Experience and Personal Insight Lead to Success
By Jill Randolph
August 2, 2010
The following is an interview transcript with Nancy DeCrescenzo, director in the Office of Career Services at Eastern Connecticut State University. Ms. DeCrescenzo graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and from Wesleyan University with a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies. Her career began at Saint Joseph College, CT as director of career counseling. In 2003, she joined the career services staff at the University of Hartford, where she also taught in the Barney School of Business. She joined Student Affairs at ECSU in 2005, and serves on several committees including Project Compass and the Liberal Arts Work initiative design team. She is President of the CT Career Counseling & Development Association and is a member of the Board of Directors for InternHere.com.
ESCU was established in 1889, and today has an undergraduate population of over 5,000 students. ECSU is located in Willimantic, Connecticut, between Hartford and Norwich. It currently offers more than 30 undergraduate major programs and over 50 undergraduate minor programs, including liberal studies as well as sustainability management through their Institute for Sustainable Energy.
Jill Randolph: What advice do you give students who aren't sure what they want to do after graduation?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: As Connecticut's only public liberal arts university, we focus on preparing liberal arts graduates for all industries. Overall, the focus of career services is to help students sell their skills, regardless of whether they are math, biology or English majors.
A liberal arts education is not about degrees or majors but rather about gaining diverse skills and experiences. The goal is to enable students and graduates to articulate their skills in a way that demonstrates their value to potential employers.
For students who have no idea what to do after graduation, it's important for them to realize that they can't judge a job by its title. They need to perform thorough research in order to find something that interests them. They should investigate several possible industries, shop around and read job descriptions, not only job titles because they will only discover opportunities by exploring.
We advocate the developmental model of career services, which means we encourage them to learn more about themselves, their skills, and their interests. They don't have to be big commitments; simply volunteering for community service projects or joining professional associations can really help.
Graduates don't have to be certain about what they want to do. It is more important to be in the market demonstrating their skills and talents and how great they are at whatever they do. By doing this, they gain good references, great resume content, friends and network connections. I completed college 20 years ago and it's unbelievable how my early career contacts still influence my career.
Jill Randolph: What do you recommend to students in order to help them develop their soft skills?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: Students first have to realize that they already possess soft skills, and then seek opportunities to develop or polish them. Discussing communication and relationships helps students find their strengths and weaknesses in this area.
I also remind students that the reason they are here is to discover their talents and interests and that everyone on this campus is here to help them succeed, so they should take advantage of it. If they are struggling academically, they should visit the tutoring center. If they want time with a faculty member, they should visit during office hours. If they want career advice, they should make an appointment at the career center.
Jill Randolph: What tools do you recommend to help them get to know themselves and find a career path that is best for them?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: There are opportunities in everything we do. In the career services office, we offer online interest inventories and assessments. Since I am a fan of The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, we offer MBTI training and workshops for our students, which gives them insight into their preferences and strengths.
Students should understand that college is an opportunity they may never have again to try new things and make mistakes without serious consequences. Those who think they want to be journalists should get involved with their student newspaper, and those interested in public life should join their student government association. There are tools available to research and identify skills and interests.
At Eastern, it's all about experiential education. We want our students to try new things and have different experiences. We advocate experiential education because we realize that life discoveries occur when students are involved and engaged in new activities and are learning more about themselves as individuals.
Jill Randolph: When using Myers-Briggs, do you recommend that students answer questions based on their personal life or based on their work life?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: Rather than coach them, I tell them to read and follow the directions because the assessment is intended to provide a true indication of the student's actual thoughts and feelings, whatever they may be. I always tell them to take their time, read carefully, and answer everything honestly. They shouldn't overthink it; they should answer the questions honestly.
Making decisions based on type and preferences is really important. I meet students all the time who are pursing biology because their parents want them to go to medical school. Many of these students are going to end up miserable and their GPA will indicate if they are not truly interested in biology.
Jill Randolph: Do you have any career related books or websites that you recommend to your students?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: We have an extensive career library on campus with hundreds of great books. This generation may not pick up a book, but it is here for them if they are interested. My favorite is still What Color Is Your Parachute? It is the bible of career counseling and development for me. I usually don't suggest books to students because most think they already have enough to read. The Job Coach for Young Professionals, which has been popular lately, is interesting and designed for the millennial population in that it is very interactive and creative.
We literally have thousands of links on our career services website, and we try to package them on website pages related to industry majors or areas of interest.
Jill Randolph: What are the most common mistakes students make when approaching their job search?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: Procrastination and a general lack of preparedness are the most common mistakes. The job search starts with self-assessment. Job seekers need to be able to articulate their interests, skills and accomplishments in their resumes and cover letters.
