In Your Face!

At the University of Houston, the staff of the business school's career center have found that the key to reaching students is to be seen, even when in PJs. Dealing with commuters, part timers, and first generation students, in your face events have been a hit.

The "Resume ER" was a resume review in lab coats, with wellness videos for resumes in the "waiting room." Handouts became first aid kits. Companies would support and underwrite events while employers volunteered. Faculty and deans came. Surveys said that most heard about it from class or actually seeing the event. People don't read fliers, or pay attention in class.

There was a resume deli for MBAs could only come between 4 - 6 with staff in aprons and hats. There was an Interview Skills carnival with a duck pond with random questions and ducks, prizes for questions, balloon darts with questions. If students went to all five booths, they were entered in a drawing for a Starbucks card. again, students heard about event not from fliers or classes, but just seeing it. Their online job search workshop was "Job Search in your Jammies" Giving out gimmies before workshops helps - they need to meet you first before they come to workshop. For front desk outreach they wrote riddles on a white board totally unrelated to career issues, and front desk traffic spiked. After a month, they switched to announcements and traffic remained high.

It may seem silly, but since staff are usually in suits, the craziness bridges gap showing that people in suits can be nice people.

Techie Techie Techie Tech Me! I wanna get geeky!

The "Tech Summit" idea was raised last year at NACE when it was incredibly clear that interest was growing. NACE itself is tweeting, blogging, wikiing, and updating the association management system.

Louis Vong started with a shirt that glowed when it could detect a wireless network. COOL!! He's pushing social media and used Obama as an example. He had a diversified social network, his campaigned showed that mobile marketing works (wall papers, ringtones, etc.) if you have relevant and exciting content. He let his audience participate in the discussion.

Mobile Marketing
He shows us breathalyzer phones, projector phones, and phones that can buy things out of vending machine, or content from posters that will deliver content to your phone when tapped. Content is king! It has to be cool. They've had this for 8 years in Japan, Asia. Phones can read bar codes (mine can), you can create bar codes to push content . . .

There's text to email, campus scavenger hunts via Blue Tooth, class schedules, . . . Last year, there were ONE BILLION downloads. How would mobile marketing serve any of our needs?

Gamers: Great Multitaskers
Advergaming uses games to push your product, in-game advertising promotes your product in a world.

Augmented Reality: where virtual images are blended into first-person real time imagery (ie: Minority Report).
I don't quite get this, so watch the video. It's basically connecting everything and will be out in Japan soon.

Going into the advanced tech summit, there were basically loads of people sharing what worked and what didn't.

• Lots of schools are using intern blogs with mixed success.
• YouTube videos are hot when turned over to peer advisors who interview employers, students, interns, and do events. Schools post them on YouTube and basically think the administration isn't aware of them. But the videos are viral and a big hit on campuses.
• Twitter is being explored to push resources, especially with all its new applications.
• Second Life has too steep a learning curve, still (sorry, Marie).
• Applications for iPhones and Blackberrys and G1s are also being explored.
• Facebook is great for alumni coaching current students.
• Skype is used to record interviews with employers (instead of doing it at CC or on site) then used in a CC video library.
• Google calendar of events is embedded in a site and students can subscribe to it.
• RSSing everything for student subscription.

And here are the websites and resources we should check out:

• Jing Project free for web shots and video of on screen action (like demoing AUCC)
• Google Aps have lots of free possibilities and the list is growing
• HootSuite as a Twitter tool box to target your students after opting in
• DimDim is $19 a month for web conferencing and is open source

Jing looked especially exciting for showing how to use our online resources.

Why Wikis?

This session hopefully addresses a way to better communicate across campus. Our faculty blog bombed. From our colleagues at Purdue and their career wiki . . .

They've had this about a year and a half and are really excited as to how it can identifying overlapping resources, common goals, collaboration, allow multiple offices to see what each other are doing. Students can also use it as a one stop shop. (Sorry, KAS.) Staff from several offices just got together, staff who informally meet once in awhile to discuss the wiki. The library runs it. (Hmm.) It saves a lot of money and helps students be more aware of resources across campus. Communication has been fluid, and the regular discussion keep it from being a junk site for tons of resources. They have a few people with accounts who can modify it, but anyone can view.

They use open source software, Confluence, on their server. It's cheap and the library pays.They were trained by library staff, got it up in an hour, and took a couple of weeks to train folks. They have 10 offices involved, and hope to have all involved in the next year. And an added benefit is to get to know each other better.

For students, they have great links. They have a visual as to how to research companies. In the session, they use skits to demo how to use the wikis with students. It's a way of teaching students good internet research.

