Career Services Dean Shares How to Network for Success
By Jill Randolph
June 24, 2010
The following is an interview transcript with John Hyde, of the New York Institute of Technology - Old Westbury. NYIT was established in 1955 and is a private, co-educational college, with campuses in Old Westbury, Manhattan New York, Vancouver, China, Amman Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. Prior to joining NYIT, Mr. Hyde worked in Student Affairs roles for the State University of New York at Alfred and Cortland, Alfred University, and the California State University at Los Angeles.
Mr. Hyde is responsible for Employment Preparation Programs for NYIT's five Global and two local campuses. The Career Services team administers the On Campus Student Employment and Student Community Service Programs and Experiential Education programs. They also design and implement Career Management workshops for over 100 fields of study and academic majors within NYIT's seven professional schools.
Jill Randolph: How has searching for a job changed from the past, and how has it stayed the same?
John Hyde: There are many facets to job searching today. Technology has greatly helped the job search and job search sites continue to improve. CareerBuilder, Monster and others are reinventing themselves looking for more clients.
There is also a newer website called JobFox, which is considered to be the eHarmony of job-boards, because it matches candidates with employers based on criteria in their profile. JobFox uses the profile to match an applicant to an employer using specific criteria. It's a compelling idea, but it is not better than a traditional, face-to-face meeting or picking up the telephone, calling someone and reaching out.
To help our students learn networking skills, we have them work with alumni mentors by web conference, which provides an opportunity to put a face to a name. We use web conferencing to help students begin to connect professionally. When students have these calls scheduled, we ask them to dress as they would for an interview, which gives them a chance to practice informational interviewing and networking.
However, like all job seekers today, with the economic downturn, students are learning that they have to get out from behind the computer and network in person. When students have to put themselves into the public eye, it's a different type of self-marketing that extends beyond the Internet. We offer students opportunities to be involved in activities that enhance these face-to-face interactions, with career fairs, bringing employers to campus for informational interviews, and many other similar opportunities.
Jill Randolph: What do you recommend to students regarding keeping in touch with contacts and keeping their network alive once they've established those contacts? Is there ever a time to weed contacts out if a student switches industries or focuses?
John Hyde: My opinion is to never burn bridges. We are fastidious about connecting our students through LinkedIn. I am not trying to wean them off of Facebook and MySpace, but rather trying to make them aware that there is another social media resource they need to be connected to, and it's a great tool provided they know how to use it. We use LinkedIn for our alumni home page and we have our career pages linked to it as well.
We offer classes on how to use social media to the students' advantage. I have a presentation I use regularly that stresses that social media lasts forever. One page has a picture of the Pyramid of Gaza; one shows Styrofoam cups in a landfill, another shows nuclear waste, and then there's an image of a posting on Facebook. It drives home the message that recruiters are looking at students' Facebook pages as well as blogs, so students need to be careful about their online comments and pictures. Employers look at candidates' online presence and they are good at finding this information.
As far as weeding out a contact, students never know when they may need that contact in the future, for a situation they had not anticipated. With resources today, it's not difficult to keep track of contacts. For example, I have a product called NeatReceipts, which scans all my business cards into Outlook. I have a deep Rolodex because of this tool. It's a way to be technologically savvy and stay connected without having to carry thousands of business cards.
Jill Randolph: Do you have any tools or educational opportunities in place to help students learn how to effectively look for a job?
John Hyde: Yes, to help our students learn on-the-job skills and how to network, we work collaboratively with NYIT's School of Management and offer the Professional Enrichment Program for our students, which is a set of opportunities to supplement classroom learning, deliver cutting edge information, and other activities that foster the development of professional skills necessary for students to compete in the international marketplace. It exposes students to the many of facets of job searching, and they have to complete the program before they graduate. We offer about 80 sessions a semester.
We also bring employers in to speak to students for networking and informational interviewing opportunities. For example, the CFO of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, who is in-charge of their Battle Management and Engagement Systems department and runs an $8 billion program, came in recently. He brought eight of his teammates and they gave a presentation to 130 of our students.
Hearing real-life tips from a CFO is a great opportunity for students. It took us a year to arrange the presentation, and it was a wonderful learning opportunity for the students.
We are also establishing a job's club where alumni talk about their job search in an informal setting. They share their strategies that have worked and those that have not; the point is to share information. A lead that wasn't right for one alumnus may be a good fit for a student. This connectivity is invaluable because employers are more apt to hire students or at least interview them if they have been recommended by someone the employer knows and trusts.
We have also implemented an on-campus business card program for seniors and graduate students. We are trialing it this semester, leading into the career fair. I started this initiative because I saw resourceful students having cards printed themselves. The problem was that they were using the college logo and not presenting it well. We decided to help the students and the university branding, and are now rolling the cards out throughout the university. I have been receiving accolades from deans and employers saying that they think it's a great initiative. The business cards are beneficial because they help students stand out and look more professional.
Additionally, the college has launched a parent newsletter because we are trying to educate parents about the services available to their children. Students often don't communicate this information to their parents. For example, with FERPA laws, we can't send student's grades home to the parents and some parents become really upset when we are conducting orientation because they feel like they should be part of the process. Our newsletter is one way to help pull students, perhaps via their parents, into our office to use our services.
Jill Randolph: How has the job market changed over the past year? Have you seen any signs of improvement?
John Hyde: We've certainly seen a decrease in the amount of employers advertising and posting jobs with us. A lot fewer jobs have been advertised in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the normal places we see postings. These downward trends have not been good the past year, but we are starting to see certain markets bouncing back.
For us, the areas that have continued to thrive are health sciences, particularly physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, physician assistants, and osteopathic medicine. Our students are being offered anywhere between three and five job opportunities upon graduation in certain fields. With their degree structures, they have to complete 1,500 to 1,700 hours of hands-on work. The internship with their faculty has made a difference, because they are being trained and licensed. Having hands on experience is very important.
A growing trend I am seeing locally is employers that traditionally have advertised full-time jobs, are now instead advertising paid internships or internships for credit. However, with an internship for credit, a student is essentially paying $3,000 in tuition to work for that employer. We have encouraged employers to compensate these students in some form, whether through a stipend, lunches, or picking up transportation and parking. The job market has started to change for the better.
Markets are starting to bounce back though. Engineering is still a booming career path and engineering firms are still recruiting pretty heavily on campus. Additionally, our diversity on campus helps our students receive attention with The National Society of Black Engineers, Minority Engineering, and the National Society of Hispanic Engineers. Female engineers are also very much in demand. Firms don't have enough female engineers or diversity, and it's great that they are offering opportunities to minority engineering students.
Jill Randolph: Some students in health-related fields have to complete a residency or work with a preceptor before they graduate, as well as pass a certification exam to legally be allowed to provide healthcare.
Has there been any talk from NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) or any other governing bodies that all students should have mandated hands-on experience to help them understand their job more thoroughly, and help to make them more marketable in this economy?
John Hyde: Our faculty has been grappling with how to make community service a mandatory part of the curriculum, whether it's an externship, internship, or service-learning project. Building this type of experience into degree structures is very difficult. It's hard to determine where to squeeze a three-credit internship, especially considering that those credits may take 15 or 20 hours a week off-campus.
We have contemplated using summers, but then problems arise with student athletes who have team commitments. Employers like student athletes because they work well in teams and know how to manage their time, but sometimes they are not given time off from the team to complete an internship.
It's a delicate balance trying to build hands-on experiences into a regimented structure of student's time here, and it's a challenge for a lot of institutions. The difficulty lies in determining how to build these experiential learning opportunities into the curriculum.
To compensate for some students' lack of time for internships, we run programs like the Broad Ridge Challenge, which gives employers a chance to involve students in simulated experiences. Students are setup in teams and given real case scenarios similar to case management and case studies, giving them a chance to develop a solution and possibly attain a prize or be recognized on their academic transcript as having participated in the challenge.
Jill Randolph: Some student athletes don't realize that even if they make it to the pros, the careers are not guaranteed and typically are not long lasting. How do you encourage student athletes to get an education to fall back on?
John Hyde: Yes, a lot of them don't understand why they need a degree. When I worked with student athletes in Australia, there were a number of students who went pro right out of high school and were offered $150,000 plus to play Aussie Rules football. That's a lot of money for someone under 20 years old to make for playing a sport.
Our challenge is to have these student athletes understand that they will need our help at some point and we let them know we are here to serve them. They will eventually need help with a resume or cover letter. The goal is to show that there is life after football, soccer or any other sports and they need to think about their career beyond sports. They need to have a plan B, especially in this economy.
Jill Randolph: You have mentioned a few job search websites earlier. Are there any other websites you recommend to your students?
John Hyde: The Career Cornerstone is really good for STEM and healthcare career paths and Career Search offers useful articles. We also are connected to Vault, UniWorld and the college pays for these services for students. A couple others, especially for MBA students focusing on Human Resources, are Workforce Management and Talent Management, which are online at Workforce.com and TalentMgt.com. They are really useful for explaining current events in the HR industry. Crain's New York and Bloomberg are good sites as well. Dice.com is a really good site; they run a lot of career fairs in financial services, engineering and technical areas. There is another site called eFinancialCareers.com and also NACE, which we mentioned earlier. The Black Collegian is another example; all of these are very good resources for students.
