UNC Alumni provide connections

Within the past year, the collaboration between University Career Services and the General Alumni Association has increased in a number of ways with a significant impact.

Prior to now, these two campus programs dealt with students and alumni independently.

But they soon realized that was not the most effective process available to them.

“We have learned that the best way to serve students — including present, past and future — is by helping them to partner up and network among each other,” said Linda Conklin, manager of Alumni Career Services.

The newest project that these two University programs are collaborating on includes the development of an expanded database, which consists of 7,200 alumni volunteers.

The individuals included in this database are willing to provide their personal business information.

This enables students to access specific internships and job opportunities through an alumni-based connection that they might not have otherwise.

Some more refined search options have worked to streamline the process of searching for specific companies, making it much simpler to find companies.

These search options include the company, job title, career code and location.

In addition to the online access that connects students and alumni, University Career Services and the General Alumni Association are also cooperating together in coordinating face-to-face interaction among alumni and current students.

For example, the New York Interview Day was planned to offer students the opportunity to receive personal interviews with businesses where University alumni have been actively involved.

The two-day trip provided just enough time for students to establish contact for an ongoing relationship with alumni.

Students can continue to communicate with alumni, seeking more connections for potential  future careers.

In addition to the New York trip, University Career Services has ongoing plans for future long-distance events, said Tim Stiles, associate director of University Career Services.

These events include job fairs and alumni-student conventions in other larger cities along the East Coast, including Washington, D.C., Charlotte and Atlanta.

The underlying purpose for the collaboration between University Career Services and the General Alumni Association is to establish better communication between students and alumni.

The two groups also aim to improve outreach in order to help students find additional job opportunities.

“Essentially, the University Career Services’ job is to help students have access to internships and jobs, while the General Alumni Association’s main purpose is to capitalize on these opportunities,”  Conklin said.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.