Being proactive is also important. Going to Monster.com once a week is not enough. We recommend using the Internet because it has some wonderful tools that provide a comprehensive search, but students also have to remember that the Internet only shows a small percentage of available opportunities.
Students can't wait for companies to advertise their positions, because then they will be in a giant pool of candidates. Instead, they should make target lists of the industries they think they may enjoy working in and start making connections.
Lastly and most importantly is networking. I tell students to put it on their calendar as if it were a graduation requirement. They should attend campus events, even if they aren't career fairs or job search related. We host alumni picnics, happy hours, and general networking events. We encourage students to attend and meet people at these events because jobs and job opportunities can come from alumni as well.
We have started posting success stories on our website as well. We interview students who have used career services and then tell how it helped them, which will hopefully encourage other students to use our services.
One student who attended our fall career fair met an employer from the local utility company. She and the recruiter hit it off, and the following semester the woman called the student to tell her that the company had created a summer human resources internship specifically for her. She worked there full-time last summer, was compensated nicely, and started paying off some student loans. She graduated this May with a full-time offer with that company.
Jill Randolph: How has the job market changed over the past year? Have you seen any signs of improvement?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: There's no denying that the job market is pretty rotten based on national statistics, survey results, and unemployment stats. However, here on our campus, I have not noticed it, to be honest. We had a career fair recently and sold 59 tables, which was twice as many as the same fair in the fall. Last year, we posted an average of 12 new positions every week on our site and that number has risen to 14 this semester.
We have a strong reputation in Connecticut, and our graduate placement rate is consistently over 90 percent, so the data here is strong. The numbers we see may be due to the quality of our graduates and the hard work of our career center, or it may be that the economy is not as bad as we perceive in Connecticut.
There has been a shift in where the jobs are located. In the past, many our students in sociology, psychology, and social work found jobs working for the state, including the State Department of Children and Family, the State Department of Mental Retardation and the State Department of Corrections. However, the state budget crisis has curtailed hiring in those agencies. Recently, the state has begun to outsource those positions and programs to large human services organizations, so students are being hired for the same jobs with similar job titles through a different employer and with a lower salary.
Jill Randolph: When it comes to negotiation, do you have any resources that you recommend to help determine if an offer is good or not?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: I always encourage everyone to negotiate, because it's free and it is a two-way street. It is important to be prepared, so students need to research and find the market rate for the position they are seeking. There are a couple of great websites, including Salary.com and Salaryguide.com, while Monster and CareerBuilder offer different kinds of salary calculation tools.
Secondly, students need to be aware of their market value relative to the position. They need to balance the responsibilities and requirements in terms of their education, skills and experience. Once they resolve how their capabilities measure up to the needs of the company, the negotiation process can begin to take shape. The negotiation is a conversation, so it's acceptable and appropriate for them to approach the subject and ask for more money, just as it is acceptable for the employer to offer the position as it is.
Jill Randolph: Do most students generally overvalue their starting salary?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: It can be risky when they haven't researched or they don't have a reasonable sense of self-knowledge and self-worth. There are great discrepancies between industries and fields, and students and graduates need to be aware of these. For example, our highest paid graduates tend to be from our computer science program and the lowest paid graduates are typically those pursuing human services fields. Learning these trends is another area where research is critical.
Jill Randolph: Aside from talking to career offices or people in their field, how can students make educated guesses regarding the salary they request?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: Graduates have to understand the current state of the economy. I remind students not to take it personally if they have trouble finding a job, because it happens to everyone.
They also need to remember that their first job probably won't be the one they will have for their entire career. It may not be their dream job, but it's an opportunity and they have to capitalize on that, learn as much as they can, bring as much to it as they can, and position themselves to be able to negotiate the salary or opportunity they truly want when the market turns around.
Jill Randolph: What advice do you give to students regarding traditional versus social networking?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: Students in their twenties need to remember that the people who are hiring are in their forties. To people in their forties, networking means using traditional methods such as talking on the phone, meeting after work, getting together for lunch, participating in local conferences, joining professional associations. It's a very interpersonal form of networking and many of these recruiters are not hiring on Facebook or MySpace, and are not Tweeting.
Students need to look for balance. The technology tools are useful and since they are comfortable and adept with them, they can be good tools for networking as well. However, students need to reach their target audience, the recruiting generation, who are using other, more interpersonal forms of networking. The best approach is a comprehensive or balanced approach, meaning students who use social networking websites should also employ traditional networking methods, such as attending events like job fairs and industry meetings.
