Challenges

Public

Discussion:

Helen ,

I believe that the ultimate reason we have "MIAs," is because, first, we haven't developed a strong enough relationship/partnership with the student/graduate. When an individual isn't concerned enough to simply communicate with us, return phone calls, respond to emails, etc., there lacks a feeling of responsibility to the partnership because a partnership hasn't been established. There is no feeling of responsibility to show simple courtesy to call someone back if the individual has no connection with the person trying to reach them. In the long-term, I'd suggest evaluating the processes that are in place that allows your department to assess students very early on to become aware of which students might be more "at-risk" of becoming "MIA's". The sooner an intervention strategy is in place and a strong relationship can be established, this increases the likelihood of continued interaction and participation in the post-graduation job search.

In the short-term, you don't have an opportunity to go back in time and retroactively try to develop stronger relationships with those who are already "MIA," so what can be done immediately? There are a number of strategies, many of which I'm sure you have already attempted, but I'll list a few here for you to consider:

Recruit Influencers to Help: Influencers are those individuals within the graduate's network (Family, friends, teachers, etc.) who have such a strong relationship with the individual, that they can influence the graduate's behavior. Influencers might be able to accomplish what you are not able to - getting someone on the phone to speak with you, getting them to schedule an appointment with you, etc. Sometimes the influencer is mom, dad, grandma or a friend, classmate, or instructor. Regarding social media, data mining can help you identify potential influencers in the individual's network. For example, I recall researching a graduate's social interactions on multiple platforms and noticed consistent and frequent interaction with a few particular individuals. Some of these individuals were also students and one, I had a very strong relationship with. I asked this person to help me get their friend "on board" to come see me. It took persistence and a combination of me reaching out and the student helping me to get his friend in my office but it eventually worked. The only reason the student was willing to help me was because I had a very strong relationship with him and he felt I had helped him so he wanted to help his friend. It all begins with strong relationships.

Persistence: It sounds obvious but persistence sometimes makes the difference. I remember one graduate in particular I was trying to work with. She never called me back but I would call her weekly leaving messages of how I was working on her behalf looking for leads, calling employers, etc. so she knew what I was up to. One day, I got a call from her and I'll never forget what she said. She said, "I thought I'd call you back because I realized you weren't going to quit calling until I did." Does this always work? Of course not. It's not just the persistence that matters, it's how you communicate as well. I didn't call her saying, "Please call me back," or "I need you to call me back." I didn't ask of her - I reported the work that I was doing on her behalf with the intent to try to encourage a sense of obligation to call me back since I was working so hard for her. A typical way I'd end my voice messages was as follows: "I'll continue hitting the phones, doing research and using my personal connections for you and report on my progress next week. I sure could use a partner in this endeavor and I'd love to show you how to do some of the things I'm doing - I think if two of us were doing this, we could probably improve our results. I hope you are doing well and I'll report next week on the work I am doing on your behalf. Take care!"

Using Varied Communication Channels: You already mentioned this tactic and it is a good one to try. Try the phone, text, email, live chat or social media messages. Try @mentions on Twitter, going to their home, writing a snail mail letter or, if you're like me, even going to their work. Of course that last one is tricky and you must have a strategy. For example, I had an individual who was working fast food so it was simple for me to pretend I was going to the restaurant to eat so that I could have an opportunity just to see the person. I don't recommend being intrusive to the point that you would be interrupting someone at work - this would only further damage the relationship with the graduate.

Change Advisors: Sometimes, in my office, we would periodically swap graduate files and see if a different Career Advisor had better luck working with a graduate. Sometimes it would work and the reasons were varied. It might have been simple luck and the timing was right because the graduate just so happened to change his/her mind for whatever reason. Sometimes it might be that the graduate preferred working with a female or male Career Advisor or perhaps the Career Advisor just had a different communication style that was more effective. It's not always possible to pinpoint the exact reason but simply trying different Career Advisors worked for us on occasion.

