by by Alison Hogue, University of South Carolina, Darla Moore School of Business
I have had the pleasure of working in career services at the University of South Carolina for nearly eight years. During that time, I have been an experiential education coordinator for liberal arts majors, a career coach for arts & sciences majors, an employer relationship manager in the fields of engineering and computing, and a senior manager in employer relations for the Darla Moore School of Business. Each one of these roles has offered unique challenges and opportunities to find new and innovative ways to prepare and connect students to the world of work both during their matriculation and post-graduation.
One of the things that struck me when I started in this field was that my assumptions about the role of career services professionals when I was a student were wrong – our office was designed to act as a resource and a conduit for students and employers to connect, and it was not intended to serve as a placement office. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for getting students to utilize these resources. I have attended numerous events centered on internships and co-ops, career development, HR and recruiting, and university and employer relations. Each one has provided new insights on emerging trends, programming ideas, or suggestions for improving assessments and interpreting data, but there was a common underlying question that seemed to plague both schools and employers – what does an effective partnership between an employer and a university look like, and how do you build one?
In the May 16th SoACE webinar entitled Establishing Effective Partnerships between Employer Partners and Career Centers, GM Financial Talent Acquisition Managers, Roderick Hooker and Lori Bambauer, explored this topic in greater detail along with Alicia Smyth, Executive Director of Career Services at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, who shared her insights from a university perspective.
GM Financial’s University Relations team was established in 2015 with an eye toward internship recruiting and building a talent pipeline. The program later expanded to include recruiting for full-time positions and strengthening involvement in the community. Roderick provided the example of a successful partnership that he formed with the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), which was close in proximity to one of their Texas locations. The end goal in this case was to build the sort of relationship where students were actively seeking out and excited about opportunities at GM Financial. Roderick offered several tips for establishing a new relationship:
- Sit down with the career services office and map out a strategy. In this case, UTA suggested that GM Financial would need to attend several events per semester in order to build brand awareness. Setting this type of meeting early in the year or during the summertime will provide the maximum number of opportunities for employers to engage with students.
- Start small and build out. In addition to career fairs, Roderick and his team volunteered for existing events where employer assistance was needed. This included career events such as resume reviews and mock interviews, as well as classroom presentations and student organization engagement.
- Understand all of the opportunities on campus. If you are going to a school where career services are decentralized, it helps to understand the relationships that already exist between departments on campus. In this case, general GM Financial internships were available to many majors, but Roderick also had a particular interest in business students and began attending events for both career services and the business school.
- Differentiate yourself. Laurie added that it’s vital for the organization to speak to students about culture and community and purpose. Why is your organization different and amazing compared to others that recruit on campus?
- Be patient! GM Financial’s partnership with UTA was nearly two years in the making. This is an important point to make when setting expectations – return on investment is not automatic, and it takes time and active involvement in order to build brand recognition on campus.
Alicia Smyth echoed Roderick’s advice in her discussion of a successful partnership she established with Boeing, the #1 private employer for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In Alicia’s example, her office already had an existing relationship to Boeing, but it had a lot of room to grow. Her goal was to get Embry-Riddle included in the top tier of target schools as a part of Boeing’s Engineering Accelerated Hiring Initiative (EAHI) – something which she and others worked closely with Boeing to ultimately accomplish. Here are some of her tips for strengthening an existing relationship:
- Get school administration on board with your plans. Help them understand how the employer has contributed the success of students and graduates.
- Tap into existing alumni at that company you are targeting. In this case, a Boeing Bridge Mentoring Program was instituted in 2015 as a way for Embry-Riddle graduates working at Boeing to mentor students who had an interest in working for the company. This program, now known as the Boeing Co-Pilot Program, is still going strong.
- Utilize existing interns. Boeing interns return to campus and serve as brand ambassadors to heighten awareness of opportunities among their peers.
- Include alumni on industry advisory boards throughout the university. Involvement in areas outside of career services is key in moving the relationship forward.
- Host a dedicated day for your employer to connect with students. In Embry-Riddle’s case, Boeing held a summit in Seattle once per year to include highly engaged Embry-Riddle alumni who work at Boeing, Career Services, Philanthropy, select faculty, and University Administration for many years. This was recently increased to twice per year. Boeing comes to campus to attend the Career Expo in the fall and holds an information session in the spring. This is in addition to scholars and incoming intern luncheons that they host for students, and their involvement with student organizations. They conduct these activities on both the Daytona Beach, FL and Prescott, AZ campuses.
Whether you are starting a new relationship or building on an existing one, it’s important to note that one size does not fit all. Communication and feedback are key when it comes to creating successful partnerships between universities and employers. Strategies should be reviewed yearly to refine plans and modify or eliminate the engagements that are not working.
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Alison Hogue serves as the senior manager of employer relations at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre, her Master of Arts degree in Teaching and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration — all from UofSC.
In her spare time, Hogue has held leadership positions for the Provost’s Advisory Committee for Women’s Issues, the Southeastern Cooperative Education Conference, and the South Carolina Association of Colleges and Employers. She is a certified Global Career Development Facilitator and has taught career readiness courses and public speaking classes for both UofSC and Limestone College.
