Ventures

Vol. 5 | No. 1 | Fall 2012

Stevenson University

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The Year of Career: a Mission in aCTion

Trending Now: The evoluTion of a Job Search

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The Year of Career

by sHerry bitHell

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A M i s s i o n i n A c t i o n

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The Year of Career

With the advent of SU’s first Vice President of Career Services, timely new services available from the Office of Career Services, and academic programs even more aligned with the University’s mission, Career Architec-tureSM continues to evolve. Although it is untrue to say that there is a new focus on career at Stevenson, it is an area that remains in the spotlight.

ImagInIng the FutureIt’s no coincidence that the University’s tagline is “Imagine Your Future. Design Your Career.”—because that is precisely the approach Stevenson takes to edu-cating its students.

“In today’s socio-economic climate, expectations regarding career preparation as respective of higher education are accelerating more and more,” says Paul D. Lack, Ph.D., Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean. “The public focus is, ‘Are we doing

our job in preparing students for the marketplace?’” SU President Kevin J. Manning, Ph.D., agrees.

“There has been an historic dispute about liberal arts values versus career values, the argument being that they are mutually exclusive—but they’re not. They need to come together.”

At Stevenson, the liberal arts and career do mesh, and to great success, giving students both the knowledge and the skills they can apply to their first job or gradu-ate course and carry with them throughout their lives.

“Look at the phrase ‘Imagine Your Future,’” Lack says. “That is the liberal arts foundation: imagination. If you are ignorant of the larger world around you, how can you imagine your own exciting future place in it?”

All of Stevenson’s academic programs support the University’s career focus, and every major is applied or has an applied focus. For example, SU offers biology but there is also biotechnology, and even classic liberal arts

This year’s 2012-2013 academic Theme, The year of career, is a naTural. SInce ItS InceptIon aS VIlla JulIe college, the unIVerSIty haS Imbued ItS career-FocuSed mISSIon throughout the educatIonal experIence, From courSework to experIentIal learnIng.

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The Office of Career Services recently began using a new and improved online recruiting and career tool—Stevenson Career Connections, which re-places Mustang Central—to gauge where students are in the Career Architec-ture process as well as which career skills they are learning. The office also continues to offer such traditional activities as resume preparation, mock interviews, job fairs, and workshops, yet their services aren’t just for current students.

“Alumni are eligible to meet with career advisors and industry special-ists,” says Scholl-Fiedler. “They also can use Stevenson Career Connections to search for jobs and attend Dependable Strengths workshops as well as the Career Reinvention Workshops.”

In fact, the Career Reinvention Workshops were created, in conjunction with the School of Graduate and Professional Studies, with adult learners in mind. These workshops take into account that attendees are either looking to revitalize or reinvent their current careers and offer them the tools and tips that can help them do so.

Past topics include Resume Preparation for the 21st Century, Job Search Skills, and Salary Negotiation Skills; upcoming workshops will focus on interview skills and finding the right organizational fit. The topics for the workshops, which are open to the public for a small fee but free for current students and alumni, were identified based on a market research survey of adult learners.

To learn more about these workshops or register for one, visit <gps.stevenson.edu/upcoming ̄events/>. To find out what the Office of Career Services can offer you—or to volunteer to mentor current Stevenson stu-dents—call 443ˉ352ˉ4477 or email <careerservices@stevenson.edu>.

Career Support DoeSn’t enD at GraDuation

The Year of Career

majors such as English have been redesigned to offer practical career applications.

Because of this, says Lack, Ste-venson is past the debate taking place at other universities regard-ing the role of career in the mis-sion of the institution. “More and more universities will be embracing this career focus because of public expectations and political agendas. It’s all about the economy.”

deSIgnIng a careerCareer Architecture is a well-thought-out, multi-step concept, yet it also can be summed up thusly: as a model that carefully mentors students through a process of learning who they are at the core within a framework of theory, practice, and mentoring.

“One may see this approach to facilitating student growth as com-mon sense but few universities are putting it into practice within this framework,” says Anne Scholl-Fiedler, Vice President for Career Services. “At Stevenson, we engage students in their first year starting with orientation and then con-tinuing with the first-year seminar and during each subsequent year through personal assessment and other reflective work.”

There are three components to

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The Year of Career

Career Architecture: personal direction, professional know-how, and discipline expertise.

“The personal direction component helps students learn to understand themselves and encourages them to look inward rather than outward to think about their future. That’s what’s going to navigate them through their lifetime,” Scholl-Fiedler says.

