Making a Case for Alumni Career Services

As a relatively young alumnus of Ithaca College ("relatively" meaning I graduated during Bill Clinton's first term), I consider myself an engaged member of the greater IC community. Sure, I contribute to the school financially, but I also contribute time... time spent attending admissions fairs for interested high school juniors and seniors, time spent reading up on the latest goings-on in the alumni magazine and time spent helping current students and recent grads find their footing as they launch their careers.

Last month, I attended Ithaca's Network Nights in Boston. Network Nights, annual events that are scheduled regionally at the end of the winter break, are primarily for students to meet alumni who are working in their field of interest... but an added bonus is that alumni get to network with each other. This year's event was especially useful for me, considering I joined Experience a year ago. In addition to talking to a number of current students about how I made the transition from college to radio to grad school to marketing, I was able to network with fellow alumni. And in my networking, I wore my Experience hat and talked about career services. True to what I've read and heard, the young alumni I spoke with consider post-graduation career guidance a MUST.

Just this past Sunday, our own Cliff Libby (VP of University Sales and Services) and Laura Denbow, Executive Director of Alumni Relations and Career Services at Bucknell University, gave a compelling presentation at the CASE District I Conference in Boston covering alumni career services and the opportunity to build long-term relationships with alumni. The long and short of it? The institution is the natural and preferred career resource for alumni.

Schools have a unique opportunity to foster stronger, longer-lasting relationships with new graduates by helping them uncover careers and employer searches. As alumni progress through their careers and gain invaluable experience and expertise in their fields, they remain loyal to their alma maters (case in point = me) and often prefer hiring candidates from their schools. And this puts alumni relations and career services professionals at the center of the relationship.