Building Industry Expertise in Career Centers To Better Support Job Seekers

How well can career coaches advise students about an industry if they don't have deep knowledge of how that industry hires?

That was the question that Kate Rockey-Harris, senior director of the NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development, and Victoria DiMonica, senior associate director, asked as they looked at how to better support their students. Applicants need to be able to "demonstrate their unique value within specific industries" to be successful, so to better prepare students in this job search landscape, the center transitioned its staff of 17 generalist career coaches into industry professionals. Here is how they did it and how you can apply their methods to your own job search approach.

Assess Your Team's Knowledge

Wasserman's career coaching team includes coaches with a range of experience, from two years to more than 30 years of experience. The coaches come from a variety of educational backgrounds, including business, design, communications, English, psychology, and government. Some have graduate degrees. Some have professional backgrounds in counseling, teaching, human resources, nonprofits, and public relations.

Staff were each assigned one of eight industry areas to focus on, including:

* Arts, Entertainment, and Culture * Business, Finance, and Consulting * Education, Nonprofit, and Human Services * Government, Public Policy, and Law * Healthcare and Health Sciences * Life Sciences and Sustainability * Media, Marketing, and Communications * Technology, Engineering, and Data

To figure out what level and type of training was needed, Rockey-Harris and DiMonica surveyed their career coaches to assess their level of industry-specific knowledge as well as their comfort level in providing industry-specific career guidance to students.

The survey revealed that "75% of staff felt they needed industry training and 50% felt somewhat uncomfortable or unsure about giving industry-specific career guidance."

Develop a Research Strategy

Rockey-Harris and DiMonica tailored self-paced training plans for their team that utilized "multiple learning methods and activities relevant for junior to experienced staff members."

Below is a month-by-month breakdown of what each segment of this training entailed.

* Month one: The coaches "explored internal resources available to students on [NYU Wasserman's] career platform" as well as external career resources specific to their industry. * Month two: Coaches generated a list of top employers currently hiring in their assigned industry. They also researched job/internship recruitment timelines and determined when jobs are most likely to be posted. They learned entry-level job titles specific to their industry and followed the top employers on LinkedIn. * Month three: The coaches identified the common required skills to enter their industry and sub-industries and identified relevant campus partners and industry-specific student clubs.

Reassess Knowledge

At the end of the three months, a follow-up survey found that, after completing the program, "79% of staff members felt comfortable or very comfortable giving industry-specific career guidance to students." The staff now had a "deep understanding of their industry recruitment timelines, common job titles, and most desirable companies for employment."

The coaches also expressed an interest in continuing to learn more in the future, which led Wasserman to embed a "continuous bi-weekly learning structure for staff to deepen their awareness of evolving industry trends and enhance the impact of their career guidance," said Rockey-Harris and DiMonica.

Takeaways for Job Seekers

If you are a job seeker embarking on the job search process without the benefit of a strong industry expert to guide you, you can use the model outlined above to tailor your own self-paced research approach. Set your timeline and create incremental goals for yourself so that you can tangibly track your progress. Replace "explore internal resources available to students on [NYU Wasserman's] career platform" with "explore resources available to you." Resources could include job boards, alumni networks, professional associations, etc.

Depending on your current level of knowledge, your goals may be different from the ones above. For example, if you're already familiar with recruitment timelines, you can skip that step. But the monthly goals above provide good guidance for the steps you'd need to take to become an expert job seeker in your field.

Once you have achieved your initial learning objectives, you'll want to take some time to reflect on your journey and ask yourself the following questions:

* Do you feel ready to embark on a successful job search within your specific areas of higher education? * Are there additional things you still need to learn? * How can you continue to grow your knowledge in this area in the future?

Rockey-Harris and DiMonica also offered the following reminders of general job-seeking tips:

* Tailor your resume to the specific position. * Research and become highly familiar with your particular area of higher ed. * Practice networking and building connections. * Look for trends in the current higher ed market and expand search options to align with transferable skills. Think both of skills unique to your area and also the competencies that are in high demand across higher education. For more information about this, consider reviewing the NACE Career Ready Competencies. * Create a job search strategy, re-evaluate, and tailor it consistently based on response rate. * Take the time to connect and meet with people, particularly those who currently hold roles like the ones you want.

In Conclusion

The job market has changed. Job seekers need to up their game and build more area-specific knowledge. The Wasserman model for turning generalist career coaches into industry experts offers insights into how institutions can develop deeper industry expertise within their own career coaching teams. Its approach also provides a strong framework that can be adapted to help job seekers.

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