Challenges
What are your career center's top challenges?
One of the top challenges my career center faces is getting into contact with students who are MIA. I have found that they are more likely to respond to a Facebook message, however, rather than return a phone call. I think this is because Facebook is an easy way to communicate with people at your leisure. They also are able to see my picture and gather some information about me, if I had never spoken to them before. They are able to see what friends of theirs I have "connected" with, which could also build my credibility in their eyes.
In reviewing the thread responses, which are very much appreciated as I jump into this discussion, I tired to assess the broader topics we all seem to share are challenges related to professional development, relationship management, verification processes, and developing linkage for placement opportunities.
Overall, I feel our biggest challenge area is related to overall networking. It seems to include all of these other categories and requires us as advisement professionals to be vigilant in our individual and shared efforts to continually build and maintain strong foundations in these areas so in the end we achieve outcomes.
Sometimes our biggest challenge is in our own campus environment. When I came on board almost 4 years ago, I certainly knew that our department was highly valued however, we had to make a stronger effort to become more visible, and our processes better understood by the campus community as a whole. This has been highly effective and helpful over time as we sought to build a bridge to the classroom for the professional readiness of our student body as well as building the bridge to our business community for candidacy preferences.
Our biggest challenge is always keeping our own department mission and vision fresh and evolving as needed to consistently meet our KPIs.
I am the Career Advisor for Medical and Dental Assistants, however, the main University is a technology school. My challenges are that my graduates are not technologically educated so it is very difficult to convince them to join social media when some of them do not even know how to attach a document to an email. Unfortunately, our graduates already find it difficult to do their job search online and then get even more discouraged when they realize each application can takes hours and their entire job search can take longer than a full time job. Many students don't realize that they have to apply to hundreds of jobs to get one phone call. Bottomline is that job search skills and expectations need to be implemented throughout their education so when the time comes to do the actual job search they know how to proceed.
We have two challenges for careers center, first challenges is that students go MIA, or students who just never became engaged with career services before they graduated. I see how social media can help increase our communication for those who use it but for those who have no idea what social media even is, become a bigger challenge. Another challenges is graduates who are discurages when finding a job. They feel like they apply,apply, and apply but dont received any feedback from the employers. Social media sometimes hinders alot of student in the job searching area because they see friends and other graduated finding employment without having any trouble.
With primarily non-traditional students, one of our main challenges is to engage them in any activities that are held outside class time. The time career services have available for class room activities is limited, and the time and effort it takes to create interest for after school workshops, guest speakers, etc. significantly exceeds the result of the efforts.
I am looking for a strategy that can help improve my reach to build stronger relationships with students at an earlier stage in their education, and I think social media may be able to play a roll in that. I am not sure how to start, but if we can create more curiosity about on campus activities offered, it might make students more inclined to take advantage of those events.
Our career center's top challenges are MIA students, or students who just never became engaged enough to meet with career services before they graduated. While I see how social media can help increase communication for those who use it, what outlets can you use if your target audience isn't very acclimated with social media tools? For students in an older generation they may not see the value or wish to have a digital imprint (LinkedIn aside) so what tools are available, or most accommodating to them? With some of the younger students I can reach them via Facebook and Twitter, but how do I bridge that gap for older students who don't want to put the effort in learning how to use a particular platform?
Overall - reducing the amount of MIA graduates and engaging them. We have been very consistent and successful placing a high percentage of graduates each year in their field. The biggest impact of reaching even higher percentages rests in the hands of decreasing the MIA and un-engaged graduates. I believe a strong social media strategy can really help, but a bigger challenge is getting the department ready, trained and on board with social media. As the training in here states - it doesnt happen over night and requires a long term plan!
Hi Taunji,
I agree that this generation has both challenges and amazing strengths. Technology mediated communication is one of the ways in which this generation has become accustomed to not just building and maintaining relationships, but learning, researching, etc. Whereas some students within a population may wish to have a face-to-face meeting with a career advisor as an example, others may have more interest in self-help resources which may be anything from a library of video content, blogs, or a recommended list of resources. Having a digital career services presence alone is a start to using this generation's strengths because it opens up the possibility of conducting some career services using technology mediated communication which some students may prefer. One strategy this entire course is about is having a mental shift to not see social media as one sees a telephone - view it as a doorway to gain tremendous insight about your population from which to be more intentional about how you first strengthen your partnerships and reach more students. Other strategies are explained throughout the course and in discussion forums that can help both students and employers - examples include:
1. Using technology to scale education efforts (Consider a Career Services YouTube Channel all about career advice, a career Blog, or perhaps post your slide decks to SlideShare.net)
2. Success T.V. - Consider a Youtube Channel of successful alumni/students sharing their advice with other students/alumni (and promoting Career Services!)
3. Consider a "Hot Jobs" bulletin only shared via a preferred Career Services Social Media Channel
4. Crowd-source job leads using a group - This generation loves social causes and loves helping others. Get them to help each other by organizing a social group (perhaps a Facebook Group and an actual school club) for students to share job leads they have found/heard about to socially curate opportunities and share with peers. The "Career Club" can be about more than just jobs - use your imagination!
5. Hold contests via your social channels with a reward such as a field trip to an employer or winning a mock interview opportunity with an employer. The content should relate to developing career skills such as an "Interview Olympics" to have students sign up to go through a mock interview contest - grand prize is mock interview with employer partner.
