4 tips to social media career advising: Why my students call me #boss

I co-authored this article with Joshua Waldman
It was originally posted on his blog:
http://careerenlightenment.com

4 Secrets to Social Media Career Advising: Why My Students Call Me '#Boss'

By A Gen X Career Advisor (with Joshua Waldman)

My duty as a career advisor is to provide students with enough guidance and resources to properly land a job before they graduate.

Some take the bait, some don’t.

And those that do, they call me “#Boss” and I love it.

How did I earn this nickname? It’s simple. I interact with students at their level. I don’t act like a boss at all, I act like their coach.

I’ve earned their respect (even though we’re “Friends” on Facebook).

And the technique I use isn’t rocket science. College students nowadays don’t know a world without the internet, social media, and mobile devices... so that’s where I connect with them.

My Baby Boomer Colleagues Disagree With Me

I’m always swapping strategies with my colleagues, especially the Baby Boomers. They’ve been in the business longer than me so I always enjoy learning from the lessons they’ve learned.

But when they tell me to be careful using social media (Facebook in particular) with my students, I simply smile and nod my head.

I don’t agree with them. Not one bit.

Some of my Baby Boomer colleagues think students will classify me only as a “friend” and not take my advice seriously or they feel some privacy god will strike them down where they sit. Well, that hasn’t been the case with the students I’ve worked with. They’re smart enough to understand they need to listen to my career counseling no matter how they categorize our relationship.

Students are responsive to my coaching practice because I tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. People are naturally drawn to the uncommon so that’s how I stick out.

They know my goal is to help them find a job faster than on their own and I believe they appreciate my efforts to get on their level using social media.
It’s Not About the “What If”. It’s About the “What Now”

“I don’t know what I want to do after college.” (Average College Student)

I hear the above question every day on the job. It’s expected. As sure as the sun’s going to rise tomorrow, a student will ask that question.

My response?

“It’s okay to be clueless. You’re not alone. Just don’t be paralyzed lazy.”

What can they do NOW helps them have "little wins" that we can focus and build on.

Most college students are frustrated and overpowered with the thought of picking a single career path. (I know I was.) I always make sure I carefully explain it’s not their fault. There’s no blueprint for picking a career and it’s probable whatever you choose now is going to change down the line.

It’s a vital decision, but it’s not permanent.

Even seasoned and skilled professionals can’t seem to find their way. Why should a twenty something?

Heck, I finally found my career passion by helping others find theirs. Funny how things work out, huh?

They key is to take little steps and only focus on the present. The biggest mistake is procrastination. This isn’t a good time to overthink. You need to stay motivated.

That’s where I come in. It helps to have someone watching your back.

4 Ways I Use Social Media to Help My Students Find Career-Happiness

1. Facebook

The number one social media network is Facebook so it’s an obvious place to interact with students. They’re always logged in via their laptop or mobile device so you can be pretty certain they’re seeing your messages.

Many advisors stick to only e-mail. Not me. I use a nice balance. My initial outreach is usually via Facebook and I’ll switch to e-mail when the communication becomes more in-depth.

Example FacebookMessage: “Hey John! I found a job posting you may be interested in. Swing by my office and be sure to bring Susie and George. I have some information for them too.”

(Students feel more comfortable with their peers in tow so I typically encourage group sessions in the beginning.)

[Editors note: the author actually has two Facebook profiles, one just for students. On it, she not only leaves off personal information, but is just as careful to include just enough personal information so that she still appears human. For instance, on her student facing profile, there are no pictures of her drinking beer on her last camping trip, but there are pictures of her with her daughter.]

2. LinkedIn

Most student LinkedIn profiles are lacking since they don’t have much real-world experience to date. Since I’m on campus, I know what they’re up to in terms of extracurricular activities. If a student has organized an event, or is part of a group leadership team, I can vouch for them.

Coupled with the casual conversations I typically have throughout the semester, I’m allowed to witness a student’s strengths firsthand. I will help verify these attributes to others by endorsing students for Skills and by providing Recommendations.

Being a relationship hub is the new generation of career advising! The better I build my brand as a source of student talent, the more my network grows to connect students with opportunity.

I network like a champion, keeping track of who is looking for what kind of talent and I use linkedIn to share a student profile with a talent scout about once/week.

