same career exploration opportunity—not just the self-motivated few.
2. Embedded it in coursework
The assignment fit naturally into a career exploration class, requiring no additional resources, no new staff, and minimal faculty time. One assignment. Thousands of students reached.
3. Used a proven framework
The "Advize 13" standardized questions provided consistency. Students could compare careers meaningfully because every professional answered the same core questions about their career path.
4. Gave students agency
Students chose which careers to explore based on their interests and were also recommended ideas using AI-powered features. The assignment provided structure without being prescriptive—students maintained ownership of their career journey.
What Students Wanted More Of:
Based on survey feedback from 101 students, the university and Advize identified opportunities to enhance the experience:
✅ Better discoverability on campus (many students wished they'd known about Advize earlier)
✅ Save/bookmark features to revisit favorite videos (this feature is now live)
✅ Specialized content for niche majors and roles (this can be solved through Advize alumni content services)
The Bottom Line: Students loved the assignment and the content (89-91% positive outcomes) and shared ideas to create an even smoother user experience when asked, "what is one thing you could change about Advize?".
The Success Story: Measurable Outcomes at Scale
This partnership proves a critical point: career readiness development doesn't have to be resource-intensive to be effective.
The assignment reached thousands of students. Survey data from 101 respondents revealed:
📈 89-91% of students with foundational self-awareness
📈 65% with increased career confidence
📈 96% activated to take concrete next steps
📈 2.8 average career actions per student
📈 +40 NPS indicating genuine value delivered
The scale matters: One assignment. Multiple class sections. Thousands of students. Consistent, measurable impact.
What this means for other institutions:
If you're a career services leader or faculty member facing similar challenges—limited resources, need for scalability, pressure to improve career outcomes—this model offers a proven path forward.
The transformation is possible when you:
Embed career readiness into curriculum or programming (not just optional services)
Provide authentic professional exposure (not just theory)
Use structured frameworks (not just inspiration)
Measure real outcomes (not just engagement metrics)
For career services professionals and faculty looking to build career readiness at scale, Advize offers a solution that delivers measurable NACE-aligned outcomes without requiring additional staff, one-on-one counseling time, or complex implementation.
Ready to transform career readiness outcomes at your institution?
This case study demonstrates what's possible when you give every student—not just the connected or proactive few—access to authentic career exploration at scale.
By Emily McSherry, CEO Advize
About the Partner Institution
This case study features a top-ranked business school in Arizona known for its scale, innovative approach to education, and commitment to career readiness. The institution serves thousands of undergraduate and graduate students across multiple business disciplines.
About Advize
Advize is a career exploration platform providing students with access to over 12,000 short-form video interviews with professionals across industries. Using AI-powered recommendations and standardized interview questions ("The Advize 13"), Advize helps students explore careers through authentic professional stories, building the self-awareness and confidence they need for career success.
