Career Services Training in Social Media

Career Services Training

Career Services professionals who help students and graduates find jobs have been challenged lately.  Finding a job has become more challenging than it has ever been in the last few decades.  In fact, in 2011, a new all-time high had been reached when the Department of Labor reported that the average duration of unemployment had peaked at slightly over 10 months!  With the economy as poor as it has been, job seekers outnumbering job openings, and the average duration of unemployment having reached an all-time high, career services professionals in the college setting who help students find jobs have had it rough.  To add to these challenges, social media has completely changed recruiting, job searching, networking, personal branding, student engagement, employer engagement, marketing, and so many other aspects of career development and career services strategies.  These changes are so rapid, many career services professionals have not been able to catch up.  It’s safe to say that the past few years have been a whirlwind for career services staff.  It has almost been the perfect storm.  Because of the significance social media has on career development, career services professionals need training to ensure they know how to leverage social media to achieve their goals.  Moreover, career services professionals need training in social media if they wish to begin training students in effective use of social media for career development.

Developing a Social Media Strategy for Career Services

As a former career services director, I prioritized training my staff in social media.  I spent lots of time training them on personal branding and understanding the strategies that determine how the tools should be used.  I found that it was fairly easy to learn new tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus but what was hard for people to grasp was how to use these, and other tools with purpose.  What was the strategy behind the tools and what were the goals trying to be achieved?  This is what career services professionals need to learn.  This led me to develop an online course on developing a social media strategy for career services. I wrote the online course while I was a career services Director and little did I know it was the introduction to a new career with MaxKnowledge, Inc.

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