Four of my seniors this year got their jobs because I either pointed them to someone on LinkedIn or someone on LinkedIn asked me to point them to a student!

3. Instagram

My students and I created an “Instagram program [profile]” where they follow and tag each other to stay updated on each other’s success, and to acquire inspiration from one another.

An example of an Instagram-worthy scenario is attending a networking event or going on an site visit of a company. Pictures can express so much more of the value of these experiences and their friends “❤” everything that is cool and different from the norm.

4. Blogging

Back in my day we called this part “journaling.” It’s the same idea for my students but the information should be readable by others, including myself.

A personal blog provides a platform for frequent, detailed updates so students can properly track their progress. Students traditionally hate me when I encourage them to start a blog but in the end they’re able to comprehend the value (dare I say that they thank me later!).

Having a blog also allows me to serve up instant feedback during a student’s job search. I’ve also had students tell me they were better able to clarify their thoughts and feelings while blogging, which helped them solve their problems more efficiently.

And of course, owning a personal blog is a tremendous branding strategy. It’s a sure-fire way to stand out amongst a sea of social media savvy applicants. It tends to be the forgotten technique because it requires the most work. Typical, right?


Alright, so that’s why my students call me “Boss.” Now tell me, how do you get through to college students? Are you willing to use Facebook in a way you’ve never considered before?

_______________________

Our Author is a Gen X career advisor at a University on the west coast who has asked to remain anonymous for now. But she doesn’t mind adding students as Facebook friends because they know she’s the “Boss”.

Joshua Waldman is the author of Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies.

A Teacher's Manifesto

I work in higher education on a uniquely contemporary challenge that is evident in almost any institution of higher education- how to both add diversity the student experience AND improve the quality graduate it produces. It sounds easy enough of the surface, but for some reason its stumped the best of us.

For a school like Oregon, where our product is measured by the caliber of employable graduates, we are facing a new era of challenge. Our "buyers" are demanding a more diverse applicant pool and it has resulted in unprecedented recruitment of a more diverse student population. And we have never had to solve the unique needs a more diverse student population has- why? Because we have historically been serving white-middle class families that all had the same preparation and training to succeed in the competitive researched based environment.  Even though we are recruiting students that have never had access to Oregon before, the immense amount of opportunity that Oregon represents is being taken by some and is leaving others completely left behind.

It seems that never before have segments of our society been so integrated with each other and yet so segregated in their access to opportunity.

There has always been a distinction between "haves" and the "have nots" in US k-12 educational system. The problem today is that the challenges facing those systems is making the divide even... wider.


Students who typically are the first in their family to go to college or who come from lower income households happen to coincide greatly with minority identities. So the influx of minority recruits to previously white middle class schools has helped the campus community "look" more diverse but in actuality the campus is not prepared to serve these students. Upon arrival on campus, these students need to brought up to speed first with their peers and then can start developing their capacities to succeed.

 

Either way, they are behind the curve for most of their experience. Despite their potential its no wonder they get discouraged.

My work has focused on experiential learning to first teach students how to learn and be the masters of their own discipline because many of their prior educational systems have failed to do so. Next we expose these students to what opportunity looks like since many of them lack the social networks to job shadow or informational interview on their own. Then my classes and events show them how to navigate in a primarily "white" professional manner to ease their transition into the professional setting.

No one has tried to package all of these components before, at least not at Oregon.

At Oregon students needs were addressed in the silos of the student experience- academic development in an academic department, social development in residential life and professional development in student services. The fragmented experience makes it all the more challenging to "pull the pieces together."

What I have designed is a full package that reduces the time and stress of their transition to Oregon and increases their access and exposure to opportunity on campus and ultimately puts Oregon grads ahead of their peers when it comes time to compete on the after-college market. Ultimately reinforcing Oregon's reputation for producing high quality graduates and earning higher recognition amongst its competitor schools.

I have three years of tracking grades to show how our methods have changed student performance. I have student stories- observed, journaled, recorded all that testify to the rapid impact on their experience. I have feedback from professionals and recruiters that verify what we have experimented with works. It all started with someone having to level the playing field, and I decided it might as well start with me.

I am looking for as many ways to share this story and find people who want to work with me to take this to the next level. Please post comments and questions below or follow up with me at tayahbutler@gmail.com

Fall Term 2012 Mission Complete

The term is about over and as customary I take time to reflect on the good, the bad and the... oops.

