DETC Conference April 16, 2012 Maui, Hawaii Kim Dority, Dority & Associates, Inc.

1. Career Smarts for Students Use Career Info to Drive Recruitment, Retention, Placement, and Referrals DETC Conference April 16, 2012 Maui, Hawaii Kim Dority, Dority & Associates, Inc.

2. Institutional goals: increase… • Student learning • Student satisfaction • Student success

3. Business goals: increase…. • Recruitment • Retention • Placement • Alumni engagement

4. Bottom line: increase… Lifetime value of every student

5. The good news:You have an extraordinary competitive advantage here • Students are clearly career-focused • Faculty are often former or current practitioners • Curriculum is more often practical, reflects real-world knowledge

6. To make the most of that competitive advantage…Incorporate career-focused information at each connecting point in your student lifecycle

7. Recruitment…(Pile on reminders of why they’re interested) • Website: career options, alumni profiles, cool jobs • E-mail follow-up: job/career info embedded in contact message • Phone: “speaking points” sheet • Select access to student-only career webinars

8. Retention…(Keep them motivated, confident, focused) • Ongoing career-related messages • Webinars on career skills topics • Connections to alumni mentors • Students/alumni-only virtual career center (think: tools)

9. Job placement…(Give them the tools they need to succeed) • Support job/career focus throughout students’ entire program • Provide tools to help build job-hunting and professional skills throughout program • Develop “ready to launch” support program • Emphasize: degree is ticket to the game, not a guarantee of starting position

10. Alumni outreach…(Develop alumni “bridges” before graduation) • Provide value-added career content/counsel as an incentive to stay connected • Groom and reward “ambassador” alumni as career mentors • Also focus on those who’ve overcome obstacles

11. Ways to provide career information • “Push content” • Career-skill webinars and workshops • Online career-path information and job-hunting skills tutorials • Alumni connections • On-call career advice

12. Keep your career messages… • Motivational, aspirational • Confidence-building • Focused on how-to, why-to • Realistic and documentable • Goal: a career-building process that they can rely on and use as needed throughout their careers

13. Your positioning: • You’re a trusted partner, as invested in their career success as they are • You’re a key component (and sometimes the only component) of their career support network now and in the future

14. Your demonstrated message: • You’ll help them make the most of their student status • You’ll provide a safe environment for them to learn career skills • By helping them build their career “platform” in school, you’ll enable them to graduate with a degree AND career options

15. Types of career information your students need • Degree-focused career-path options • Job-hunting skills • Job-landing skills • Career development strategies • Professional etiquette

16. Degree-focused career-path options • What kinds of jobs can I get with this degree? • What cool jobs are alumni doing with this degree? • What are this career’s options for part-time/contract/telecommuting/ entrepreneurial/international/etc. work?

17. Job-hunting skills • How do I find job openings? • How do I research industries and/or potential employers? • How do I write a resume? • How do I become visible to employers? • How do I network to find a job? • What about internships, job-shadowing?

18. Job-landing skills • How do I interview effectively? • How do I negotiate confidently? • How do I find salary comparisons? • How do I evaluate whether a job is right for me? • How do I impress my employer from Day One?

19. Career-development strategies • How do I create an elevator speech? • How do I identify, focus on, and build my professional strengths? • How do I build my professional brand? • How do I build a professional network? • How do I get started on (and actually use!) LinkedIn?

20. Professional etiquette • How do I avoid blowing up my career on social media? • How do I request an informational interview? • How do Ifollow up on a job interview? • How and when do I write thank-you notes? • Career karma – understanding that what goes around, comes around

21. How your students can jumpstart their careers in college Ten practical, easy-to-do actions you can encourage your students to take to start building their career opportunities while going through your program….

22. Action #1 Set their individual career agendas early on in their degree programs

23. Action #2 Multipurpose their course assignments

24. Action #3 Create their own learning assignments

25. Action #4 Explore how many different ways their degrees can be used

26. Action #5 Figure out what type of work they enjoy

27. Action #6 Start a career journal/log to record their career ideas, questions, plans, and action items

28. Action #7 Hit the college library (either on campus or online)

29. Action #8 If your school has a Career Services person, push students to check in early and often

30. Action #9 Practice doing scary stuff

31. Action #10 Use their college years as an opportunity to practice taking a leadership role in their careers – and in their futures

33. Thank you, and good luck with your career-strategy initiatives! Kim Dority Dority & Associates, Inc. Career Information as a Strategic Asset kimdority@gkdority.com www.linkedin/in/kimdority