The Office of Career Services helps students recognize their inherent strengths, or dependable strengths, rather than focusing on a specific job title or major. “Job titles can be limit-ing; the Career Architecture process is about expanding and broadening op-portunities,” she adds. Core values are also a key component of the personal direction process. Students uncover what motivates them and how their values help guide their direction toward or away from various careers. In addition, a student’s understanding of core values is also a key element in identifying organizations or businesses that are a good fit for the student. This is critical, says Scholl-Fiedler, because employers today are interview-ing about core values.

Professional know-how incorporates the professional training that students receive as well as their exposure to a broad range of experiences. Students are encouraged to find experiential learning opportunities such as intern-ships, research, and other extracur-ricular activities that align with their interests, strengths, and values. These experiences enable them to be success-ful across multiple jobs and industries in order to meet the changing de-mands of the economy.

Fortunately, Stevenson faculty incorporate this component in the classroom by helping students find internships and research opportuni-ties where they can apply what they’ve learned or other opportunities where they can showcase their work.

Additionally, Career Services has in-dustry liaisons who serve as specialists for each of the schools. Each specialist will network with organizations that

might employ graduates from his or her designated school and understand their workplace needs and culture. The specialists can then match those traits with an individual student’s skills and values for internships and other career opportunities.

Finally, discipline expertise allows students to take what they’ve learned through the Career Architecture process and not only build upon it through their careers but also be able to adapt it as life and circumstances change. Students are encouraged to build relationships and networks and to find mentors who can provide ad-

vanced learning and further guidance. Students have numerous network-ing opportunities throughout their Stevenson experience, allowing them to enter the workplace as competitive candidates.

Yet the three components of Career Architecture are not a step-by-step or a linear process throughout a Stevenson student’s education—through each course and experience, they are con-

tinuing to learn theories, apply them in a practical manner, and uncover new mentors. As a result, students graduate well prepared to take their next several steps.

“Our students will be prepared for today’s workplace. They will know their own skill sets, values, and inter-ests—and they will be able to articulate these in a manner that demonstrates their worth to the organization,” says Scholl-Fiedler.

Although the academic theme only extends through the end of June 2013, it will always be The Year of Career at Stevenson.

A student’s understanding of core values is also

a key element in identifying organizations or busi-

nesses that are a good fit for the student. this is

critical, says scholl-Fiedler, because employers

today are interviewing about core values.

SU

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The Year of Career

D Above and right: Students hard at work during last year’s LEGO Challenge.

One of Stevenson’s longstanding traditions is an annual LEGO Challenge, where freshmen learn and articulate their understanding of Career Architecture by building a model from the small block toys they remember from childhood. It’s always a fun event for students and judges alike—and this year, it has become even more purposeful.

Students in each First Year Seminar class will spend two sessions exploring the concepts of Career Architecture and then divide into groups that will vote on a concept and mod-el for the LEGO Challenge that represents their understand-ing of the process. The groups will pitch their concepts and students will vote on the model that the class will produce.

“Given that college students today are such visual and ac-tive learners, the challenge is an ideal way to thoroughly un-derstand what Career Architecture is all about and internalize the concepts through building models,” explains Virginia n. iannone, ph.D., Assistant Vice President, Academic Support Services.

This year, one new element is a self-assessment to help students determine their strengths and interests. Students will share their results and take a role during the challenge

that builds on their specific strengths and interests. For ex-ample, if a student scores highly on the Artistic category, he might be part of the group that sketches out the model. If a student tends to have more of the Enterprising category, she might be a group leader.

“By successfully completing the challenge, students are exhibiting skills and behaviors that will help them succeed in the workplace, such as communication, teamwork, creative problem-solving, innovation, and analytical thinking,” Ian-none says. “With the help of Career Services, we are breath-ing new life into the challenge and integrating some career and academic best practices into the challenge—today, it is far more rigorous than ever.”

Another exciting addition is that renowned LEGO art-ist Nathan Sawaya has been commissioned to create an original Career Architecture sculpture for Stevenson that will be unveiled during the challenge on Nov. 9. The University will keep the artwork, which will be displayed at future chal-lenges, among other venues. To learn more about Sawaya and see his work, visit <brickartist.com>.

DefininG Career arChiteCture: the LeGo® ChaLLenGe

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The evoluTion of a Job SeraCh

evoluTion

Does it express your personal brand? This is considered to be vital—especially for professionals, managers, and executives—because it serves to differentiate your unique value to a prospective employer. If you’re unsure what your brand is, consider talking to a career professional to shape it, then make sure that it is conveyed in every aspect of your career portfolio, from your cover letter and resume to your thank-you notes and LinkedIn profile.