This term I set out to stabilize the program structure in the following ways:

1. Introduce as many first year students with our community as possible via targeted events.
2. Condense and deliver professional development curriculum for second year students.
3. Throw four high quality professional development events that integrated the goals of the two developmental levels.

What I have learned in each area this term:

1. The living community in the hall is going well, but it has a lot of opportunity still for improvement.
I had been hoping that placing four resident assistants in the hall would help transplant our "sub-culture" of placing school work above social time... and I guess we still have a lot of work to do. There are still not enough students engaged with our project to persuade the behavior of the masses. The resident assistants have mixed response to approaching the "community" as a unified team as they are torn between roles of "enforcer" and "mentor." I was also very concerned that the RA's overwhelmingly voiced added stress of balancing their own needs with the needs of the community.



2. The condensed curriculum for the second years students appears to have been a success. The pace of the seminar was adequate to accomplish our deliverable of profiles and basic digital portfolios. The addition of new members proved to be the perfect inspiration and motivation of returning students to step up their games. The events matched the development levels of the students and we had over 90% participation rate in every single seminar and event. Great success there!


3. The four event were executed flawlessly. We started with meet and greet with over 75 students and 20 faculty, administrators and core local community supporters in attendance. We executed a revised version of the Dean's Lecture with a real executive. This time, providing an intimate lunch with the returning seminar students, the lecture for all of the college to enjoy and the reception immediately following was a perfect balance of energy, contact and learning time for everyone involved. The skill-drill workshop used returning students to "coach" the new students how to shake hands and introduce themselves. We delivered quick instructions to the group and had small teams role playing- many of the students raved about how easy it was to learn such an intimidating skill. The next week we coordinated the networking event with the goal of students finding a professional to set an informational interview and feedback from both the professionals and the students came back overwhelmingly supportive.

What to do next?
Next term I will aim to execute two efficient skill building seminars. The goal of the first year seminar will be to identify natural leadership strengths and potential blind-sides. The goal of the second year seminar will be to articulate their profile characteristics in multi-media and "sticky" stories by the use of online portfolios.

The community building next term will center around the implementation of the new mentors and AKPsi role models.

The events next term will be with the purpose of teaching the students how to hold the "discovery" meeting with a new contact and we will attempt to teach them how to use a contact relationship manager- thank you procontact.me!

In summary, I will quote Lawrence Jackson. "when you know what you do well, just do more of it faster- you will pull away from your competition ten times as fast as trying to always fix your weaknesses"

Thank you Lawrence- mission accomplished.

Reflections on a pilot

What we set out to do:

Convert more under-represented minority students from prebusiness to business or accounting majors.

We suspected that if we introduced a cohort of URM students to complete the prebusiness curriculum together that it would catalyze the broader URM population to pull together to overcome their unique barriers to working through the prebusiness curriculum. In the short term, cohorts would allow direct observation of the unique challenges that need to be addressed for URM students studying business. In the long term, a cohort experience for URM should be the means to for UO (and LCB) to attract larger numbers of high achieving minority students.

Where we've been: 

We have brought two groups of students through the curriculum in a cohort model. The participants in these groups both  persist longer and perform better in the pre-business curriculum in comparison to their peers who are not engaged in the cohort experience.

Where we have learned:

To improve persistence and performance minority students respond to a combination of four elements:

1. Academic support- to address the unequal secondary educational experiences of the students the combination of small study groups, individual tutoring and peer learning was needed to improve overall academic performance.

2. Multi-cultural community- the students thrived by having two physical spaces where they could engage with each other as well as members of the main-stream population (their residence hall and the suite in Lillis). Many of the students lacked social capital upon entering UO and building the community that includes all experiences is vital to growth of all members of the community.

3. Professional direction- the key motivational factor for MOST of the students during their experience was to have interactions with actual business practitioners. While they appreciated ANY experience to engage with a business practitioner, engagement with minority professionals was the overwhelmingly key inspiration for students to persist.

4. Leadership development- the largest social obstacle for students of color in an environment like Oregon is learning how to "in the spotlight" that inevitably occurs when they are the only person of color in a classroom. It demands a faster development of identity and confidence of self in comparison with their mainstream peers. Early exploration of leadership traits and theory allowed for these students to act more confident in their experience as a minority.

