Career Advice Podcasts & Job Seeker Network

College Placement Offices

Would like to take a quick poll of the employment services/recruiting community on Secrets of the Job Hunt site....does anyone have substantial expertise with college placement offices and have a clear understanding of what they need to better service their graduates? I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback...can do it here on this site or to me directly at vh@nextjob101.com. Thank you in advance for your leadership and guidance!

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Comment by Will Robinson on December 2, 2008 at 12:02pm: Unfortunately, many (most) Career Services offices were created to facilitate off and on-campus recruiting. More specifically, publish a resume book, get companies to come in and interview and to facilitate the interview process. The problem is this isn't really about 'creative job-search' strategies - it is about getting a process to move smoothly. This is reflected in their staffing, which is primarily of the 'office manager' type and not people who can provide deep council on the job-search. As CM states, however, the internet happened and most Career Services Offices are still trying to figure-out their role now that information-aggregation is done electronically with the results available online (so the value of a paper alumni database is pretty much nil). Another interesting topic is what Alumni Career Services (or those for professional schools) are doing to help their constituencies in tough times. Ping me via email if you want clarification/further detail.

Regards,
Will @ virtualjobcoach.com
wrobinson at virtualjobcoach dot com

Comment by Vicki Herrod on December 2, 2008 at 8:16am: Oh and I hit send too quickly, thank you Chandlee for the response!

Comment by Vicki Herrod on December 2, 2008 at 8:15am: I can reached through email at vh@nextjob101.com or 248 457 2161 XT 222

Comment by Chandlee Bryan on December 2, 2008 at 7:45am: Vicki, I worked in Career Services offices for ten years and would be happy to discuss with you off-line. Two potential obstacles I see for you are "budgeting issues" and "pre-existing services" as many offices provide interviewing assistance in current program offerings.

Comment by Vicki Herrod on December 1, 2008 at 2:52pm: Another area of growth for NextJob101 is perhaps to provide some colleges/technical schools, etc. with "bulk" subscription rates to our site...thereby providing interview assistance to the graduating class, the bulk rates would include all graduating students and would also include seminars to support the efforts both via web and in person to help increase student placement ratios (which I presume/assume is their goal/mission?). Thanks for the quick response.

Comment by Chris Russell on December 1, 2008 at 2:47pm: I think there is a perception that many of these offices have to get better at what they do, the internet has changed job hunting as we know it and some of them have been slow to adapt. But again thats just what 'I hear" from job seekers.