Career Services & Alumni Relations at RU

[ScarletKid2008]

The topic came up in another thread and I have had the discussion with many current and former RU students on the topic of career services at RU.

Seems like many, many people feel like this dept (if it even exists centrally or for separate professional schools i.e. business, engineering, etc) has not been helpful or even has attempted to help provide resources, advice, connections, job/internship opportunities.

In my opinion, this needs to be fixed ASAP. This should be one of the strongest departments at the school. The purpose of getting a degree should be getting a job. The school needs to do a better job in communicating this and providing a more fulfilling customer experience. I understand not every student will be happy or find a job. But everyone should fee like the school has at least provided the resources and help to do so.

Personally I attended the business school undergrad and thought the career services was excellent. They provided us with many internship opportunities in an organized and clear way to follow.

I would like to hear other people's experiences both good and bad.

 

[PhilaPhans]

I went for undergrad from '01-'05.

I never used career services. I never knew about any programs or counseling that career services provided. Etc.

I would love if the department was strengthened for helping people find and prep for their internships, careers, etc. I don't think it's a money thing. I just think it'd be organizational and communication issues that would need strengthened. Reach out to alums at different businesses to get internships and whatnot set up.

I think more students should take advantage if/when they offer resume/CV/etc help as well.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Just want to mention that I'll be watching this thread with interest and interjecting where I can. I am on the student advisory board for Rutgers University Career Services. http://careers.rutgers.edu/

Any suggestions, concerns, etc., I will take to the next meeting.

Seems like many, many people feel like this dept (if it even exists centrally or for separate professional schools i.e. business, engineering, etc) has not been helpful or even has attempted to help provide resources, advice, connections, job/internship opportunities.

Personally I attended the business school undergrad and thought the career services was excellent. They provided us with many internship opportunities in an organized and clear way to follow.

From my knowledge, the business school has its own undergrad career services, at least partially.

 

[ScarletKid2008]

Thanks @Sir ScarletKnight

Couple things in my opinion which are easy, cost effective fixes: (correct me if these exist already)

1. Career services should be centralized and consistent - one website, one dept that oversees the whole thing. Perhaps business school and engineering or others also have their own people but everything should confirm and report up to one dept.

2. A standard resume template and do's & donts should be provided on this single website . Along with other job search resources and templates and tips.

3. All students from all departments at RU should be able to search the same job board to see all the opportunities available (internships & full-time). Understanding employers may only want students with certain degree types filtered out so I'm sure that you can restrict those others from applying but they should still be able to see the job postings.

4. Perhaps the most important is communication of these resources to the student body. From day 1 they should be told this is their golden key to a job. And it should be repeated over and over agin throughout their career at RU. Perhaps posting scores stories on the website to give them an idea /hope as well.

5. Career services must be vilgant in constantly being out there and creating connections in the job market to recruit at RU. Reaching out to alumns, human resource departments, etc to get them on campus and make jobs available for RU students. Career services should be coming up with new leads and new job postings CONSTANTLY. in fact that should be several people's full time jobs if they aren't already.

... I have more recommendations and would love to explore this further if people are up for the conversation and have specific experiences to add. Again I personally benefitted from career services and it jump started my career. But my wife who also attended RU, did not know anything about it. And really struggled for a couple years post school because of that. So I think it's key for students to be engaged with career services beginning as early as spring of sophomore year and no later than spring of junior year.

Just want to mention that I'll be watching this thread with interest and interjecting where I can. I am on the student advisory board for Rutgers University Career Services. http://careers.rutgers.edu/

Any suggestions, concerns, etc., I will take to the next meeting.



From my knowledge, the business school has its own undergrad career services, at least partially.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Thanks @Sir ScarletKnight

Couple things in my opinion which are easy, cost effective fixes: (correct me if these exist already)

1. Career services should be centralized and consistent - one website, one dept that oversees the whole thing. Perhaps business school and engineering or others also have their own people but everything should confirm and report up to one dept.

2. A standard resume template and do's & donts should be provided on this single website . Along with other job search resources and templates and tips.

3. All students from all departments at RU should be able to search the same job board to see all the opportunities available (internships & full-time). Understanding employers may only want students with certain degree types filtered out so I'm sure that you can restrict those others from applying but they should still be able to see the job postings.