6. Trivia Contest - Teach students to do research about employers by having a trivia contest that requires them to successfully answer a series of questions (perhaps first person to successfully submit correct answers to 5 questions an employer in a certain field). Think of a creative reward - they get to have an informational interview with that employer over coffee or perhaps a lunch.
7. Run "Personal-branding camps" or "Me Inc." camps. Creating an online personal brand is heavily focused on strategic use of social media to present a positive brand online. This type of workshop may have more appeal to students who wouldn't want to attend an interview workshop or a resume workshop. Appeal to their natural interest in technology. Other ideas might be workshops with fun names like "How to Use Social Media to Find Your Next Job" or "How to Stalk your Dream Employer Online to Gain an Interview." Again - be creative!
Taunji - I encourage you to use this social media guide with your students as a way to help you in teaching them how to use technology to their career advantage: slidesha.re/138Syc7. It's a good starting point.
I hope that gets your creative juices flowing in how to leverage this generation's strengths to use practical strategies to engage them in ways that help them advance their career goals and advance your department's mission! I'd love to see you brainstorm some ideas and share with the group.
Robert Starks Jr.
One of the top challenges that directly affects the career center at our school, as well as many schools across the US, would be generational gaps.
Millennials:
The norms and behaviors of this generation are clearly different from the previous 2-3 gens.
Although their personalities tend to be more entitled, impatience and higher expectations of instant gratification, they often times are adaptable, can deal better with increased rate of changes quicker, and mostly technologically sophisticated.
Attempts to connect with non-responsive students by phone, email or even face-to-face can be daunting. I have discovered that the communication with many of them has greatly improved due to the ability of "texting".
The communication has begun to the building of the relationship but what strategies can I use to leverage the positive qualities of my students that will be a benefit to both the employer and student?
My department's biggest challenge is graduate engagement. This is particularly true for graduates who must become certified in their field. Often, if a graduate waits too long to test, they don't do well. Once a graduate fails, it is very difficult to encourage them to get back on track and re-test.
Some of our top challenges are staying in contact with some of our past graduates. Some graduates leave and are completely done with all contact with the school. So response back from some grads is a huge problem. Another problem is having students and grads take advantage of what career services has to offer. We make it a point to advise over and over again of what we are here for and some students and grads just don't seem to care. Another problem is having grads/alumni join our forms of social media, such alumni360.
Our top challenges are to find the graduates who are not responding to our methods of contact, whether it be by email, phone, or social media. Also, another challenge is to make sure all grads get their licensure in their respective programs. If they do not, we cannot place them.
I agree with Christina, medical graduates do indeed feel hesitant on social media. I often times get, "why should I make a LinkedIN account when I do not know of many nurses using it?" Sometimes they think its a waste of their time if they cannot find a job from it. We often times find it challenging to place graduates because they have a ultimate goal to achieve such as the field of nursing they want to work in. However, sometimes those jobs require x amount years of experience - We try to convince our graduates to work toward ultimate goals and gain experience that will help you reach your dream job.
Hi Rae,
Online operations does indeed bring an entire new set of challenges dues to no physical presence. However, social media use makes even more sense for online operations. Have you experimented with the use of any social tools to "bring employers" to the students? If so, can you share the tools/methods you've used? If not, what tools could you use if you wanted to "bring employers to the students" virtually? The same questions apply for mock interviews. Have you used social tools to conduct mock interviews - what might be the best tools to use/try?
Robert Starks Jr.
Our top challenge as an online campus, is giving the students the same experiences as an in seat student. I.E: bringing employers to them, mock interviews.
Hi Katherine,
What do you mean by streamline/consolidate? What is the current process and what issues are you specifically looking to solve? Maintaining a relationship with graduates can be challenging and as they say, "out of sight, out of mind." Thus, if departments choose to use the one-to-many communication capabilities of social tools while building their alumni and/or student communities, it can help you maintain affinity with your audience and can influence their perception of your department. If departments are very strategic about using their social channels to build & maintain strong relationships, when you do have "asks" such as guest speaking in your example, it can improve the likelihood of getting a "yes." Imagine all the potential employers with whom you might be able to connect. I used to use advanced search features in LinkedIn to find people in specific positions in specific companies even in specific geographical locations. Once I found them, I'd see what groups they participated in and would join those groups - slowly, I'd insert myself into conversations, be helpful, and build rapport. It led to many long-term relationships with advantages such as new advisory board members, portfolio critiques for our students, and even internship/job opportunities I would have never known about had I not been able to take advantage of social tools to make those targeted connections. There's many ways you can use these tools to bypass the typical walls that prevent us from being able to connect with others! Thanks for sharing.
Robert Starks Jr.
We're trying to streamline/consolidate our Career Planning Orientations that we have with near- graduates. Additionally, this may be one of the items on the agenda for our Advisory Boards, which are held with industry professionals twice annually.
One of the ways we could use social tools is to invite graduates back to campus for lunch, and then ask them (once they're on site) to update their information with us. We can provide a quick review of their documentation.
Keeping track of graduates on LinkedIn is another good way -- providing endorsement, kudos, whatever -- helps maintain that connection between the graduate and the school.
Hi Katherine,
These challenges are fairly common and can be tough to overcome. What are some of the things you and your institution are doing to address these challenges? Do you have thoughts on how you can use social tools in conjunction with other intervention strategies and/or for new strategies to address such challenges? Would love to hear your personal thoughts and ideas.
Robert Starks Jr.
I agree with both Christine and Linda, with respect to the challenges we face -- keeping track of status changes with our graduates, as well as having employment verification.
KBryant
