A New Era of Career Development, by Hassan Akmal, Director of Business Career Services
Channel: Career and Life Mastery
Date: 06/06/2016

Live Webinar, 5/27/2016: (Part 1), by Hassan Akmal, MBA, MPH

Career and professional development professionals need to understand where the industry is going. To conceptualize, deliver and direct a coordinated program of career education, marketing/advocacy, referral, and counseling activities to ensure that matriculates and alumni have access to state-of-the-art career development tools to assist them in making career choices, acquiring relevant experience, and transitioning to further graduate education or professional employment.  To advise Deans, faculty and staff, students and alumni on employment trends and employer expectations as well as the proactive steps to be taken to maintain the reputation of leadership in the development of career services. 

Tired of the traditional information sessions and on-campus recruiting programs? We have turned towards social media (i.e. Social Media Workshops) and hosting on-campus programming and site visits for student career exposure and alumni/employer engagement. We are learning how to better connect students, alumni and employers via LinkedIn, develop on-campus programming that combines career exposure and networking and implement off-campus employer site visits that provide students an “insider’s view”. 

Digital identity development has become increasingly important for students as they transition into their careers. Social media has provided opportunities and challenges for students and administrators as they strive to create a personal brand that is both authentic and professional. Thus, we need to share the good, the bad, and the ugly of how social media can impact a student's future career aspirations. We are exploring new ways to share and teach students about digital identity, and how it relates to their career profile and brand.

According to the results from the 2011 NACE Student Survey, underrepresented students (i.e. African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic-American) are more likely to utilize their college’s career center in order to assist them with their career preparation. Since our career center is a major attraction for this group of students, it is important that our career center staff provide services and programs that will meet their needs. 

We must address the career development and preparation needs of underrepresented students, strategies for reaching this population including programming, internal and external resources for assisting them, and staff competency in meeting these students’ needs. It’s also beneficial to share personal experiences and research as it relates to working with underrepresented students. 

Many students want careers that maximize impact and purpose. Few of these jobs are filled through on-campus recruiting. Thus, how can we help students navigate these murky off-campus searches through advising, nonprofit resources, and employer programming? We need to create new best practices and capitalize on existing insights to help increase our career center’s effectiveness and brand equity among students that want to “do well by doing good”.

It’s important that we take advantage of externship opportunities at community based organizations and help these “purposeful career seekers” get clear visibility, get connected, and get hired for jobs in corporate social responsibility, sustainability, international development, impact investing, social enterprise and education reform. 

The role of career services is to be committed to empowering their students to achieve their educational and career goals.  It’s important to take advantage of strategic partnerships with faculty and colleagues towards improved collaborative process-solutions to help capture and create new collective best practices.

Our role is to help students gain self-understanding and connect their interests, values and skills with knowledge about careers and life beyond college. 

“Connect. Engage. Influence.”

Hassan Akmal is a Career Thought Leader, Career Strategist, Director of Business Career Services at Quinlan School of Business and Adjunct Professor at Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago.