Leveraging Network Effects in Career Services and Alumni Relations at Liberal Arts Institutions

Authored by Robert Gossett & Paul Heithaus

Executive Summary:

Nepotism is often times the best channel by which people can get a foot in the door for interviews, internships, and jobs. While nepotism often comes with a negative connotation, it would be foolish for one to not leverage connections during the job search process. Unfortunately, some find the process of networking and establishing one’s own network of contacts to be daunting. By leveraging connections in pre-established communities, much of the friction inherent with networking can be mitigated or eliminated completely.

A perfect example of this type of community is an alumni network. Many universities try to make their alumni available to students through career services and alumni relations offices; however, much of the responsibility of tapping into that network falls on students. Unless someone is a natural networker, reaching out to alumni may be intimidating. Sometimes, the skills and experience required to effectively network only form in the later years of a student’s career. Perhaps those skills never form at all or come only in the later part of someone's professional career. If this weren’t true, there would be no point in having the educational events focused on networking at universities and companies around the world. For this reason, establishing a way to connect students with young and seasoned alumni early in a student’s career will allow that student to streamline the development of that student’s own network.

The Authors’ Experiences:

Paul’s Story:

Paul is currently employed as a Marketing and Data Analytics Analyst at Havas Media in New York City. I am a “people” person with a hunger to connect people to opportunities that bring out their passions. Additionally, I am the son of a college professor and elementary school teacher born and raised in Greencastle, Indiana. I recently graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a degree in Economics in 2018. During my time at Ohio Wesleyan, I was eager to cultivate connections and actively attract outside speakers to campus. My professional journey started my freshman spring, after a successful first semester, trying to find an opportunity in Finance. Beyond my work at the school Phonathon, cold-calling alumni, and working to grow the Ohio Wesleyan fund I was in many ways left to my own devices. Despite my success in fundraising, I wasn’t gaining any deeper connections that would lead to internships with Ohio Wesleyan alumni. My initial success was mostly attributed to the opportunity I recognized in the network I possessed at that time. I utilized my parent’s connections and peers to seek and secure an internship. I landed an internship in my hometown, working under DePauw University’s CFO writing business plans and helping strategize local development opportunities for the University. Upon returning to campus my sophomore year after a successful summer, I was put in a situation where I had little help to pursue nationally competitive internships. My sophomore year I had lined up an internship with a non-profit in Boston, but my funding fell through. That summer I worked in auto part factories (across Central Indiana) and worked my way into a consulting role within the factories. My junior year I met with Mindy Agin (Ohio Wesleyan Director of Internships) after no initial success in applying to internships and was blown away by the resources available in the university career services office. Mindy edited my resume, coached me for skype interviews, and checked in on me to make sure I was ready to go for my interview. I landed a competitive Market Analyst internship with an IT solutions company called ASMGi through the Summer on the Cuyahoga program. The summer went very well and I was thrilled to be a part of the program. My senior year I started to reflect on how I had built the resume I had. I started to see first hand that there was a clear disconnect between the majority of the student body and the channels of career services being offered on campus. Through many conversations with my close friend and comrade, Robert, we knew that we could make a change for the betterment of Liberal Arts Universities operations and their students.

Robert’s Story:

Robert Gossett is a recent computer science and economics graduate from Ohio Wesleyan University, class of 2018. While I currently work at JPMorgan Chase in NYC as a software engineer, I was probably the last person my freshman-year peers would have expected to become successful. As a freshman, I was lucky to meet an older student who inspired and motivated me to go the extra mile. I secured my first internship at a startup as an app developer through a platform called Angel.co. It was unpaid and was the result of cold emailing my resume to a number of different companies. The fact that I was extremely extroverted, motivated and a bit lucky are the sole reasons I got my first internship. My second internship was secured at a hackathon with JPMorgan. I suppose the rest is history. None of my professional successes came through the work or help of my school's career or alumni programs but through my own hard work and the leveraging of my network. A network which grew significantly by becoming a serial networker when alumni were back on campus.

As a graduate, I now find myself regularly connecting peers to people in my network for internships and job opportunities. In my last two years of school, I knew exactly who and where to send people for career advice and mentoring opportunities. Resources that students can utilize with a little bit of legwork and due diligence. I now feel it is my responsibility as an alum to make myself available to the students following in my, and many others’, footsteps. All of Paul and my experiences have synthesized to create a new vision for building student-alumni connections. A student-alumni targeted mentoring program so that students can launch themselves over the hurdles we faced early in our college and professional careers.

The Problem:

Universities frequently promise robust internship and career opportunities for their students. They also promise and hope for strong support from alumni. Often, neither of these things are delivered on the level at which they were portrayed. This is not due to lack of effort or care on the part of the university, Universities genuinely want to deliver the best return on investment to their students and alumni. The problem is that schools fail to connect their students to the right people in the right way. There is no doubt that universities are eager to enrich the undergraduate experience, help students get internships, and land graduates their first jobs. However, it is the conduit into the alumni network through the alumni association, career services, and advancement departments that changes the equation entirely. The problem is compounded by the average undergraduate’s lack of understanding for the politics, economics, diplomacy, and other subtle dynamics involved in these connections. Unfortunately, students either fail to seek out these connections or poorly manage if they try.

There is a gap between the services offered to students and alumni as there is a minimal focus on establishing informal, lasting, connections between the two groups of people. Too frequently students in special departmental or honors programs are disproportionately supported and offered opportunities to network through special program events and unique trips around the country. The remaining majority of the student body, not a part of these programs, is left to their own devices. These students are often ill-educated about the resources available to them and lack the direction to the right resources and individuals.

The Solution:

The creation of an alumni-student mentorship and connection support program. This program bridges the gap between the services being offered to students and alumni by nurturing the informal connections to guide a university’s long-term success in student services and graduate success. This grassroots pilot program addresses nine targeted feeder groups, in a single geographic region, to bridge the gap between growing industries and liberal arts skills. The nine sectors are:

Arts
Technology & Software
Digital Media & Data Analytics
Finance
Journalism
Entrepreneurship
Sales & Marketing
Science & Medicine
Sports Management

The solution to this problem aims to establish a connection for the student with both young alumni (0-5 years out of school) and seasoned alumni (5+ years out of school) in the described target areas. By starting such a connection early in the student's career, a valuable relationship is established and develops organically. Through this relationship, the student can both grow their direct and indirect network, receive mentorship, and reap the benefits of the network effects that occur. The structure of the program and relationship would resemble the following.

Experience for the student:

Level/formality: Determined by the individual groups on a case by case basis, but generally informal.
Planned # of interactions between mentee and mentor to shoot for:
- Three (30min-1hr phone call/skype interaction) with Young Alum per semester Sept, Oct, Nov & Jan, Feb, Mar.
- One (30min-1hr phone call/skype interaction) with Legacy Alum per semester Nov. & Apr.
Meeting their mentors
- Occurs on university homecoming or alumni weekend
- Dinner meeting upon arrival into the host city
The student is given personalized business cards.

Experience for the Young Alumni Lead:

Incentive/development of vetting process: Free ticketed entry into University Holiday party. Beyond that incentive, the program will give the mentor:
- Alma mater talent that will help the young alum develop a broader network and establish growth within their companies
- Value to their alma mater’s degree and helps them give back to the current university’s students

Experience for the Legacy Alumni Lead:

Incentive/development of the vetting process:
- Provides successful older alums opportunity to both give back through service and offers them insight into what is going on at their alma mater.

Developing Idea:

This white paper presents a developing idea for improving student and alumni networks in liberal arts institutions. The overall program, however, can be extrapolated to both larger universities and high schools. Any feedback and commentary are appreciated. Please add a comment or email us directly.

White PapersRobert GossettSeptember 1, 2018Internships, Networking, Alumni, Career Services, Mentoring, Jobs1 Comment