Employer Perspectives- Employer Knowledge Group

Will career services offer students and employers virtual, in-person, or hybrid options in fall 2021?  This question has been on the mind of many recruiting professionals as they begin to have conversations about their plans for the fall semester.  Several campus recruiters discussed this topic, specifically virtual spaces and on-campus visits, at the last SoACE Employer Knowledge group meeting.  Below is their advice, feedback, and questions for career services professionals.

 

Kayla McGilvray, Campus Recruiting Manager

Cherry Bekaert LLP 

Many companies have figured out that virtual recruiting works for them and have had success in this space.  Going forward, organizations may find themselves wanting to leverage virtual tools, in addition to or in place of, on-campus events.  How can organizations most effectively promote their opportunities and brand without visiting colleges or universities? I would like to learn more from career services about how organizations can build a brand on-campus without or with fewer in-person visits.  We want to ensure that our company name, Cherry Bekaert LLP, is generating awareness and buzz on campus.

 

Anna Taylor, Group Talent Acquisition Manager

Enterprise Holdings

I’m interested to hear career services professional’s perspectives on “Virtual Fatigue with Students”. I ask this as many companies, including ours, have seen a lower attendance rate/ROI for virtual events in both the Fall and Spring semesters. We have diversified our attendance to include both career fairs and targeted information session but as we the labor market strengthens and we continue to fight for top talent in the university arena to fill our Internships and Entry level positions we are seeing fewer students signing up and attending these events.  Are there any trends you are seeing or hearing from students that could help with attendance?

 

Leslie Fox, Section Manager, Outreach and Engagement

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE)

I have found that virtual one-on-one chats between employers and prospective candidates are often limited – 5 to 10 minutes. Students do not have much time to ask questions, therefore, their inquiries should focus on a specific opportunity or on topics they want to know more about such as the selection process, what they can expect once they start, or examples of typical projects and not on general information they can find on the company’s website or in general informational sessions.  Career Services can continue to help students complete their ‘homework’ or research prior to the virtual event and guide them to think of one to two personalized and/or specific questions of most importance to ask based on the research they have done. This will make the events more valuable for both parties and shows that the student is invested in that organization.

And if an employer has an opportunity to reach more students through a multiple college/university virtual event and/or one that has a targeted focus such as STEM or Phds/Postdocs that is a good use of our time and budget. Those multiple events allow us to reach and connect with a more diverse set of universities compared to visiting a smaller group of schools one at a time. And the focused career fairs provide a chance to connect with students most likely to be interested in our organization. We appreciate these opportunities for maximum impact!

 

Mallory Powell, Campus Recruiting Manager

Vector Marketing

Vector Marketing is not a name known by many students; therefore, it is hard to compete for student talent with many well-known organizations.  This past year we missed the organic opportunity to meet students in-person at on-campus career fairs.  We understand that virtual career fairs may continue to be offered and would love to see the employer and student experience improved for the fall.  If institutions will continue to use virtual spaces, we would like to see a way for the platforms to be improved for organizations that are not well known by students. This will ensure that students are learning about opportunities at many organizations and both smaller and lesser-known employers will have a successful experience.

 

Wayne Hampton, Senior Manager, Campus Recruitment

The Walt Disney Company

Many companies have a focus on finding diverse talent for full-time roles and internships.  Career Services assists employers with reaching a diverse population of students through many events. Additionally, career services staff may assist recruiters with finding candidates in certain majors that may not have a large population of students, but that may be sought after by my organization.  Lastly, we rely on career services to connect us to the various identity groups on-campus to build a representative talent pool for Disney.

Data is Key to Career Services Success and the ADA KG Wants to Help You Capitalize Data

By Cami Hernandez Merhar, Texas A&M University

As a marketer by trade, I am constantly thinking about who my audience is.

The Assessment and Data Analytics KG was no exception.

After taking stock by asking board members and getting a better sense of what the Higher Education sector is like (I originally started in Technology), I realized that regardless of where you are in your career within Career Services, data is critical to either improving your success or your success period.

The great news is that the Assessment and Data Analytics KG is here to help you! We’ve gone through the trouble of re-watching our past webinars and categorizing them based on where you think you are in terms of your data and assessment journey.