Skip Trace Services: The course talks about using Social Media and People Search Engines to do your own skip tracing but periodically, we would use a company to see if they could find information for us. Typically, skip tracing companies are used for collections so your institution may already have a service provider. This option does have a cost associated with it so we would use it when we truly had exhausted every option and had bad data on an individual.

Call from the President: Another tactic worth trying is to have the President of the school call. Our strategy was that the President was calling because he/she wanted to get the graduate's opinion "on a few things" and the graduate was one of only a small number of graduates selected to obtain feedback. If the graduate would call back, the President would ask about their experience working with Career Services and would attempt to connect the graduate with our office when they were on the phone. This is merely one example of how one could use a strategy like this which is basically "getting an official call from an important person." Sometimes, a graduate would respond to this approach.

Offer Rewards: Another tactic I have personally used was to offer rewards. By "rewards," I mean something that is perceived as valuable to the graduate. For example, I would ask my employer partners if they'd be willing to have a brief phone call with a graduate as an "informational" interview to provide their advice and insight. I would then contact targeted MIA graduates I had in mind when I reached out to the particular employer. I would let them know that I was able to "use my connections" or "pull some strings" to get them a phone call with the person at the company. The exclusivity of this type of opportunity would sometimes get graduates to call back immediately. To make a long-story short, I would coach the graduate on how to behave on the phone, what to ask, how to show gratitude and follow up before arranging the date of the call. I would let the graduate know that if they didn't return my calls for our coaching sessions or if they were late, that this could make me concerned that they may not show professionalism with the employer and that this could damage my relationship with the employer. I tried to get them to have a sense of responsibility to me while also engaging them in a coaching process to show them that working with me has rewards. This sometimes worked to re-engage MIA graduates and motivated them. Rewards don't have to cost money. Other things depending on circumstances could be a "field trip" to tour an employer's facilities or an invitation to an alumni event where you might be having a guest speaker from the industry, etc.

There are a number of tactics, too many to be all-inclusive here but I hope this provides ideas you can use or sparks new ideas to put your own twist on it per your circumstances.

Robert Starks Jr.

