How much should a placement department do?
How far should a placement department go in placing their students? I see some departments say that they give them all fo the tools (resume seminars, job search websites, networking resumes, mock interviews, etc) and say they do everything EXCEPT get them the job. Other departments, like the one at my school, offers job leads. Which is best? I do find that sometimes the students get a little lazy and learn to depend on and expect job leads from my placement department. When they do not get the amount of leads they want, they become upset. I feel that they should be responsible for their job search and they are given the tools that they need to do so. Any thoughts on how to make this transition. "Spoon feeding" them seems to make it harder on my Placement Manager and she spends her time emailing and faxing resumes when I think her time would be better spent preparing new seminars, conducting mock interviews, etc.
Hi Chris
Interesting situation. Students come to school to learn and get a job. So that says that the placement department is critical and should provide employment skills training and a bank of jobs. These services look good to the prospective students and are necessary for grads. Then motivate everyone to use the services. But don't enable them to be lazy.
Best wishes
Susan
Our Placement Office does all of those things including faxing,mailing, and emailing of resumes, but we also make it a hands on process for the graduate. We let them know that we can't assist them without their assistance. When they come into the office after they type their resume and cover letter we show them step by step how to post their resume on internet sites such as Monster and Career Builder. We show them how to attach their resume to emails and online applications by letting them do all the work while we sit and direct them through the sites. We challenge them to bring us leads they are interested in sending their resume to and show them how and where to look for those leads. We ask them to keep a record of the leads they find and follow up on and bring them to our office to compare what they have done and what our office has done. I always tell the graduates sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring is not the way to job search.
Hi Candace
Sounds like you are doing the appropriate amount of handholding and at the same time encouraging grads to take responsibility for getting a job. We think the assumption of responsibility comes later. So the skills have to be taught before. Do you keep a database of all employers students bring to you? You could build a database of current and prospective employers and contact them on a regular basis.
Best wishes
Susan
I agree with you. In my case, this work is even harder because the student services department is the same Placement department. This means that sometimes students think we have an employment agency in the school. In my personal experience I have played the role of "spoon feeding". I say this because students think I have obligation of finding jobs for them, which is negative because the school offers assistance on this matter but is not responssible for this, but for the education and professional preparation.
Usually I help students on a One on One basis, also, I do their resumes, reference letters, assist them with application, spend hours in front of the Internet looking for new job openings.
That is why I agree with you, the school offers assistance and tools, but the student should be responssible for their job search.
Hi Maria
There seems to be a running theme about how much responsiblity the student is to assume and how much the school is responsible for in job placement. We're thinking that maybe everyone should check what admissions is telling applicants. Perhaps the admissions reps indicate that the school will get the job for the student. It may seem like a selling point. So it is reasonable for the student to expect the service. If placement discussions starts early on, eventually students will see that they are responsible for getting a job just like they are responsible for doing their homework. But we still feel a lot of handholding is necessary. Everyone is measured on whether the student is employed.
Best wishes
Susan
Hi Susan:
In our school the admissions department is very clear indicating that the school offers "assistance" with job placement, but does not warrantee the job.
The objectives of the placement department are discussed with students during the admission process, and are re-discussed during the orientation day.
Also, during their time in school my department offers Employability skills Workshops. Unfortunately, nothing is enough to prepare the student on this matter. After all these efforts, students continue coming to my office to get help with their resumes. Most of the time I have to make it for them.
Hi Maria
Well said. At least students are coming to your office to ask for assistance. That's good. What about the ones you don't see and who don't get jobs? So far it seems that the handholding is necessary to meet objectives. Ideally the students will use the skills you have taught sometime in the future.
Best wishes
Susan
We follow our students every two months no matter how long they have been out of the program. It makes them feel like family and keeps them up to date on any new programs.
Dario
Typically I follow them every two months before they get their license and every month after that.
Ayala
Hi Ayala
Our philosophy is that the placement department should have a constant presence in the lives of the students. The placement department should be a resource and some offerings the student should be required to take. We belive in a lot of hand holding. There are other school owners and directors who believe the students should be taking responsibility. The only right answer is what is right for your school and student population. Just keep measuring results and compare against what you are doing. And make changes as needed.