  • Are you just getting comfortable with data?
  • Are you already comfortable and want to unleash the power of data?
  • Or like all of us, really interested in how Final Destination Survey data can help you?

It’s possible that you’re in between, but regardless, we’ve got the content for you! See our webinar categories below!

If you’re not a part of the ADA KG, then come and join us! Email us at mchmerhar@tamu.edu and we’ll add you to the KG list!

Getting Comfortable with Data:

Develop a Culture of Evidence: Growing in Competence and Confidence in Assessment & Evaluation
o In this webinar, Dr. Kristin Walker-Donnelly will discuss foundational principles for developing a culture of evidence. She will share research-based strategies for enhancing your competence and confidence in assessment, evaluation, and data governance. Dr. Walker-Donnelly will discuss how to use best practices and evidence-based findings to inform practice and how to articulate how individual work impacts departmental and institutional goals.

How to design surveys to get valid results and actionable insights
o Higher Education Institutions often employ survey research methods to gain insight about the student experience in an effort to assess and improve current processes. When conducting survey research, a variety of factors contribute to obtaining actionable results. High response rates are often cited as a reflection of a survey’s credibility. However, question content and design are key factors that also influence the accuracy of survey results. This webinar will focus on how to create, format and administer surveys that return quality data. Key concepts will include question wording, questionnaire design, quantitative versus qualitative data, response bias and completion rates.

Assessment as Storytelling: Understanding Needs, Strategizing Action, and Communicating Value
o What difference do career services professionals make in students’ lives? How do we best contribute to the educational missions of our institutions? How do we know? Advocating for and continuously improving the work that we do as career professionals begins with compelling responses to these questions. But, who has time to answer them well? This webinar frames assessment as a powerful tool to help career professionals “tell the story” of the impact of their programs, services, and resources in the lives of the students that they reach. We explore different types of assessment strategies (e.g., needs, participation, satisfaction, outcomes) that can inform the development and enhancement of career development paraprofessional programs. We then discuss ways to make assessment activities both meaningful and manageable, as we connect them to day-to-day activities of our career services offices. Examples of completed assessment projects, shared from design, to findings, to use of results, provide illustrations and resources that can be translated into your own work setting

Career services assessment process: Accreditation standards and departmental outcomes
o Career Service departments have become increasingly important to the missions of universities and colleges. This webinar covers the assessment processes of career services as it relates to higher education institutional and professional standards (SACSCOC, CAS). Attendees will be asked to consider the development and calculation of their department outcomes, goals and missions. We will talk about writing, reviewing, and revising outcomes within the larger context of the division and university. We look forward to participants sharing their experiences, struggles and triumphs with their on-going assessment process. To guide our discussion on please complete the pre-workshop survey.

Unleash the Power of Data:

Telling the Story through Data: Part 2
o Join us for the highly anticipated follow up session with Ashley Graham Phipps and Mallory Allred from Wake Forest University as they recount their data journey on how they developed their databases designed for strategic decision-making and provide us with improvements they’ve seen and made since their initial launch.

Assessment from the Director’s Chair: A Panel Discussion on Using Data to Advocate for Resources and Tell the Story of Career Services
o As the need for assessment and data in higher education and career services has evolved and increased over the years, its role can look different depending on institutional context. Hear from a panel of directors with varying experiences using data to advocate for resources and tell the story of career services. Each panelist will provide their perspective on the topic. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of panelists. Whether you are a current or aspiring director, someone who supports a director with data, or you’re simply intrigued, this webinar has something for everyone. No prior assessment knowledge needed!

First Destination Surveys:

The Data Collection Journey from FDS to Annual Report
o As graduate outcome data becomes increasingly important for informing career services efforts, this webinar comes as an opportunity to share and discuss our triumphs and challenges toward providing clean, accurate, and presentable First Destination Survey results to our universities, employers, faculty, fellow staff, students, and parents. To guide our discussion, we’ll follow the path taken by the Mississippi State University Career Center over the last 4 years to grow their data collection and reporting process. We’ll talk about ways to collect surveys, clean data, create useful and understandable figures, and more! You’ll even have a chance to meet Nik, our personal hero and student data analysis intern. Some of our SoACE schools do an excellent job of gathering and presenting FDS data, and other schools lack the resources to get it done effectively. Wherever you fall on this continuum, we could benefit from hearing about your experiences. Please join us for this data-driven adventure.

