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Curran Career Consulting for CDPI October, 2010

Change or Be Changed Demonstrating the Relevancy of Career Services

Sheila J Curran Career strategy consultant to colleges

and universities Career coach for students and

graduates Former executive director, Duke Career

Center, and director, Brown Career Services

Coauthor, Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads: Finding a Path to Your Perfect Career, Ten Speed Press, 2006

Nationally known writer and speaker on career issues

Website: curranoncareers.com


Wikipedia: The “Great Recession” lasted from December, 2007 through June, 2009

The Great Recession is OVER!


Good News from NACE, Job Outlook 2011

NACE employers project a 13.5% increase in hiring on top of a 5.3% increase in 2010. That follows over a 20% decrease in hiring in 2009. 24.4% of graduating seniors who applied for jobs had one in April, 2010, vs. 19.7% in 2009.


The Unemployment Rate for College Graduates under 25 with a Bachelor’s Degree is close to an all time high, at 9.6%. 17,000 fewer graduates have jobs in September, 2010 vs. September, 2009


Graduate success in finding desirable work or education affects matriculation, retention, alumni engagement, and the reputation of their alma mater. Careers offices must connect their work to important institutional issues.

The Institutional Impact of Careers

Matriculation

Retention

Alumni Engagement

Institutional Reputation


Salaries for College grads are not keeping up with inflation, while the cost of education has consistently increased above the rate of inflation. Multiple surveys attest to the importance of career preparation to school selection.

Parental and Student Demand for ROI

• Overall cost of education at private 4-year college=39K in 2010

• Annual increase in cost of education over 10 years from 1998-2008 was 5.6%

• Average salary for new grads between 2004 and 2008 rose only 2.6% a year

• A college’s success in getting its graduates good jobs is considered very important in college selection by 56.5% of entering freshmen


“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less”

-General Eric Shinseki, Veteran Affairs Secretary


Career Services offices must make conscious efforts to avoid the fate of the Dodo.


Four Strategies to Achieve Relevance

1)Make careers a university wide issue; involve university leaders, faculty, alumni, students, parents, friends and employers

2)Prove your value

3)Set appropriate expectations

4)Be visible

Take the lead: Tell your bosses what you plan to do and why. Identify the problems you intend to solve. Value is NOT the absence of negatives.


• Do you have metrics and data that support your value proposition?

• Do you have a strategic plan that relates your goals to those of your division and your institution?

• Do you walk the talk? Have you adapted to new economic realities? How proactive are you?

Prove your value

Take the lead: Tell your bosses what they should expect of you. Value is NOT the absence of negatives.

If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know if you’ve successfully arrived? Make sure your goals will advance your students and your institution.


Set Appropriate Expectations

Re-define your mission

Educate your boss and college leaders

Become the institutional career expert

Don’t try to do the impossible; just go beyond the expected


If your department was eliminated, would students revolt, complaining to the President? Why do students think you exist?

Get on the Radar Screen

Be responsive to student needs: Be ahead of the game

Make sure everyone is on board and has a role

Become a careers subject matter expert

Blog, write, present


Change is much easier when there are common goals, office-wide participation and trust

Going Forward on the Same Page

• Involve staff and students in establishing goals and services

• Teach each other

• Play to your strengths


It can’t be business as usual any more. We have to come up with a new model.

“Our situation is not unlike General Motors in that our profession has been operating on an outdated model which doesn't necessarily speak to what consumers are looking for. Or how jobs get filled. The one size fits all approach definitely has seen its day.”

Skip Sturman, former director, Dartmouth Career Services


“Everyone has to learn to think differently, bigger…open to possibilities.” – Oprah Winfrey

Becoming a strategic asset: A new model

PhilosophyMissionApproachFunctionsPeople and Structure


You need to be the place that helps students enhance the value of their particular education through information, connections and opportunities.

Philosophy

• Linked to education, in and out of the classroom

• Linked to career success beyond the academy

• Linked to student interest and values

• Specific to a particular institution


You can’t be everything to everyone, without working a hundred hours a week. Don’t buy into the “mission impossible” syndrome.

Mission•Well-defined audience

•Well-defined purpose

•Well-defined goals


If another organization can perform a function more effectively or less expensively than you, let go of that function.

Functions

•What are core functions?•Where do you provide unique services?•What could be outsourced?•Where could you collaborate for mutual

benefit?•What could you stop doing?


If you’re worried that students don’t use your services, don’t hire a marketing person; concentrate on meeting their current needs effectively, and they will come!

Approach Data-driven

Quick to react to student and organizational needs

Opportunistic and entrepreneurial

Collaborative

High tech/High touch

Pragmatic and proactive


The new career services model is messy. It will incorporate counseling and employer relations functions, but staff will increasingly be orchestrators of opportunity.

PeopleConnectorsCollaboratorsAdaptive and flexibleKnowledgeable about education and workExperts and generalists


“When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy.”—Salman Rushdie

Take Action Conduct an honest internal

assessment

Don’t be afraid: Request an external assessment

Write and communicate a compelling strategic plan

Find allies

Don’t be bound by the past

Get on the ice!


“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there” – Will Rogers

To Be a Strategic AssetYou have to know your value to

your students and your institution

You have to prove your value with data

You have to communicate your value

YOU HAVE TO BE WILLING TO CHANGE!


Questions/Reactions?Continue the conversation in the next session, or following the conference:

Sheila J. Curran401 861 2278Curranoncareers.com

[email protected]