Service delivery is our game. We are not a software company. Our Employer Specialists make a large number of outreach attempts every day to build strong partnerships for our partner campuses. Once we start to build a connection, our only goal is to handle the employer's request. We keep them informed throughout the process of finding potential candidates, while providing students with the exact process needed to notify the employer of their interest.

This is a year-round strategy. Although emails about our services can be helpful, they are passive and we use them as a last resort. Instead, we visit classrooms every semester to provide students with information on our services. After our quick info sessions, we proactively reach out to students almost immediately. Once we’ve made contact, our campus recruiters provide a career coaching service that is custom and ongoing for the student. We are generally in touch on a weekly basis. Referrals from faculty never hurt either!

Text messages are our best friend. Why? Because that’s how most students communicate. E-blasts to students don’t work. Do we use phone calls, Zoom, email, and other resources? Of course, but much of sending students targeted jobs, follow-up, and scheduling appointments is done via text.

Absolutely. Without faculty, our access to students would be limited. We start each semester by meeting with faculty and conducting a custom needs analysis. After hearing their insights and identifying the employers or jobs that seem to be a strong fit for students in their classes, we incorporate that information into our one-on-one conversations with students.

This is where we spend a lot of time. To start on the qualitative side, nearly all of our conversations with students, faculty, and employers are documented (case management). These conversations help colleges understand the journey from meeting a student to work experience. On the quantitative side, we are constantly updating the metrics we cover. For basics, we track our total outreach, number of placements, employer partners, and more. However, we like to dive deep with insightful metrics such as the number of times a student applied to a work experience opportunity versus the number of targeted opportunities sent their way, how many students are responsive and available for work experience, and much more.

From our experience, we are not duplicating work. Campus staff work well with our team as we fill a need that there is simply not enough time in the day for. While campus staff manage activities such as workshops, counseling, and advisory boards, our team is primarily focused on getting students connected to paid work experience that’s documented from start to finish.