They have a description of the database and have a link to a tutorial. LexisNexis is a great way to research by region, topic, company to decide if one wants to work there, and to prep great questions for the interview. CareerBeam requires a registration, and have really good resources for resumes and cover letters which match the CC philosophy. If one searches on the university name for the bio keyword, they can pull up names of alumni. Plunkett is a nice way to research industries after a student decides on a career field, and ties directly to job listings in indeed.com. The wiki folks have to be careful with site licenses, because if there are only 5 licenses, then the 6th student can't get through. Offices share costs for the databases with the other offices.

They loved using it for their career fair. There were over 6000 hits on the wiki the week of the fair, and 60,000 from September to May. They list the companies, link to their websites, then link into the Lexis Nexis profile. Since they've used it for several fairs, they have over 800 companies already set to go. It puts things in one place and makes it easier for the students. Students who don't normally come to the CC use the wiki then call and ask questions as a result. Alumni are also heavy users and can access it easily.

For marketing, they developed a "brand" and produced post-its with "Do the research, get the job!" which also directs students to them researching rather than thinking the CC will get you a job. They do little workshops, had a table at their career fair, and going to residence halls. Advisors write down the resources they explore together on the post-it and give it to them.

For employer partners, they're impressed that the students have good questions. And if they are impressed, maybe companies can SPONSOR a site that otherwise can't be afforded, and that gives them visibility and a direct link.

They also plan to expand usage for staff development.

Webshops

Translating workshops to the website from UC Irvine . . . if you can do PowerePoint, you'll be fine. Check out their webshops.

It's narrated (but not reading slides), the outline is on the side with the seconds for how long the section is, and there are notes for hearing impaired students. They measure hits on each webshop each hour of each day, seeing 45-50 visitors at 2 am!

They can't meet everyone's needs, and students want it now, when they want it, and short and sweet. Webshops give students the basics then they come in for specifics. Attendance at workshops was going down. Participation on webshops is skyrocketing. CC staff are using their time in more strategic ways. It isn't a replacement, it's another version. They have stopped giving basic workshops and refer students to these. Their workshops are all next level now, and lots of one on one.

In person, have to start with basics. With webshops, you can go top down and choose what you need. With webshops, know they aren't captive, so consider length, lack of interaction, and you can only pass on limited information.

Start with an objective. Workshops can be in depth, webshops have simpler objectives - but you can do more of them.

To translate your workshops: absorb, connect, do. Give the basics, ask reflective questions, then have a quiz! Then ask them if they'd like fries! Give them a next step.

You can't bore someone into buying your product! So add advertising elements! They also interview students and employers, tag with people's names, push their CC brand. The copy should be addressed to one person, not a group. Dark type on a light background is better. And KISS! Keep it down to one objective, and DO NOT BE WORDY. It works well for the front desk to refer students with questions to these resources. Keep them to 7 minutes, definitely not more than 10 minutes. They use Color Index to help with color design. Quizzes are embedded, they can be mandatory, and their OCR webshop is required. A "unique" code is generated upon completion which is emailed to the OCR person. (Could we do that for NYC site visit?)

Adobe Presenter is what they use with PowerPoint and it's $150 with the educators' discount. It converts the presentation to Flash, so you have to have a Flash web site. Others use Caliphate, Camtasia Studio. Just go at your own pace and enjoy. AND they offer for us to link to their webshops. You can attach videos and put them in Symplicity.

They have an "on demand" button on their website for videos and webshops. Videos are very visual, like PopUp interviews. They have a camera ready to go at all times. They tape stuff, and she edits it. HELLO!!?? THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO GET US TO DO!!!! Sometimes it's purposeful, sometimes it's a throw away. They assess with numbers of hits, focus groups, and surveys. If you can make it visual, storyboard it, if it has a beginning and middle and end, it's a video. If not, it's a webshop.

They also recommend Gallup Strengths and Clemson's website.





Simple!

Revisiting Facebook

In 2006, students saw Facebook as their world. They didn't set security settings, some posts inappropriate, and there was a huge disconnect between employers and students regarding its use. So why revisit it? There have been huge changes. If users were a country, they would be the 5th most populous nation in the world.

Student use hasn't changed much . . .

• 94% of students use it
• 3/4ths of them visit it daily for more than an hour mostly to socialize
• 67% use it to keep up with events (CC emails bounce back)
• 1/3 join groups that don't represent them
• Half use profanity and 2/5ths post pictures of others without permission
• 1/3rd post pictures of self and others using alcohol
  

Students more realistic: 80% don't see employer use of Facebook unethical, half want employers to know that they shouldn't believe everything they see. 2:1 said employers shouldn't use it, but 1/4th weren't sure. At out session, most college folks said that employers should consider it, but more employers thought that they should not use Facebook. In 2006, 84% had not heard of Facebook, now 59% use it.

Dramatically increased employer involvement: fewer employers are using privacy settings than students! Only 6% think it's unethical to use Facebook and half take everything with a grain of salt. Half say that it's OK to use it. It was an even split as to employers were positively affected and negatively affected by a Facebook profile, about 20%.