We also have a PDF on our website of our electronic career resource guide, which has good tools including websites and resources,such as professional organizations, available for our students and alumnae. A specific example is animationmagazine.net for students in the technology industry seeking employment in the art of animation.
I also strongly encourage students to speak with their academic faculty about resources they use and periodicals they read. These are the people who are experts in their field. They are teaching students in specialized areas, whereas our office is not familiar with every resource because we work with students from 100 different programs at this college. However, the academic faculties are great resources and can also provide references for students.
Jill Randolph: What advice do you give to students to help them market their job experience?
John Hyde: Students have to market themselves using their relevant skills. By working in a bookstore, for example, they are dealing with people all the time, and learning critical communications skills. It's straightforward to say a student is proficient in Microsoft Word, but it is more difficult to show he or she has good people skills.
If a student worked three to five days a week while completing a degree, that shows he or she was disciplined - attending school while working and learning new skills along the way. The student has probably learned good customer service skills as well as other transferrable skills. Students can and should market their abilities even if they worked at a job they think they shouldn't include on their resume.
For example, I had a student who worked at McDonald's and didn't want to include it on her resume. I explained to her that, like Disney, it's a well-recognized and well-respected company. McDonald's trains their employees really well and employers understand that most students must work while they are attending school. For example, if the student is a cashier, he or she can explain that there was a rapid promotion to supervising the drive through window from the entry level starting point. This shows progression and the trust of a high-profile employer.
Another reason students should connect with their career center is because we can advise them on the information that should be included in their resume and how to market their skills. We recommend students keep their resume to one page, because they don't have enough experiences for two pages. The bottom-line is that recruiters make decisions within the first three inches of a resume. They look at where the students went to school, their GPA their major any relevant work history. If there is a match, the candidate may make it to the next stage.
There is a trend of not using objective statements in resumes. We don't advise to keep or drop it; that is up to the student. The thing to keep in mind is that at the end of the day, resumes are about facts. Employers look for applicants to clearly define past accomplishments and how they will help the company.
Jill Randolph: Which social media service do you think is the most useful for students looking for jobs?
John Hyde: The web has made the world very flat, which has helped in many ways. Everyone is trying to determine how to leverage job opportunities from social networking sites; LinkedIn is a super example and Twitter is yet to be proven. A company like the Compass Group, for example, has a website and someone in HR or marketing that is tweeting about job opportunities and company news. It is a platform that is catching on quickly and more companies are using this to search for the best social media savvy talent.
Jill Randolph: What are the most common job search mistakes you see among students?
John Hyde: Students don't check their resumes or cover letters enough. Instead, they cut and paste repeatedly, apply for many different jobs, and along the way, they make an error. I've seen this many times with people who have applied for jobs with Career Services, but use a wrong contact name, for example. Applicants need to be very careful with their accuracy.
Like a lot of previous generations, students today can also learn patience and perseverance. This generation is different than others in a number of ways though, and "Millennials Rising" is a great book that explains why this is a tough generation to manage. Young employees today have so many expectations and if they aren't connected, it's hard to retain them. Managing these young employees can be a challenge because they expect decisions instantaneously.
Also, many students come to career services the last semester of college or in some cases two weeks before graduation in need of a job, which is one of our biggest challenges. Students don't make time to perform an effective job search because are so busy with class work. However, they are here to earn a degree to become working professionals, and also need to spend quality time on their job search before they graduate.
We help prepare students for the world of work, by giving them opportunities to meet employers. We have a lot of very strong industry connections and my team is always looking for additional job opportunities for our students. If I am looking for a leading graphic arts firm, for example, I'll do exactly what I encourage my students to do - research. However, I'll also ask the head of the graphic arts program which companies he recommends that I pursue. Likewise, students need to be resourceful in networking and job searching.
For example, if a professor gives a student his or her card or is willing to be a reference, the student needs to make the effort to build and maintain a relationship with that professor. The professor may provide the student an opportunity to have a mentor, a career connection or a good reference.
Jill Randolph: Which advice for students, as they begin or continue to pursue their job search, is most important?
John Hyde: Anyone searching for a job needs to be inquisitive. I recommend that they use free resources, including career services. There are also great websites and resources available. Networking is also a great way for students to learn more about their field of interest. They need to take advantage of every opportunity, including mock interviews, which are also a great way to practice networking and communicating.
It is important that students use the resources available to them. We can put countless tools in front of them, but the important thing is how students use the information once they have it. At the end of the day, we want them to use the information we've provided.
If our office has helped students while they were attending school, they will become good alumni and give back; that's what we are aiming for. It doesn't have to be financial; to me, it's about mentoring another student or providing an opportunity for an internship to another student in the future.