Helen , I believe that the ultimate reason we have "MIAs," is because, first, we haven't developed a strong enough relationship/partnership with the student/graduate. When an individual isn't concerned enough to simply communicate with us, return phone calls, respond to emails, etc., there lacks a feeling of responsibility to the partnership because a partnership hasn't been established. There is no feeling of responsibility to show simple courtesy to call someone back if the individual has no connection with the person trying to reach them. In the long-term, I'd suggest evaluating the processes that are in place that allows your department to assess students very early on to become aware of which students might be more "at-risk" of becoming "MIA's". The sooner an intervention strategy is in place and a strong relationship can be established, this increases the likelihood of continued interaction and participation in the post-graduation job search. In the short-term, you don't have an opportunity to go back in time and retroactively try to develop stronger relationships with those who are already "MIA," so what can be done immediately? There are a number of strategies, many of which I'm sure you have already attempted, but I'll list a few here for you to consider: Recruit Influencers to Help: Influencers are those individuals within the graduate's network (Family, friends, teachers, etc.) who have such a strong relationship with the individual, that they can influence the graduate's behavior. Influencers might be able to accomplish what you are not able to - getting someone on the phone to speak with you, getting them to schedule an appointment with you, etc. Sometimes the influencer is mom, dad, grandma or a friend, classmate, or instructor. Regarding social media, data mining can help you identify potential influencers in the individual's network. For example, I recall researching a graduate's social interactions on multiple platforms and noticed consistent and frequent interaction with a few particular individuals. Some of these individuals were also students and one, I had a very strong relationship with. I asked this person to help me get their friend "on board" to come see me. It took persistence and a combination of me reaching out and the student helping me to get his friend in my office but it eventually worked. The only reason the student was willing to help me was because I had a very strong relationship with him and he felt I had helped him so he wanted to help his friend. It all begins with strong relationships. Persistence: It sounds obvious but persistence sometimes makes the difference. I remember one graduate in particular I was trying to work with. She never called me back but I would call her weekly leaving messages of how I was working on her behalf looking for leads, calling employers, etc. so she knew what I was up to. One day, I got a call from her and I'll never forget what she said. She said, "I thought I'd call you back because I realized you weren't going to quit calling until I did." Does this always work? Of course not. It's not just the persistence that matters, it's how you communicate as well. I didn't call her saying, "Please call me back," or "I need you to call me back." I didn't ask of her - I reported the work that I was doing on her behalf with the intent to try to encourage a sense of obligation to call me back since I was working so hard for her. A typical way I'd end my voice messages was as follows: "I'll continue hitting the phones, doing research and using my personal connections for you and report on my progress next week. I sure could use a partner in this endeavor and I'd love to show you how to do some of the things I'm doing - I think if two of us were doing this, we could probably improve our results. I hope you are doing well and I'll report next week on the work I am doing on your behalf. Take care!" Using Varied Communication Channels: You already mentioned this tactic and it is a good one to try. Try the phone, text, email, live chat or social media messages. Try @mentions on Twitter, going to their home, writing a snail mail letter or, if you're like me, even going to their work. Of course that last one is tricky and you must have a strategy. For example, I had an individual who was working fast food so it was simple for me to pretend I was going to the restaurant to eat so that I could have an opportunity just to see the person. I don't recommend being intrusive to the point that you would be interrupting someone at work - this would only further damage the relationship with the graduate. Change Advisors: Sometimes, in my office, we would periodically swap graduate files and see if a different Career Advisor had better luck working with a graduate. Sometimes it would work and the reasons were varied. It might have been simple luck and the timing was right because the graduate just so happened to change his/her mind for whatever reason. Sometimes it might be that the graduate preferred working with a female or male Career Advisor or perhaps the Career Advisor just had a different communication style that was more effective. It's not always possible to pinpoint the exact reason but simply trying different Career Advisors worked for us on occasion. Skip Trace Services: The course talks about using Social Media and People Search Engines to do your own skip tracing but periodically, we would use a company to see if they could find information for us. Typically, skip tracing companies are used for collections so your institution may already have a service provider. This option does have a cost associated with it so we would use it when we truly had exhausted every option and had bad data on an individual. Call from the President: Another tactic worth trying is to have the President of the school call. Our strategy was that the President was calling because he/she wanted to get the graduate's opinion "on a few things" and the graduate was one of only a small number of graduates selected to obtain feedback. If the graduate would call back, the President would ask about their experience working with Career Services and would attempt to connect the graduate with our office when they were on the phone. This is merely one example of how one could use a strategy like this which is basically "getting an official call from an important person." Sometimes, a graduate would respond to this approach. Offer Rewards: Another tactic I have personally used was to offer rewards. By "rewards," I mean something that is perceived as valuable to the graduate. For example, I would ask my employer partners if they'd be willing to have a brief phone call with a graduate as an "informational" interview to provide their advice and insight. I would then contact targeted MIA graduates I had in mind when I reached out to the particular employer. I would let them know that I was able to "use my connections" or "pull some strings" to get them a phone call with the person at the company. The exclusivity of this type of opportunity would sometimes get graduates to call back immediately. To make a long-story short, I would coach the graduate on how to behave on the phone, what to ask, how to show gratitude and follow up before arranging the date of the call. I would let the graduate know that if they didn't return my calls for our coaching sessions or if they were late, that this could make me concerned that they may not show professionalism with the employer and that this could damage my relationship with the employer. I tried to get them to have a sense of responsibility to me while also engaging them in a coaching process to show them that working with me has rewards. This sometimes worked to re-engage MIA graduates and motivated them. Rewards don't have to cost money. Other things depending on circumstances could be a "field trip" to tour an employer's facilities or an invitation to an alumni event where you might be having a guest speaker from the industry, etc. There are a number of tactics, too many to be all-inclusive here but I hope this provides ideas you can use or sparks new ideas to put your own twist on it per your circumstances. Robert Starks Jr.