It’s a tough year to be a recent college graduate. The poor economy means fewer companies are interested in hiring, nonprofits have less funding, and paid internships are few and far between. Offices all across the Carleton campus, reports Brent Nystrom ‘92, associate director of the College’s Career Center and manager of mentor relations, knew “we’ve got to do everything we can to help seniors, especially this year.” So, staff from the Career Center got right to work. “We asked ourselves,” says Nystrom, “What can we do in a really short time?”
The immediate answer? Effective use of technology. Staff realized that Carleton’s existing comprehensive database of alumni and parent contacts could prove an invaluable resource for new graduates. What they needed was an easy, inexpensive, and fast way to put students in touch with alumni and parents.
Carleton’s “Engagement Wanted” program was soon born. Originally, the idea was for seniors to create personal profiles that would be posted on a website; alumni and parents would be given access to the website and could search for students they might be able to help. But the Career Center staff worried that the program would rely too much on participant initiative—would enough professionals take the time to browse through a website?
As such, the program was altered to make it “more active than passive…. We’re driving it out to people rather than expecting them to come in,” says Jessica Mueller, a program coordinator for the Career Center. In order to join the program, alumni and parents simply clicked on a link provided via an email explaining the process. Once enrolled, they then receive one email a week containing the profiles of five seniors. If they have contacts, advice, or opportunities to offer, they can then email the students directly. The pace of registration “was inspiring,” reports Nystrom, and more than 1,200 parents and alumni quickly signed up.
To make it easy for seniors to post profiles, Career Center staff, along with assistance from Carleton’s academic support director Kathy Evertz, created a simple template. Each profile or “ad” must contain a maximum of five hundred characters and communicate what kinds of opportunities the student wants. For example: “Taking a breather before med school, aiming for a year-long research opportunity. Biology major, biochemistry concentrator, research experience every summer since senior year of high school. I would be happy to send you examples of past work; research interests are wide-ranging and flexible. Heard of anything in your area?”
In the true spirit of liberal arts, Career Center staff decided not to match student profiles to recipients—the ads of biology majors, for instance, are not directed to medical or science professionals—but to distribute student profiles randomly. Advises Nystrom, “If we sent Economics majors just to businesspeople, they’re only going to have business contacts. People have different interests; this way, students get exposure they might not otherwise get.”
Participating students began receiving replies almost immediately. In fact, for some the results were a bit overwhelming. “We didn’t know what would happen. Once these profiles are sent to alumni, it’s in their hands. Sometimes students can get 15 emails back, and not all students are ready with the tools to respond,” reports Nystrom. In addition to writing an ad, he advised, seniors should be ready with a polished resume, which the Career Center can help them create.
The remarkable number of alumni and parent responses “speaks to the culture of the College—when you graduate from Carleton, alums get involved. They want to help, and it says a lot about the community graduating seniors will be joining,” notes Mueller. “Then, in five years, when those students get an email from us, they’ll help because they were helped.”
Moreover, the support for the program from other campus offices, including Academic Support, Alumni Affairs, Web Services, and a variety of others, as well as alumni outreach by the new Carleton Careers Alumni Board, “speaks to the on-campus community, as well. Offices across campus, especially those who don’t often get the opportunity to work closely with students, were really excited to help in any way they could,” reports Mueller.
However, Nystrom stressed that the program is still in its early stages. “We’re calling the current version ‘1.0.’ We want to get to ‘2.0’ eventually.” For now, “the net keeps growing. Alumni may not have job offers, but they have friends and family who also have contacts.” Hopefully, “Engagement Wanted” will prove to be an upshot of the current economic downturn.