The article examines the impact of technology on career services practitioners and administrators, our customers, the educational system, and the society in general. It attempts to identify some of the different paths along which technology is moving, and how these different paths will impact our profession, delivery systems, and the need for training on one hand, and on the other, how we communicate, live, and survive in our ever changing society. Technological advances may not follow what we think should happen, nor can we undo what has already happened, so our focus will be on the future, or what could happen. The authors present a description of some of the uses of technology in career services, like virtual fairs, job posting programs, chat rooms, resume programs, work study employment, and basic career service web sites. They also address concerns regarding who is attempting to provide services to our students, what credentials and/or training those individuals possess, and the purpose of their efforts.

The way in which the government defines "financial need" does not always account for the individual decisions families make when sending a student to college. Many students who do not qualify for federal financial aid must still pay for part of their educational expenses, and need a part-time job in order to do so. The Job Location and Development (JLD) program was designed to help these students find the employment they need, to pick up where federal work study leaves off. Since 1979, the MU Career Center and the Office of Student Financial Aid at the University of Missouri-Columbia have together operated a JLD program on campus that, since its inception, has helped more than 25,000 students find employment while in school. Those employment opportunities serve to not only assist students in funding their education, but also to provide students the opportunity to learn about themselves—their strengths and weaknesses, their career interests, perhaps what major they ought to choose—as well as valuable skills they can use after graduation.