4. Perhaps the most important is communication of these resources to the student body. From day 1 they should be told this is their golden key to a job. And it should be repeated over and over agin throughout their career at RU. Perhaps posting scores stories on the website to give them an idea /hope as well.

5. Career services must be vilgant in constantly being out there and creating connections in the job market to recruit at RU. Reaching out to alumns, human resource departments, etc to get them on campus and make jobs available for RU students. Career services should be coming up with new leads and new job postings CONSTANTLY. in fact that should be several people's full time jobs if they aren't already.

... I have more recommendations and would love to explore this further if people are up for the conversation and have specific experiences to add. Again I personally benefitted from career services and it jump started my career. But my wife who also attended RU, did not know anything about it. And really struggled for a couple years post school because of that. So I think it's key for students to be engaged with career services beginning as early as spring of sophomore year and no later than spring of junior year.

You may consider your experiences counted, please continue when you have time. i can guarantee that it will be brought up.

 

[srru86]

For the internet this is ancient history. But for changing the workforce at a university this is current events. I don't know what, if any outcome came of the suit. But it suggests somebody made the case to Barchi that a shake up was in order.
NY Times June 2013
Pushed Out of a Job Early
4 Sue after losing Career Services jobs at RU.
Read down the Admin knew there were problems other than mediocre bureaucrats. Hopefully they are moving forward with more changes.

On the Alumni Relations fronts there has been some leadership changes also. Creating the centralized RUAA and taking the authority from self interested independents like the Douglass group that are still pursing legal action might not mean RU is getting it right, but they are trying to make changes.

 

[retired711]

The thought of centralizing everything in one department is tempting; but it is too typical of Rutgers at its worst. The law schools and business schools are doing at least reasonably well with their own career service operations, and I doubt that merging everything into one big office would be useful.

 

[rurichdog]

The thought of centralizing everything in one department is tempting; but it is too typical of Rutgers at its worst. The law schools and business schools are doing at least reasonably well with their own career service operations, and I doubt that merging everything into one big office would be useful.

Good for them, but it would be useful to the rest of the undergrads if those career services superstars could lend their knowledge / pixie dust / whatever to the rest of the folks who work in career services too. I got a grouch who handed me a dusty flyer for How To Write A Resume and that was it. Not a very welcoming experience & I certainly never went back.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Good for them, but it would be useful to the rest of the undergrads if those career services superstars could lend their knowledge / pixie dust / whatever to the rest of the folks who work in career services too. I got a grouch who handed me a dusty flyer for How To Write A Resume and that was it. Not a very welcoming experience & I certainly never went back.

Rich, when was this?

 

[rurichdog]

Rich, when was this?

1999. I was also a Cook student, and as a group we were looked down upon by the Rutgers administration and got most of our support through Cook's own structure. They didn't have their own career services dept but the faculty and department heads had their own machinations for (somewhat) helping Cook students get career & internship help.

 

[RUseaweed]

Not to derail the conversation too much, but this point upsets me because it is emblematic of New Brunswick Today's campaign of crapping on the university at every turn - regardless of the merit of the complaint or how old the story.

I wanted to know more about the case and see if it had moved forward. The most recent article (newer than when the lawsuit was originally filed in 2013) is an article from New Brunswick today that says "Employment Discrimination Lawsuit Proceeds" and was written in 2014. The article then has absolutely zero information about how the lawsuit has actually moved forward and just repeats every point from the 2013 NYT article.

http://newbrunswicktoday.com/articl...oceeds-against-rutgers-presidents-chief-staff

Any comment @charlie4change would be appreciated.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

1999. I was also a Cook student, and as a group we were looked down upon by the Rutgers administration and got most of our support through Cook's own structure. They didn't have their own career services dept but the faculty and department heads had their own machinations for (somewhat) helping Cook students get career & internship help.

Ah. I can't help you there. That was before the colleges really even merged.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

The thought of centralizing everything in one department is tempting; but it is too typical of Rutgers at its worst. The law schools and business schools are doing at least reasonably well with their own career service operations, and I doubt that merging everything into one big office would be useful.