Best wishes
Susan
HI Dario
Following up grads has many benefits. This includes finding out job and placement information and where they are working. Their employers can be great sources of information. Grads can be great referrals too. And grads may very well enroll in your continuing ed courses. Or they may decide to advance themselves and take other training programs you offer. Grads can give you good input about changes to make. Keeping in touch with grads frequently also helps to ensure that you will have their current address information.
Best wishes
Susan
This is an interesting dilemma. Our school trains many students that are not computer savvy and it's labor intensive to get the students to write their own resume or do many of the online job search tasks that they may need to learn how to do for the future. However, it's a simple case of teaching them to fish or fishing for them. If we do everything in placement and do not teach them how to do some of these things on their own we are truly doing them a disservice because at some point the school's placement office may not be there to “spoon feed†them through their next job search. It's a real balancing act and requires decision making with every student. Each student must be assessed and a personal plan is put into action for that student which meets his or her needs and doesn't overtax our small, understaffed placement office.
Very well said, Jacquelyn. Maybe a required computer course would be in order. Then students would have the skills to create their own resumes and more. The spoon feeding takes place in the training, when needed. With the goal of the students doing things on their own. Yes, always a challenge for a small placement staff. How about getting grads to come in and assist? Or pair students up with one helping the other.
Best wishes
Susan
Our school offers placement assistance which includes resume preparation, interview skills prep, job leads database (and book for those who feels less computer savvy). We rely on our graduates to convey information about employers and businesses to know the type of people who will succeed best in that particular place of business. Although we exit interview with all of our graduates, getting them to followup with Placement is not always easy. Contact info is confirmed so we have the most up-to-date but often, when we attempt to contact them via phone or email, they don't call back. We have even sent out letters with stamped return envelopes and not get them back. I like the idea of re-surveying them and hopefully obtaining the information that our accrediting agency requires. However, there is no absolute way to have graduates followup...any ideas?
Hi AnnaMarie
Sounds like you have a comprehensive plan in place. Always a challenge to keep track of grads. One way is persistence and patience. Start calling within 2 weeks of graduation. Get cell phone numbers and contact info from 2 other people that the grad knows. Early contact and persistence and consistency will pay off in a lot of ways.
Good luck, Susan
I think it is important to offer the students and grads all the tools possible. We want to help them in every way possible, however we want them to uderstand that we are there to help them and not hold there hand. Once we give them the tools they need it is up to them to go and get the job.
Hi Lindsey
Always a challenge to determine how much is enough and how much is hand holding. We believe in the extra hand holding. Hopefully when grads have long gone from your school they will be able to use the skills you taught them and think kindly of your school and you.
Best wishes
Susan
As I have been progressing through this course I have been asking myself this question. We have always offered resume writing assistance and announced available jobs, but now I need to decide how much further we should go. Since we usually have very few graduates, the idea of just sending our student's details to employers is appaealing. The problem would be when an employer decides he likes our candidate but the candidate doesn't like something (such as the location) of the employer. We could try to survey our students about their employment requirements and preferences, but maintaining and utilizing such information might be cumbersome.
First day of job search workshop
I start out by letting them know that we need to build on teamwork.
The truth of it is employers do expect them to take the initiative in their jobs search so in bringing employers to speak with them and letting them know what employers are expecting from a job seeker and an employee makes a difference.
Having them bring a job lead a day in and post that up so the take part in this manner.
We also do an activity so that we can set up Team work in job searching.
I have the group blow up baloons and we sart by having one student stand in the middle and we have them juggle one baloon and then the rest of the group strats adding baloons in the air for this one student to keep them all up in the air of course this is imposible and they struggle well I pretend that is me or if the student were all alone doing the job search. It can be overwhelming so then I have the oposite all students stand in a circle and I start throwing the baloons all in the circle and they all keep them from falling and they are successful.
This shows the effectiveness of team work both in their job search and on the job.
I think our training center is fortunate that we have a consistant flow of employers so a list of job leads are distributed but I have them do the follow up and depending on what the employer wants to go about setting up interviews; sometimes I set the interview up, students setup interview, or employer contacts the.