Google yourself frequently—at least once a week—to make sure that what potential employers are seeing about you is positive. One way to moni-tor your online identity is to set up a Google alert to notify you whenever your name appears online. If something negative is posted, you can’t necessar-ily control it but you can bump it off pages one and two of the results by being more active online by writing blog entries and joining, posting, and partici-pating on social media sites and groups such as LinkedIn.

TheTrending now:Trending now:

Do You have a MoDern reSuMe?

uSe The inTerneT To Your aDvanTage

you haven’t updated your

resume in a while, take a look to see if it meets the fol-

lowing criteria:

Do you have a Core Competencies section at the beginning? This has reemerged as an im-portant piece of the re-sume because a) it works for today’s 140-charac-ter-limit mindset, and b) it’s perfect for automat-ed keyword searches for online resumes.

Does it tell em-ployers what’s in it for them if they hire you? Make sure you commu-nicate what they will gain by hiring you, how soon they will see results, and why they should take notice of you.

If

The Internet has become an impor-tant tool for today’s recruiters, not only for find-ing potential employees but also in checking on their background, so make sure they’re seeing the best of you online. How?

the combination of technology, a slowly recovering economy, and employers’ new focus on values in addition to experience have forced a new evolution for job-seeking and hiring processes, says Anne Scholl-Fiedler, Vice President for Career Services. The days of mailing or faxing your one-page, double-sided resume to potential employers have long since passed. Whether you’re hiring, applying, or neither, it’s worth a minute to review these tips and make sure you’re at the top of your game.

Today,

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Note: Several recommenda-tions from this article are based on a report provided by Anne Scholl-Fiedler that stemmed from a meeting in December 2010 of 156 career professionals from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Called “Findings of 2010 Global Career Brainstorming Day: Trends for the Now, the New, and the Next in Careers,” the report was published on March 14, 2011.

If you’re not yet familiar with Wordle (wordle.net), it’s a useful tool—and one that’s easy to use. Simply paste text into the required field and the software creates a “word cloud” based on the words that appear in the text the most. Today, the designs may be a bit overused, but the keywords that emerge can be helpful for job-seekers. Many people use this tool when writing their resumes and LinkedIn profiles to make sure that prospective employers and others see the right keywords for their personal brand. If the right words aren’t popping up for you, it’s time to revisit your brand and rewrite your resume and profile with the keywords that you want to emphasize in mind.

Don’t forget, if you’re feeling that your resume, job-searching,

or recruiting skills aren’t up to speed, Stevenson’s Office of Career

Services can help—see the sidebar on page 11. From the Stevenson Career Con-

nections database to networking events and Career Reinvention Workshops, the University is geared to help current and former students alike position themselves for the career that’s the best fit for them. If you’re already suc-cessful in your career and have strategies and tips you’d like to share, consider contacting Career Services to see how you can mentor students and help prepare them for the work world.

of a Job Search

obJecTiveS

Proactively establish your online identity and brand. LinkedIn is the place to start; most career professionals and recruiters agree that it is the top online networking platform for job seekers. At the very least, make sure that your resume is posted on your LinkedIn account as well as other online venues. Also, consider establishing your own website to fur-ther promote your brand and online presence.

Participate in other social media, espe-cially Facebook and Twitter, making sure to maintain your online brand when you do. This can be as easy as following profes-sionals or companies and commenting on or re-Tweeting posts as well as setting your LinkedIn updates to appear on Facebook and Twitter. You can’t be in too many places online at once—as long as you’re saying the right thing.

• Creating a branded and comprehensive profile.

• Securing recommendations for your pre-vious and current positions. One tip is to have recommendations in the amount equal to 10 percent of a number of your LinkedIn contacts.

• Participating in LinkedIn groups by posting, commenting on posts, and otherwise being “seen.”

Make sure that you’re using LinkedIn correctly by:

• Following companies you might be interested in to get updates about new hires, departures, and prod-ucts.

• Finally, says Scholl-Fiedler, “In-person networking remains the most effective method of finding a position. Candidates may start out with LinkedIn; however, securing a face-to-face meeting is desirable.”

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STEVENSON’SCAREER ARCHITECTURE

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Activities that build a range of experiences both inside and outside the classroom

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Practice• major-related

coursework• involvment in

professional organizations

Theory plus Mentoring• 1-on1 sessions with faculty advisors in your major

• campus-based research in your major• intra-industry networking

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Practice• industry-specific

experientiallearning

• labs and clinicals

Spring 2011 artist-in-residence Nigel Holmes has long been known for his pictorial explanations of complex subjects. After Holmes worked with senior visual communication design majors on an exhibit highlighting his work, the University commissioned him to create,

via information design, his vision of Stevenson’s Career ArchitectureSM process. Here’s the result.