I'm going to agree with you, to a point. I think they should be acting more "under the umbrella" of RU Career Services, rather than centralized. Give them the resources of a university-wide career services, without taking away that specialized knowledge. (These are just my thoughts, I have no actual knowledge on how any of that works.)

As alumni, have any of you been contacted by Career Services to act as a mentor? http://careers.rutgers.edu/userfiles/files/SACC_Instructions_Mentor.pdf

What are your thoughts on the alumni resources?
http://careers.rutgers.edu/section.cfm?section_id=10

 

[retired711]

Reminds me of when they merged law school fund-raising with general fund-raising. The central administration had little idea of how to do law school fund-raising, and the consequence was to take away some techniques (like having volunteer law students and faculty call alums rather than having it done by undergrads in New Brunswick) that had worked effectively for us.

 

[rurichdog]

Ah. I can't help you there.

Sounds about right for Career Services [winking]

 

[BigRnj]

I'm a RC and GSM grad, wife DC and GSE grad, and 2 sons graduated RU SAS IN '14... All agree Career Services has been virtually invisible. Our dealings have left us with little confidence in their ability to offer any real help/advice, and that is the perception of friends/classmates we have talked to on the subject. I have a son attending a private school right now and his career services are visible and proactive and I'm aware of them as a parent. RU administration needs to address this, our career services are invisible. Current grade = D

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

I'm a RC and GSM grad, wife DC and GSE grad, and 2 sons graduated RU SAS IN '14... All agree Career Services has been virtually invisible. Our dealings have left us with little confidence in their ability to offer any real help/advice, and that is the perception of friends/classmates we have talked to on the subject. I have a son attending a private school right now and his career services are visible and proactive and I'm aware of them as a parent. RU administration needs to address this, our career services are invisible. Current grade = D

What does the private school career services do?

 

[sct1111]

I honestly think that each major or related group of majors should have their own career service specialists. A person advising English majors shouldn't be advising Biology majors. This might mean more employees but Rutgers is a huge university with a lot of majors. It needs to have people whose expertise lies in a particular field advising students in that field.

A person giving out templates for resumes is less than useless for a college student. You need someone who will look at resumes and help edit them according to the fields they are looking to get into. You need employees with connections who are more qualified then the current employees. I feel like Rutgers is just paying poorly qualified employees poorly and just getting poor results.

This will be an investment for Rutgers but it is severely needed.

 

[ScarletKid2008]

Agreed that centralized is probably not the right answer - but meant something along the lines that career services approach, resources, ideas, tips, etc all roll up to a a person who is ultimately responsible for the experience at RU. Students should know of a single place to start and gather some basic resume , job search and interview tips. And there should be a person ready to direct students to the appropriate specialized contact once they are ready to talk to someone and get some basic confusion cleared and understand the job search basics.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

It's worth pointing out that Career Services runs multiple networking events, including the career fair, along with providing resume/job search/interview tips/etc.

You can look through the website here: http://careers.rutgers.edu/

What is missing? How is the website to navigate?

 

[retired711]

Agreed that centralized is probably not the right answer - but meant something along the lines that career services approach, resources, ideas, tips, etc all roll up to a a person who is ultimately responsible for the experience at RU. Students should know of a single place to start and gather some basic resume , job search and interview tips. And there should be a person ready to direct students to the appropriate specialized contact once they are ready to talk to someone and get some basic confusion cleared and understand the job search basics.

It's good to have stuff roll up. The problem is that stuff will also flow downhill from the central administration, and most of that stuff will be crap.

 

[rutgersdave]

Not to derail the conversation too much, but this point upsets me because it is emblematic of New Brunswick Today's campaign of crapping on the university at every turn - regardless of the merit of the complaint or how old the story.

I wanted to know more about the case and see if it had moved forward. The most recent article (newer than when the lawsuit was originally filed in 2013) is an article from New Brunswick today that says "Employment Discrimination Lawsuit Proceeds" and was written in 2014. The article then has absolutely zero information about how the lawsuit has actually moved forward and just repeats every point from the 2013 NYT article.

http://newbrunswicktoday.com/articl...oceeds-against-rutgers-presidents-chief-staff

Any comment @charlie4change would be appreciated.