Employer uses include hiring, recruiting, on-boarding, branding, intern/worker communication, networking, advertising, team building. 20% of the employers they surveyed had a Facebook page. In our session, 2/3rds had pages.

Few organizations have policies regarding Facebook, only 31%. There's a lot of internal strife regarding its use, and some concerns regarding legal ramifications. The biggest disconnect is whether or not profiles are the "real" student. 1/3 of employers think so, but 90% of the students says that it is. Maybe employers are giving a pass . . .

Increasing use of: 33% increasing Facebook, 42% increasing LinkedIn (13% students use it but 57% employers use it), 20% using Twitter, and half said none.


Lessons

• Employers are using Facebook in more and more ways. (Don't delete your account!)
• Employers plan to increase their use.
• Employers are more tech-savvy.
• Students need to be more knowledgeable about privacy settings, policies, etc. but the profile photo can still be seen.
• Can't generalize about employers
• Students need to use LinkedIn (we're there, folks)
• Networking issues
• Private vs. professional self
• Use Facebook proactively when searching.
  

Analysis of Online Survey Tools

From Non-Profit Times, June 10, 2009:

http://www.nptimes.com/technobuzz/TB20090610_1.html

External Peer Reviews

What do they REALLY think of us? Risks and Rewards of External Reviews . . .

A two person office at Edgewood College Career Services in Wisconsin used an EACE model and NACE model.

She picked really different people with different styles from programs she respected. Then take 6 months to a year to . . .

• consulted with VP
• researched external reviews
• secured reviewers
• created binder of materials for reviewers
• conference calls with reviewers
• logistics and planning; campus communications
• budget
  

It's a lot of work for reviewers. The presenters suggested reading a lot in advance to distinguish between perceptions and facts. They needed a month and then asked questions. The review took 2 days, with them verifying objectives with the dean then meeting in the strictest confidence with campus constituents on the first day. Reviewers met for dinner privately to share perceptions and identify themes, then spent the second day compiling initial verbal findings then delivering requested initial, preliminary verbal feedback later in the day. Larger universities will need more time to hit key constituencies.

Report writing: not so much fun. They felt that they were creating a new wheel. They hadn't, but needed to have, set time in their schedules to pull together the report, and needed a better system than exchanging copies of multiple documents. They ended with 39 recommendations, and the reviewers ranked them by primary, secondary, and tertiary recommendations. And they created their own review standards guide.

The report gave them focus and direction, and the process helped push their message. Others at the college were very impressed that the Career Center was willing to put itself out there, and they got great internal PR as reviewers corrected misperceptions. And, yes, they were headed in the right direction. The buzz also created buzz among their career services consortium.

Beloit decided to do one for strategic planning. They had tons of data and were looking for new possibilities. Having faculty together for this process, the users inspired the nonusers to get involved with career services. For students, they had users and nonusers of the office. There is no good time to do it. Fall is bad, spring is worse.Mid-January before at just at the beginning of the semester seemed to work.

Cardinal Stritch University decided to delay theirs. They had a brand new provost.

NACE Keynote: Frans Johansson, "The Medici Effect"

Geoff wanted me to tweet, but my phone won't work.
Quick points: 1400 attendees, Tweeting at #NACE09

Frans Johanssohn's purpose was to get us thinking about connections. We have the best chance of coming up with new ideas if we step into unfamiliar territory. Companies used to last 25 - 35 years on the S&P, now it's just 10 - 15 years. Diversity of everything drives innovation. Look at these cross-disciplinary inspirations (the Medici Effect).

• Apple was inspired by candy to use colors and be "young."
• Termite mounds inspired the largest office complex in Zimbabwe without air conditioning.
• Combine bikinis and burkas and get a full length garment made of swim suit material for more comfortable swimming for conservative Muslim women.
  

How does this work?

1. All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas. (Some are better than others.)
2. Innovative teams generate and execute more ideas. Hey, we humans are pretty bad at predicting what will work in the future.

Our ability to make divergent connections decreases as we get older, except for Marie. So how do we do it?

1. Find inspiration from fields or cultures other than your own - and dare to explore the connections. (Make mistakes - most schools don't encourage it.)
2. Staff for innovation.
3. Leverage existing diversity.
4. Change the definition of FIT.
   

His examples included Marcus Samuelsson, Diverse focus groups for Lays, Volvo and women not liking opening the hood.

His recommendations . . .

• Step into the intersection and develop new ways to recruit students (My seat mate says says her president at Pepperdine wants to make Career Services the norm!)
• Diverse teams outperform quickly. Most important leadership skill is to be able create and move diverse teams.
• Plan to make mistakes.
• Think differently about risk.
• The key is passion.

USE DIVERSITY OF ALL KINDS TO TRANSFORM!