Alumni career services is a rapidly evolving field, and newbies and experts alike face no shortage of questions. We compiled this list of alumni career services best practices and strategies to help you get results for your school.
1) An overview of a top-notch alumni career services program at Marquette University
Marquette is a model for every school. They integrate alumni relations and career services seamlessly—and even make sure that advancement priorities are represented in their engagement strategies.
They run a top-notch mentoring program and know how to reach different segments of alumni best. Marquette really does have everything down to a science, and that's something we can all learn from. Read more.
"The bottom line is, alumni want to support students through mentoring, which is why the program has a 90% retention rate annually for mentors and 100% of participants share they would recommend the program to fellow alumni and students."
2) Making mentorship work at Northwestern
Everyone is abuzz about mentoring programs, and that hype sometimes clouds the difficulties and intricacies of actually running one. But alumni-student and alumni-alumni mentoring is still the cornerstone of many alumni career services strategies. It builds alumni affinity and cultivates career opportunities for students and young alumni at the same time, and it can be implemented at almost any school.
We interviewed Northwestern about the nuts and bolts of their alumni mentorship program to find out exactly how they've made it a success. They offer concrete advice and questions that every school should ask itself before launching its own mentoring initiative. Read more.
3) The synergy between career services and alumni affairs at Yeshiva University
Marc Goldman has been in career services for decades, and he's learned over the years how to work with his colleagues in alumni relations. The relationship between the two offices is especially strong at Yeshiva, so we asked Marc to explain how he leverages that partnership. Read more.
"Alumni gain goodwill and good feelings from helping students, but we want to be able to help alumni in return too. When there are alumni-to-alumni programs, and we play a part in those, they benefit even more."
4) Coaching students and alumni to success at The University of Cincinnati
No matter how advanced our technology or broad our networks, one-on-one coaching will never go away. But it can be time and resource intensive, so it's important to get it right.
Melanie Buford is a master at coaching students and alumni through career uncertainties and the Great Unknown that looms large after graduation. She offers insightful, human advice for coaching constituents to success. Read more.
5) How the University of Tennessee provides alumni career services for 365,000 alumni
Delivering career services to alumni at scale is an enormous challenge. The University of Tennessee has learned how to balance the need for traditional one-on-one coaching with broader strategies that reach their entire alumni population. Read more.
"The best asset we have is our alumni base. By creating a culture of alumni career services, we will be able to serve and engage our alumni. These services will touch every point of the alumni life cycle."