This is the norm for public companies but they know how to get around age discrimination. They Start giving bad reviews 2-3 years before they plan on terminating the older employees. That happened at my company consistently. One employee was there 30 years and they tried to terminate him but he brought in a lawyer to represent him and he was able to keep his job. Most lose the battle because they don't want to fight.

 

[rutgersdave]

Career Services can not help everyone. You need to learn to help yourself. When I went undergrad, I did get several interviews for internship but they were so competitive that I didn't get one. I didn't handle the interviews very well, my fault. I got my first Job on my own. I started Rutgers Grad school and attended 1 semester but got 2 offers for interviews from fellow students and accepted one of them. The fellow student that helped me later became CFO of the Discovery channel. I had to quit Graduate school due to the travel demands of the job.

After working a few years, getting laid off and using my six months severance(mgnt) to finish Rutgers Grad school, Career services got me about 3-4 job interviews and I received two offers, Nabisco and ATT. I took the ATT but later went back to my old company, Westinghouse Broadcasting.

 

[retired711]

Westinghouse Broadcasting still exists? Wow. I remember it as, I believe, the owner of WINS-1010 New York, whose most famous personality was the dj Murray the K (known as the fifth Beatle because he hung around them so much when they were in New York.) This was before WINS went all-news.

 

[rutgersdave]

Westinghouse Broadcasting still exists? Wow. I remember it as, I believe, the owner of WINS-1010 New York, whose most famous personality was the dj Murray the K (known as the fifth Beatle because he hung around them so much when they were in New York.) This was before WINS went all-news.

I worked at Westinghouse Electric in Audit in the 1980's and later the cable division, the second largest cable company before they were sold in1986. Went back to Westinghouse radio in 1988 which later merged with CBS and later Viacom. I later worked at the all news station in Washington, DC at WTOP AT Bonneville Intl.

 

[retired711]

I worked at Westinghouse Electric in Audit in the 1980's and later the cable division, the second largest cable company before they were sold in1986. Went back to Westinghouse radio in 1988 which later merged with CBS and later Viacom. I later worked at the all news station in Washington, DC at WTOP AT Bonneville Intl.

I remember being a kid in Queens in the 1960s and excited that my AM radio could bring in WTOP reliably at night. I liked "DXing" as it was called, and remember listening to stations as far away as WCCO in Minneapolis. And I listened a lot to WTOP when I lived in Washington for a few years as an adult.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

The next Student Advisory Board meeting is next week. Let me know what you'd like me to bring up!

 

[ScarletKid2008]

The next Student Advisory Board meeting is next week. Let me know what you'd like me to bring up!

Thanks Sir ScarletKnight . Would be appreciated if you just highlighted some of the items mentioned in this discussion. I think plenty of people on this thread, myself included, would be willing to engaged in further discussion on observations regarding the current state and ideas for improving/advancing. Let us know how it goes. If you'd like to engage further in discussion before/after the meeting, feel free to reach out: queenz152002@yahoo.com

 

[FanuSanu52]

Career services (or lack of) was my biggest complaint with Rutgers. I went to one career seminar before choosing my major, and the gist of it was basically "it doesn't matter much what your major is; people pursue all kinds of jobs that have nothing to do with their majors." So I chose a general major that I was interested in academically, but not necessarily career-wise. The economy was still booming at that time, so maybe that advise was good enough for the time, but by the time I graduated, things had come crashing down and I wished I had considered options more carefully.

Beyond that, I never heard a thing from or about career services. I guess I knew it was there on a theoretical level, but it played no actual role in my RU experience.

I think internships should be a mandatory part of every major. The semester I spent interning was more valuable to my career than most of my other classes combined, and I almost didn't do an internship since it wasn't required. Actually, I think two internships should be required to help every student try a couple of things and make connections.

And career services should definitely be more proactive in meeting with every student. They can't hold your hand, but they should at least reach out for it once.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Thanks Sir ScarletKnight . Would be appreciated if you just highlighted some of the items mentioned in this discussion. I think plenty of people on this thread, myself included, would be willing to engaged in further discussion on observations regarding the current state and ideas for improving/advancing. Let us know how it goes. If you'd like to engage further in discussion before/after the meeting, feel free to reach out: queenz152002@yahoo.com

I will definitely let you know how it goes.

