Career Services The Professional Network: Enhancing Your
Partnership with Your Alumni Association
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Career Services Christopher H. Jansmann Manager, Information
Technology University of Arizona Career Services Joined staff in
2005 15+ Years of Development 2 Bio
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Career Services Identifying the Need The Hidden Legion Why the
Professional Network? A Brief History of Time Past relationship
with Alumni Association The call that changed everything Modify,
Test, Modify Taking the long road The Forms Editor Can Be Your
Friend! Getting The Word Out Marketing Made Difficult Pre-internet
Alumni Future Directions And Worries 3 Agenda For Today
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Career Services IDENTIFYING THE NEED 4
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Career Services One of the best methods for locating a position
is peer-to-peer networking Alumni a fantastic resource for students
Constant stream of Alumni volunteering to mentor students Students
looking for mentors 1990s Solution: Alumni Referral Service Managed
by Career Services, with limited assistance from Alumni Association
Alumni indicated major, year of grad, what they wished to mentor
Students asked for list of alumni that fit their needs
Spreadsheets! Really? Really? 5 What Was The Problem?
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Career Services Alumni Association unexpectedly dropped support
for referral service Dropped existing system in favor of
off-the-shelf online community Restricted to alumni only Students
unable to match to Alumni without becoming associate members
Referrals withered away to zero Career Services forced to suspend
the service entirely Time for a better option 6 What Was The
Problem?
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Career Services What is this little module called Professional
Network? Caught our attention Search across all sorts of criteria,
including profession, location and even major while at the UA Hey!
This thing could connect employers with students! Better yet, what
if we expanded it to our alumni? Decided this could be a great
self-service networking tool But we needed Alumni in the system
Reached out to the Alumni Association 7 Enter CSM (2007?)
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Career Services 8
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME 9
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Career Services Tried for many years to deepen relationship
with Alumni Association Alumni Association was not exactly on board
with the notion of their members working with our students
Unwilling to give Alumni services from us that were free Faith in
existing vendor system Thanks, but no thanks 10 They Like Us
NOT
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Career Services Decided to temporarily shelve the Professional
Network Re-evaluated how best to make it work Not in favor of
employer-to-student connections Feasibility of network restricted
to just UA students and alumni? Recast as a peer-to-peer system?
Continued to refine the concept and build some possible marketing
for it But to launch without the support of the Alumni Association
11 Back To The Drawing Board
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Career Services 12
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Career Services Unexpected Phone call to our Director New
Alumni Association Executive ChchChanges! Dropping vendor system
Wish to deepen relationship with Career Services Desire to
marketing existing Career Services tools and services to Alumni And
Looking for some way to connect Alumni to Students Create a method
for alumni to contribute to campus in non-financial way Side
benefit: Wildcats hiring Wildcats? 13 Fast Forward to 2009
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Career Services 14
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Career Services MODIFY, TEST, MODIFY 15
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Career Services literally! Nine months of meetings! Constant
dialogue with the Alumni Association Hammered out what the network
should and shouldnt do Who should and shouldnt have access What
sorts of information would be available and/or searchable within
the network Screen Changes Really? Association had some valid
adjustments to the screens. The Form Builder to the rescue! Tools
-> System Settings -> ProNet Must have Forms access security
Note we made our changes before the network had been turned on for
students 16 Birth of a Concept
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Career Services The Tools Menu Must have the appropriate rights
on your account; please see your administrator for details 17
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Career Services System Settings ProNet Module must be turned on
in order to appear for managers; may be turned on/off for students
& employers 18
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Career Services At the time, the mentor/mentee login interface
did not exist Tactical Decision - turned off the option for
employers to participate in Network But what about Alumni
recruiters? Glad you asked Opened access to alumni and students 19
General Settings We Chose
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Career Services Original profile fields for ProNet seemed more
social than professional Input from Alumni Association Areas of