Networking and face-to-face communication are important because employers can tell if students are a good fit for their company based on their presentation and the conversations they have with people in the company. Even the best-written resumes and cover letters don't have the impact of face-to-face communication. Students can use social networking, but they need to consider supplementing it with traditional or what they may consider "old-fashioned" networking.
Jill Randolph: How has the job search process changed from the past, and how has it stayed the same?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: It is interesting, because it seems to be reverting to the old methods. In the past decade, everyone was excited about online technology. People love the posting sites and the fantastic search engines online, but I don't think they work as well in the current market.
Recruiters say they are receiving 500 to 700 resume submissions a day on their sites, so the factors that used to be important are going to become necessary again, such as job fairs, networking and recruiter campus visits. It is more cost effective for recruiters to come to campus and meet students then it is to process the thousands of resumes they receive each month.
Jill Randolph: There are currently many unemployed people applying to jobs, including those for which they may be overqualified. What do you recommend that students highlight about themselves in order to outshine the competition?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: Over the past year, we have been encouraging students to create a more functional resume that highlights their skill sets and qualifications, rather than simply job titles and experience. In the end, employers need candidates to be excellent and they don't care where they became excellent.
It's not the context of the experience and the accomplishments, it's the skills gained or developed in the achievements. In the past, we encouraged adults and alumni to create functional resumes, but now we want adults to sell their solid work history and undergraduates to sell their core skill-set gained through their liberal arts education.
Jill Randolph: How can students who are interested in out-of-state opportunities outshine other applicants?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: We are lucky because we are a state university and 90 percent of our alumni stay in Connecticut and are able to meet their prospective employers. However, for students who want to move out-of-state after graduation, networking is the best way to find connections.
People can find opportunities for networking online through job posting sites or company sites themselves, but they must be proactive in connecting with the people working for those particular organizations. It can be more time consuming to do the research and networking, but it is more fruitful. If students invest their time in being proactive and in reaching out, they are more likely to be noticed.
Jill Randolph: Have you heard of any employers who are specifically looking for reverse chronological or traditional resumes?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: No, in fact, one of the largest employment sectors in Connecticut is the insurance industry and one of the largest companies is Aetna. In Hartford alone, Aetna employs 6,000 people. The company held an information session on-campus a couple of months ago, which was attended by 90 students from different majors.
Aetna's recruiting professionals and college relations spokesman told our students exactly what I had been telling them, that they need to highlight their leadership, communication and problem solving skills and experience, not necessarily their job titles. That was an affirmation for me when someone from the work world said exactly what I had been saying.
One representative reminded students that leadership experience does not have to mean 10 years of management work history. A leadership role in a student organization or a community service project is attractive to employers as well.
Jill Randolph: Do you recommend that students list specific skills along with their soft skills when composing their resumes?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: This is where good formatting helps. People can have a summary of qualifications at the top of their resume, which highlights the top six or seven hard and soft skills. They can add context through definitions or descriptions of work history. They can also use formatting to create a header that includes leadership skills and experience.
No one expects a college graduate's resume to have a lot of professional work experience, but any examples that demonstrate their leadership or creativity are helpful. It's about articulating their experience to show transferable skills or qualitative results. There is an art to it, but when it's done well, it is quite effective.
Jill Randolph: Should students alter their resume style or format depending on they job?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: Yes. Business, accounting and economics students pursuing corporate America should use a very traditional resume style format.
The real area of growth today for our graduates is in the non-profit sector. Students are interested in social service agencies, community based organizations, and NGOs. Employers from these fields respond to uniquely styled resumes, where students highlight project-based and transferable skills, rather than work history.
Jill Randolph: What is the most unusual interview question that you have been asked or heard asked of a student?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: One of my favorites, which I ask students in mock interviews, is "If we gave you ten million dollars to design your own career center, staff it, and provide all the resources, where would you begin, what would it look like, and what would your priorities be?" That is an interesting way to approach how people would perform if they were given more than ample resources to accomplish a goal.
When I answer that question myself, I think of the number of career counselors and employer relations specialists I could employ with the money. Students, however, always talk about what the facilities would look like, how big the space would be, and all the technology it would include.
Another favorite that I heard from a student was, "Tell me about the worst professor you have ever had and how you still managed to earn a strong grade?"
Jill Randolph: How should a student answer that question?
Nancy DeCrescenzo: From an employer's perspective, that question is layered. It delves into interpersonal skills, relationship building, and tolerance and diversity issues. The ability to succeed despite the lack of a strong relationship addresses the applicant's problem-solving abilities and more importantly, it demonstrates if they are able to learn from difficult situations.
.Employers look for quick learners who take something from every experience, whether it's positive or negative. If students can talk about their abilities and show that they can work with all people in diverse environments and also be flexible, employers will look on them positively.
