Greetings Career Services Professionals!

I am fairly new Career Services professional, so am excited about networking and learning from seasoned Career Services professionals.  

I work as a Career and Student Services Coordinator at my university, but spend a lot of my time doing the career services/career development aspect of my role.  Mainly, because currently I'm the only one in the department.  I work in a small department, so at the moment it's just me as the Career Development specialist.  Any suggestions from your experiences on how you maximized empowering students and graduates with thinking about their career early on in their academic career?

I started at my current university 4 months ago, so prior to me starting, the university didn't have a permanent person hosting any type of ongoing career development type workshops for students and graduates.  I was amazed because I come from a background that focused a lot on student engagement, so not having something in place, especially for career services was something I've had to implement.  Any suggestions on the types of workshops I could collaborate with faculty on to generate buy-in for me faciliating a career development workshop within the classroom vs. outside of class times?

I've found that most of our students participate in workshops or any type of event when it's within their class time vs. them having to come back to school to participate.  I think it's important early on to set the tone that students need to meet with a Career Services professional early on in their academic career vs. right when they graduate.  

Any tips or advice on how to effectively talk with faculty/staff to get buy-in on the importance of allowing career services to come into the classrooms occassionally to do career development workshops for the students/graduates?  

Thanks everyone for sharing from your experiences!  As a new Career Services professional, any advice shared would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Ryan N. Parks

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryannparks

Great insight on resume prep! This enables me to give much stronger guidance regarding template design and details.

One barrier touched upon but often underestimated: The emotional state of the student.  I have found that students who are anxious, pessimistic, defeatist, depressed, etc. are much less likely to self-promote with enthusiasm. Is anyone doing any training with their team on how to instill confidence, eagerness, hope, optimism, patience, etc.  ?

It's interesting to me that telephone interview is seen as being able to gather more results. It's been my experience that former graduates rarely answer or return telephone calls whereas they'll quickly respond to an email (which they can do on the mobile.)

Hello everyone!  I am in the process of setting up a Career Services department at an on-line university.  I'm curious as to whether anyone has an example of an individualized employment search plan that you have had success with, and that you would be willing to share.  

Thanks!

I disagree with the resume writing portion.  You should not list all "education & experience" when creating a resume; you should only list was is relevant for the job you are seeking.  Example:  If you have a recent grad that finished the Medical Assistant Program but previously went to another school for Criminal Justice, you would not list that when applying for a MA position.  If someone has worked somewhere for a few weeks you wouldnt list that either.  Both of these situations makes a person look unstable.  Also, I feel as if the training should have mentioned the 2 types of resumes (Functional & Chronological) and when to use either one. 

Dear Educators, I am a teacher/trainer running a YouTube Channel on a ProBono basis. My intent is to fill the information gap between the applicants to university / college and the students at these respective colleges. Watch free videos of student interviews at various universities in US, UK, Canada, India, Australia, Hong Kong and other countries, in which they share their experiences and answer some important questions. Already featured Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge, NYU, Full Scholarship at WashU, Oxford, Brown, Transfer from UCLA to Columbia, NYU Tisch, Tufts, McGill, London School of Economics and more!. New videos getting added every week.

Please share my channel details with your students - www.youtube.com/c/chetchat 

They can hear first hand accounts of students sharing both college experiences as well as giving career guidance

New videos every friday

This course is very helpful in identifying the multi-facted roles advisors play in our department. Identifying the various barriers our students face is essential in order to help them find appropriate jobs.

I thought this was a great overview of the department especially if you are responsible for starting up a new department

I found this course extremely helpful as to Career Services.  For someone who had to take on this additional duty, I felt it was a great way to set up or improve a student service.  Feedback from our accrediting commission during our reaccreditation helped to confirm this.

What are you thoughts on how a student/graduate should display their related coursework on their resume as it applies to the industry they are applying to? Should they put a separate section explaining that is what it is? Or would they include it in their Core Competencies since it is part of their knowledge base now? I've had students do it both ways, but haven't seen one way being better than another. Thoughts? 

This is something I tell all my students and graduates to do for each job application.

I tell them if it's important enough to put on the job description, then it's important enough to include on your resume (and make sure that information gets into the job application itself).

I completely agree with CS102 so far!

 Comment:  I really liked this section of the 3 different models in case notes

SOAP Subjective Objective Assessment and Plan

DAP date, assessment, plan

MAPP Motive Assesment progress Plan

Has any of the institutions that are taking this course used the 3rd party verifier in your organization?  We are a non-profit organization or I should say Trade School in manufacturing and we have challenges in getting some not all of our graduates to get back to us with their employment information especially those that found the job on thier own although we share with them that they obtained the sill with us they should report their job informaiton to us whether they obtain it on their own or through a freind or school.  How has Third party veriifiers worked for your organizaion?

Well I understand the three definitions under gainful employment now but what has not been approved or defined yet is sustainable employment.  what is considered sustainable they said it may be approved that sustainable employment may be 21 consecutive days with any one employer, correct?  What are your thoughts on that?

I really enjoyed reading the section, "Turning Students' Life and Work Experience into Resume Gold" in CS 102 "Empowering Students to Find and Secure The Right Job."  It is important for our students who may not have any directly related work experience in their field of study to be able to demonstrate on their resume the transferable skills they do have from any part-time jobs they have held.  Many of my students work in various customer service roles such as in food service and retail.  It is crucial for me as their Career Services Advisor to help them demonstrate on their resume the transferable skills they gained in these roles that would relate to the type of position they are applying for in their field of study.  Skills they developed at their part-time positions such as punctuality, consistency, interpersonal communication skills, providing excellent customer service, and solving problems on the spot are examples students can list on their resume that may help them get that first professional in-field position.

I have never realized how much importance goes into having a mission statement until recently.  Within the campus we have a new Director and he is focused on our mission.  He made us see the value in learning the mission, reciting the mission, and understanding how to relate each task at work to the mission and how it affects the main outcome.  This training program also emphasized the importance of the mission.  I found it interesting. 

Any ideas or suggestions how to build realtionships with new employers? 

Every day we encounter challenges that can get in the way to service our students.  One of the most common challenge in Career Services  is keeping our graduates motivated and focus on what is important to them which is finding employment.