Switchboard's Alumni Career Services Chops

Any decision-maker worth their salt who is considering a product like Switchboard will eventually ask, "What's the ROI? What are your numbers?"

Recently, we've been getting questions specifically about how Switchboard helps students and alumni advance their careers. So our dev team pulled some numbers on career-related posts across all higher ed Switchboards.

The results are clear: Students and alumni trust Switchboard to help them find their next job and plan their careers in the long-term.

Not only that—they also turn to Switchboard to offer their communities career-related help. The majority of career-related posts on Switchboard are offers to lend a hand. Incredible!

# of career-related posts across all switchboards

42% (2999) of posts across all Switchboards are about jobs, internships, advice, or networking.

Breakdown of Career-Related Asks vs. Offers

Of those career-related posts, 44% (1305) are asks and 56% (1694) are offers.

Switchboard helps students, young alumni, and older alumni form intergenerational connections that benefit them and their alma maters. Most career-related asks are posted by students and younger alumni. Most career-related offers are posted by older alumni.

Who Posted Career-related asks

Of those asks, 51% (661) were from current students, 25% (331) were from young alumni, and 24% (304) were from older alumni.

Who posted career-related offers

Of those offers, 11% (192) were from current students, 31% (532) were from young alumni, and 58% (1021) were from older alumni.

As for ROI—yes, Switchboard works.

A full 70% of users who checked in on their career-related posts said they had a good experience after posting.

We also tracked 5513 connections (comments on a post or messages that result from a post) that Switchboard users made as a result of 2999 career-related posts. That's 1.84 connections per post, and there are even more that we can't track—connections made over email, by phone, and in person.

Breakdown of Career-Related Post Outcomes

70% of user check-ins on career-related posts were positive, 24% neutral, and only 6% were negative.

# of Career-Related Posts & Connections

We tracked 5513 connections that users made as a result of 2999 career-related posts. That’s 1.84 connections per career-related post.

These numbers aren't surprising, given the vast array of narrative evidence we've gathered to support the claim that Switchboard works. Alumni and students trust each other to lend a hand, and Switchboard is where they go to find that help.

Not too bad, if we say so ourselves (and we do). But that doesn't mean we can't do better. We're always looking for ways to improve the Switchboard experience for our users and customers. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for big news about a shiny new thing that's already increasing alumni and student engagement on Switchboard by orders of magnitude in beta testing.

Want to know more?

Download our booklet for twenty pages of alumni engagement statistics and solutions.