We know we our effort is working because:

Our first step was to engage the students in a way that would to encourage them to persist.

Tracking the sophomore cohort students: 25% have converted to the major, 50% will be eligible to apply to the major in the next two terms of 2012. The remaining 25% continues to persist despite unusually high challenges.

Our second step was to discover what it would take to help improve the success rate to meeting the minimum prebusiness requirements.

In the second cohort group, an overwhelming 75% have finished their second year on track to meet the requirements. We accomplished this by utilizing smaller section math courses, small study groups and upper classmen mentoring in the prebusiness courses.

Our third step was to create a "draw" that would engage more URM students in the prebusiness population to reach critical mass within the undergraduate student population.

The attention and popularity of the emerging student group, commonly referred to as CEO Network, is attracting more and more students of color who want to "belong" in the Lundquist College of Business.

What are our next steps:

Now we know what works, it will take strategy to find the ways to institutionalize the four components that both work for LCB and make sense for the students.

Delivering Constructive Criticism

Today I am taking a huge risk. Unlike most other risks I've taken, this one I haven't sat on and reflected for a while. I just got the idea and I started implementing. So if this doesn't go well I guess I'll chalk it up to- lesson learned. But here's the story...

I had been stunted by what to do next for my freshman students at the end of winter term. While they performed well, it wasn't as I had hoped for. I immediately took personal responsibility for some of their shortcomings and spent countless sleepless nights wondering what I could have and SHOULD have done differently.

I sought guidance from my mentor- an award winning pre-business instructor of 30 years. He said one thing over and over in our meeting..."Tayah what do they need?"

 "They need my honest assessment of what they are doing well and where they have the most area of opportunity for growth"

My most important discovery in this process of giving constructive criticism has been finding a way to structure my feedback in a way that both reassures them of their strengths and help them be receptive of their areas for growth. I captured my talking point notes on paper (see pic to right). I then talked out some sample feedback on a video blog. Finally, I went to live recording on you-tube and then forward the recording to them to replay as little or as often as they liked.

So I have spent the past five days recording blogs that assess what they are doing well in academic performance and leadership development and where they may be blind-sided moving forward and therefore pointing out their largest area of opportunity for growth in the next term. Below is a sample of one of my "deliveries."

They are either going to love these blogs- or hate them.

Because I may not get every evaluation perfectly right and I stumble and say stupid things, I'm allowing myself to be vulnerable as their leader- but they are getting my most raw and pure guidance and thats the best I can think to give.

Designing the Diversity Symposium

In spring of 2011 the Committee won our second grant from the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity. Our proposal was sound and had been endorsed "off the record" by both the Dean of LCB and the VP of OIED. Our goals were clear:

Create a high-quality, intimate event that was both fresh and engaging and would set LCB as a leader for the campus and community in thought and practice for building diversity in the workplace.

Posters designed by students all over campus

I knew the project was going to be a great showcase for LCB and it would help improve relations between other units on campus and some of the local community. But I had under estimated it as an opportunity for me to grow as a leader and as an individual.

I discovered the true strength of my leadership during this process. To accomplish our vision with limited time and resources truly demanded I was efficient with my task management and effective with my communication. I held tight to a vision of the day but gave all authority and power to my other committee members to do their part to accomplish the vision. Inspiring other players in the roles we couldn't fill on our was ongoing.

On the eve of the event, I felt confident- I had pulled together an "A" team of organizers, presenters, caterers, sponsors and allies. All I had to do was set them on the field and let them play their part.

So now what? What is ironic is we choose the theme of the inaugural conference as "rewriting narratives" I in the process of designing that experience for our audience I have re-written my own narrative. One year ago I couldn't imagine anything bigger- now its only a matter of time before I will take this event to a higher level.

Martin Luther King Jr Award 2012

On January 19th 2012 I was honored among revered faculty, friends and colleagues as an honorary Martin Luther King Jr. Advocate for Social Justice.

This honor is given to five UO employees a year and I was humbled to be awarded this honor in my third year of working for UO and the Lundquist College of Business.

What was significant for me in this experience was preparing my thoughts and words to share during the panel- style award ceremony.

I wanted to express my appreciation and