Interest On-campus groups (Greek Life, Athletics) Career
Information Volunteering Options Rearrangement/Reordering
Refinement of assistive text Tip blurbs Help screens 20 Changes to
Forms
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Career Services Several items that we wanted on the forms were
from other parts of CSM Academic Information Student/Alumni Flag
Contacted CSM Support and asked for fields to be added to ProNet
forms Not custom fields we could create or add or duplicate Fields
also had to be added to the advanced search screen within ProNet
Have to recheck these additions after each CSM update Alumni
Association requested that the default screen be hidden in favor of
the Advanced Search 21 Customizations
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Career Services Form Builder Must have this security access
22
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Career Services Forms for Professional Network Mentee =
Students or Alumni Mentor = Employer (if using) Manger Interface =
Career Center View 23
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Career Services Form Builder Mentee Interface Rearranged the
fields in the order agreed upon Added custom fields where desired
CSM Support added existing profile/academic fields 24
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Career Services After rough draft was created, select group of
Alumni Chapter Presidents were asked to give it a test drive
Collected feedback after a month + of access Issues Pre-1988 Alumni
had different (and more difficult) path into system Search function
usability issues The Black Hole of Interested 25 Testing The
Concept
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Career Services Worked with Association and Chapter Presidents
to refine online help Added podcast on What Is The UA Career
Network Adjusted the landing page and simplified the language Added
new downloadable PDFs with 1-2-3 workflow steps Enhanced Tip blurbs
and Help within CSM Adjusted forms again Dropped fields that were
felt to be non-useful after the testing Added additional career
fields (prior to the CSM update that did this) Second round of
testing with Chapter Presidents Success! 26 Refinements
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Career Services Career Network Front Page in CSM Co-branded
with Alumni Association Addition of Tip text, with links to more
resources for users 27
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Career Services GETTING THE WORD OUT 28
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Career Services Renamed the Professional Network UA Career
Network Alumni Association wanted UA Alumni Career Network Crafted
the Campaign First step: get Alumni into the system. Then, add
students. Multi-pronged web, email, print outreach, co-branded with
Association Insert in early summer edition of Alumni magazine
Worked with Association to send out email blast to 30,000 + alumni
who had current email; included initial login information for
pre-1988 grads Prepared for Technical Support Issues Career
Services agreed to be the lead; trained staff on ProNet and most
likely suite of problem areas based on testing Goal: 1,000 users by
December, 2010 29 Creating the Marketing Plan
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Career Services Unusually low response from Alumni Less than
200 accounts in two months despite repeated outreach, both by
Career Services and Association Targeted blast to Alumni Recruiters
added 50 more to the system Tough concept that didnt stick Refined
plan, specifically targeting recent alumni: added 150 accounts 30
Results from Campaign
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Career Services FUTURE DIRECTIONS 31
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Career Services Pre-1988 Alumni did not wish to tackle the
steps needed to register (and verify their identity) Often did not
know their Matric number or Student ID Unwilling to call for
help/assistance Lack of response from members Mentees not seeking
mentors? Not being asked to step up based on volunteering areas
selected More recent Alumni had other options besides UA Career
Network Facebook LinkedIn 32 Barriers (Perceived or Otherwise)
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Career Services Just as we finally hit our stride, LinkedIn
became the place for networking Easier to access No account
verifications Massive (100,000+) amount of UA Alumni already
registered Part of culture Recent Enhancements to ProNet Helped
Able to link to LinkedIn profile or Facebook LinkedIn not
bi-directional 33 Timing Is Everything
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Career Services Grueling three year process Currently 1,697
users (706 Alumni) Modest traffic More Changes! Alumni Association
President moved on New President not entirely on board with concept
because LinkedIn is much more attractive To students, alumni and
employers Outside our control no real way to verify identities
Repositioning of System? Possibly keep it as an exclusive UA
peer-to-peer system Tie into academic programs require as part of
classwork; pilot with Arizona Assurance Scholars Program 34 Where
Do We Go From Here?
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Career Services Q&A 35
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Career Services
career.arizona.edu/presentations/the-professional-network 36
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