Seeking a job? Call your college
Schools help alumni with career moves
By Hanah Cho
sun reporter
October 22, 2006
Graduates are not just relying on their colleges
to help them find that first job - now many want assistance from their alma
maters when searching for second and third careers.
In a move that's equal parts good will and smart
business, more colleges and universities are expanding career counseling and
services for former students.
Alumni expect more from alma maters these days in
exchange for their pricey investment, college career advisers and experts say.
And because workers change jobs and careers with increased frequency, more
alumni find themselves searching for employment assistance.
"People are looking more and more to their
universities to provide those services," said Anne Kirchgessner, the
alumni career adviser at the American University Career Center.
"Universities are trying to find ways to meet those requests more."
In return for the career help, schools hope to
engage alumni who may be more willing to volunteer, offer their business
connections and even job offers to current students. What's more, colleges want
their graduates employed rather than jobless. For one thing, school fundraisers
know they have a better chance at securing an annual alumni donation from
someone who is working.
More than 96 percent of schools offer alumni
career services, according to 549 members who responded to a survey conducted
last year by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That's an
increase from about 76 percent in 1997, according to the association.
"What's been driving this is acknowledgment
from research that current graduates will have five to six careers in their
lifetimes. And so, we wanted to get on board with the notion that's where the
economy is going and provide those opportunities for alumni sooner," said
Javaune Adams-Gaston, executive director of the career center at the University of
Maryland, College Park.
University of Maryland career officials have added
alumni networking events to coincide with the university's biannual job fairs
and solicited more job postings for seasoned professionals. Towson University,
McDaniel College
and Johns Hopkins
University also provide services such as alumni career
counseling, resume critiques and networking events.
As the alumni specialist at Towson's career
center, Priscilla Fox handles all inquiries and requests from its graduates.
Fox said alumni seek help that is very specific to their needs, such as
re-employment after a layoff or re-entry into the work force after a break.
"And some people come in because they've
worked for the same company for a number of years, and there is a promotional
opportunity and haven't done a resume for a long time," Fox said.
While schools such as Towson have alumni career
advisers, others have job centers on campus dedicated to graduates. The alumni
career center at the University of Virginia plans to hire an additional career specialist
and expand its hours this academic year to meet increasing demands, said Carter
Hunter Hopkins, director of UVA's alumni career services.
Many services, such as resume postings and
critiques, are free to graduates, while some schools charge a fee or require
membership in the alumni association for things like extensive career
counseling. The UVA alumni career center, for instance, charges $50 to
association members for a career assessment, while non-members pay $100.
Alumni associations have long promoted their
network of business contacts, job leads and introductions. The difference now
is that college career centers and alumni associations are no longer relying on
informal networks but devoting resources to hire career advisers and set up job
search sites and career management conferences - all exclusively for alumni.
"What has changed is associations are
approaching it in a structured and systematic way," said Andrew Shaindlin,
executive director of the California Institute of Technology Alumni
Association, which oversees career services for graduates.
At Caltech, employers can post jobs for
experienced engineers, while alumni can post their resumes on the alumni
association's Web site. In providing alumni help for the next career move or
job change, Shaindlin said the school is showing itself to be an asset.
"This will create grateful alumni who are
more likely to support the institution financially, or who will volunteer their
own experience and expertise to help students or fellow alumni," he said.
Since 2004, Richard Katz, president of
www.seasonedpro.com, has been organizing alumni networking and career
conferences for schools, including the University of California at Los Angeles,
University of Houston and Arizona State University.
The two-day conferences bring together employers
and alumni along with career management experts. Katz said his business has
increased as more universities have realized the need to "reconnect with
their alumni partly because their funds are being reduced and partly because
older alumni don't always end up in the right career."
At Michigan State University, the alumni
association started a career center for its former students in 1999. Since
then, the number of alumni who have sought career counseling and services, such
as resume critiques, have grown to as many as 5,000 a year from a few hundred,
said L. Patrick Scheetz, director of Michigan State's alumni career services.
The career center most recently has seen an
increase in traffic following job cutbacks in Detroit's auto industry. That
includes Ford Motor Co., which last month offered buyouts to all 75,000 of its
union workers and has made cuts to the company's white-collar work force.
"Big corporations who are reducing their
personnel is driving traffic," Scheetz said. "I can't tell you how
many people are coming in now, saying 'I'm a current Ford Motor Co. employee.
... Should I stay with Ford?'"
Paul Schroeder, 50, has continued to seek career
advice at Michigan State even after leaving campus 28 years ago with a
bachelor's degree in business administration. Schroeder also earned a master's
degree in labor and industrial relations at Michigan State in 1991.
On several occasions, Schroeder has sought
Scheetz's counseling in making major career moves. In one instance, Schroeder
got tips in resume and cover letter writing while seeking a position at Roanoke
College in Salem, Va.
Schroeder got the offer and worked through the
decision-making process with Scheetz. That was in March 2002, and Shroeder took
the job and stayed at Salem for four years. Now, Schroeder is a senior
educational manager for higher education at the College Board.
"Michigan State has served me well, both in
terms of education and what has occurred after my educational experience,"
Schroeder said.
When Rich Reichley decided to change careers three
years ago, one of the first things he did was turn to his college alma mater,
American University, for help in the transition. Reichley used the school's
career center to network, hone his resume and find job leads as he searched for
employment outside Silicon Valley and the technology industry.
Eventually, advice and contacts passed along to
him by Kirchgessner, the American University alumni adviser, led to a job as a
financial manager at Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
"I was happily surprised," Reichley
said. "They were really willing to help."