Career services (or lack of) was my biggest complaint with Rutgers. I went to one career seminar before choosing my major, and the gist of it was basically "it doesn't matter much what your major is; people pursue all kinds of jobs that have nothing to do with their majors." So I chose a general major that I was interested in academically, but not necessarily career-wise. The economy was still booming at that time, so maybe that advise was good enough for the time, but by the time I graduated, things had come crashing down and I wished I had considered options more carefully.

Beyond that, I never heard a thing from or about career services. I guess I knew it was there on a theoretical level, but it played no actual role in my RU experience.

I think internships should be a mandatory part of every major. The semester I spent interning was more valuable to my career than most of my other classes combined, and I almost didn't do an internship since it wasn't required. Actually, I think two internships should be required to help every student try a couple of things and make connections.

And career services should definitely be more proactive in meeting with every student. They can't hold your hand, but they should at least reach out for it once.

When did you graduate?

 

[ScarletKid2008]

@Sir ScarletKnight

I wanted to revive this thread and see if you had an update?

I feel like this is such an important topic and service at RU to improve the student experience and also better position RU in rankings, etc.

Is there a task force / working group at Rutgers focused on Career Services and making them better? Is there a Head of Career Services with a master plan to make sure every student is aware and benefits from its programs? Is it being funded properly?

 

[RU-ROCS]

I'm a RC and GSM grad, wife DC and GSE grad, and 2 sons graduated RU SAS IN '14... All agree Career Services has been virtually invisible. Our dealings have left us with little confidence in their ability to offer any real help/advice, and that is the perception of friends/classmates we have talked to on the subject. I have a son attending a private school right now and his career services are visible and proactive and I'm aware of them as a parent. RU administration needs to address this, our career services are invisible. Current grade = D

It is certainly not an excuse, but I think because of shear size and funding cutbacks over several years many State U's are lacking in this area. It's hard to compare to a private (probably smaller) University/College. FWIW, my eldest graduated from U. of MD and the career services there were also a joke. Having said that, there is no reason why RU should not address the problem and try to improve these services.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

@Sir ScarletKnight

I wanted to revive this thread and see if you had an update?

I feel like this is such an important topic and service at RU to improve the student experience and also better position RU in rankings, etc.

Is there a task force / working group at Rutgers focused on Career Services and making them better? Is there a Head of Career Services with a master plan to make sure every student is aware and benefits from its programs? Is it being funded properly?

Nothing of note at the moment. I'm a student, so my connections are mostly during the semester. The last time we had a meeting was this Spring, and one of the main items of the meeting was an overhaul of the tech resources at the department. They're working on an overhaul of the career services website, and have overhauled the Careerknight system.

http://careers.rutgers.edu/section.cfm?section_id=10

The director is Rick Hearin, but I think I'd speak to William Jones about current plans to help he department.

http://careers.rutgers.edu/staff.cfm

 

[Leonard23]

Nothing of note at the moment. I'm a student, so my connections are mostly during the semester. The last time we had a meeting was this Spring, and one of the main items of the meeting was an overhaul of the tech resources at the department. They're working on an overhaul of the career services website, and have overhauled the Careerknight system.

http://careers.rutgers.edu/section.cfm?section_id=10

The director is Rick Hearin, but I think I'd speak to William Jones about current plans to help he department.

http://careers.rutgers.edu/staff.cfm

Has anyone reached out to Shawn Tucker to discuss the Rutgers Leadership Academy & how that concept & approach can be more broadly implemented by others throughout the University, most likely by departments/majors? If not, someone needs to yesterday.

 

[Scarlet Pride]

Has anyone reached out to Shawn Tucker to discuss the Rutgers Leadership Academy & how that concept & approach can be more broadly implemented by others throughout the University, most likely by departments/majors? If not, someone needs to yesterday.

The answer is $$$$. The dollar per student spent in that program is no doubt impossible to replicate for all students.

 

[Leonard23]

The answer is $$$$. The dollar per student spent in that program is no doubt impossible to replicate for all students.

Of course $ is an issue but there are likely a bunch of elements of that program that should be implemented & others targeted for implementation with a clear road map & funding goals, etc.