First Destination Survey Collection and Analysis
o Join the Tech and Assessment and Data Analytics KGs as we learn more from Mike McCay, Director of University Career Center at Auburn University, as he discusses collection methods, platforms, and insight around First Destination Surveys and Abdullah Abdul Kader from Texas A&M University on how his team utilizes the data.

A Collaborative Approach to Student Success

By Courtney Pelfrey, Dina Abu-Jubara, and Jason Dodge, University of Central Florida

Higher education institutions emphasize the importance of academic success as a key milestone to landing a career. However, as we know, classes are not enough to prepare students for what is next. Student Learning and Academic Success (SLAS) at the University of Central Florida helps students select experiences that will give them a competitive edge for their post-graduate goals by blending what is learned in the classroom with real-world experiences. However, students may be overwhelmed by the abundant, and oftentimes disconnected, resources that universities offer. The UCF Downtown Campus is working to dismantle this challenge by bringing a holistic and collaborative approach to their student services team.

An interdivisional network was created at the downtown campus with the purpose of connecting students to high-impact practices across six departments through a one-stop model. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) recognizes the positive impact that High-Impact Educational Practices (HIPs) have on a student’s academics, including a positive influence on student retention, academic performance, and faculty and peer interaction (Kuh, 2008). This interdivisional network seeks to reduce barriers and create continuity by connecting departments that are mutually committed to supporting student well-being and success. Within this one-stop shop, students learn about ways in which each of the six departments can enhance their UCF experience by incorporating HIPs and other opportunities into their educational pathway. These opportunities include academic support and enhancement for students who are planning next steps at and beyond UCF, such as internships, undergraduate research, study abroad, and graduate school preparations. The newly developed HIP Coach position works closely with other offices, such as Career Services, to ensure that students are able to blend what they’re learning in the classroom with real-world experiences and translate their skills to resumes and interviews. The goal of this coordinated care network is to increase undergraduate student participation in HIPs with the understanding that increased participation “is a significant predictor of future career plans and early job attainment” (Miller et al. 2018). To facilitate this network, UCF Downtown hired and trained its first HIP Coach to support this work in the Fall 2020 semester.

Graduate student, Dina Abu-Jubara, formally worked for Career Services and is therefore equipped to coach students on a variety of career mapping needs, including resume gap analysis and subsequent planning for HIPs that could improve a student’s career outcomes based on their specific goals. For example, a Legal Studies student meeting with Dina to learn more about getting involved outside of the classroom, may learn that they can apply for a legal internship in the local community to bolster their communication and critical thinking skills. A Human Communication student may meet with Dina to better understand the impact that participating in a study abroad trip may have on their ability to explain their intercultural fluency during their job search. These HIP opportunities are able to take standard resume critiques one step further.

One initiative that other institutions could easily employ is the development of a HIP sample resume. Dina partnered with UCF Downtown’s Assistant Director of Career Services to create a sample resume incorporating several examples of HIPs and their ability to showcase transferable skills and experience to potential future employers. The resume, also used as marketing collateral, points students in the direction of Dina’s appointment availability to further the conversation. Additionally, the pair partnered to host a “Career Mapping” workshop for UCF Downtown students that put an innovative spin on the classic resume workshop. Students learned about the appropriate content and formatting for their resume, but also gained valuable insights about where they could begin adding the necessary skills and experience that employers seek – a perfect plug for Dina’s work and a showcase of the value of HIPs.

Citations:
Kuh, George D. 2008. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access To Them, and Why They Matter. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Miller, A.L., Rocconi, L.M. & Dumford, A.D. Focus on the finish line: does high-impact practice participation influence career plans and early job attainment?. High Educ 75, 489–506 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0151-z

 

About the authors:

Courtney Pelfrey – Assistant Director for Downtown Career Services at the University of Central Florida, courtney.pelfrey@ucf.edu 

Dina Abu-Jubara – Graduate Assistant for Student Learning and Academic Success at the University of Central Florida, Downtown Campus

Jason Dodge – Director of Student Success for the University of Central Florida, Downtown Campus