Official Google Blog: Ordinary citizens, extraordinary videos

Official Google Blog: Ordinary citizens, extraordinary videos

One of the most rewarding things I have ever done...

Don't get me wrong - there have been many rewarding things I have been lucky to be a part of in my life. But I have to say that being a part of the Habitat project and seeing the absolute joy and gratitude on the face of the homeowners made my day! Being able to be a part of this project was the highlight of my conference. Before we started I was tired and cranky and wondering why I volunteered - I quickly discovered that giving back is one of the most energizing things I could have done . Yes it was hot and humid - but it was so invigorating!!

Habitat provides decent affordable housing in communities all over. I cannot encourage you enough to donate some time - perhaps in your local community. They are safety conscious and they dont expect everyone to be able to climb on the roof (not this Mom at least ----> no heights!).

There is such emphasis on being a part of a larger community - we all need to look inside ourselves and see where we can make a difference. In New Orleans, the need is great and obvious. There is need everywhere and through our efforts,we can help make this world a better place.

Everyone has asked if NACE will be doing this type of work again - my answer is a resounding yes - we will find a way to give back wherever we go.

Thanks to all who supported us(esepcially our friends at Target who helped with the transportation) and thanks to all who were able to participate!

Peer-to Peer communication

I attended a very useful session today on the Topic of Minute Clinincs, presented by staff from NC State CALS career services. Great ideas at work here! One of the ideas that seemed to work very well that I might like to try is to use student peers in our career education. Of course there's a lot of training needed to utilize students as representatives of the Career Services office, but as shown in this presentation, when done well, peers are great tools to get messages accross to their fellow students. It's an effective tool to get our message out to students, but also, what a great learning/ leadership tool for the students working for career services. We're teaching them along the way too.

If you go to the NACE website to download their presentation, you'll get some great visuals of what they've done. They've shared some great ideas!

The State of NACE

This state of the association address featured President Ralph Brigham, President-Elect Manny Contomanolis, and Executive Director Marilyn Mackes. Intros and a brief dance by Ralph opened up the session focused on NACE's mission & values followed by strategic goals and steps for operationalizing those goals. Wrap-up with Manny's vision for the future.

Marilyn Mackes:
Mission - To facilitate the employment of the college-educated.
Core values

• Integrity
• Knowledge
• Leadership
• Collaboration
• Inclusion
  

Manny Contomanolis:
What does it mean to be a content-focused association? Through various benchmarking channels the question of what kind of association NACE would be. Content-focused serve membership by content provided. Content being knowledge, tools, networking.

Ralph Brigham:
NACE Strategic Plan

1. Surveyed members for input needs & preferences
2. Conducted benchmarking
3. Environmental scans
4. Researched trends for a forward look

Marilyn:
Essential to achieving goals? volunteer leaders, engaged membership, Executive Director and NACE staff Things happen because we make them happen.

Manny:
Strategic Goals:
1. NACE will be acknowledged as the foremost resource related to the college student/graduate employment market.
2. NACE will be used by colleges and employers as the essential connection to support the successful transition of college students into the workplace.

Ralph:
2007-8 Accomplishments: Education, Research, Membership, Member Network Opportunities, Leadership Advancement, Committee Activity

1900 attendees at past two national conferences, ten more vendors than last year, MLI in 17th year, career coaching intensives booked for next three, 1300 employer organizations, 2000 schools, 6000 individual members, 200 related service providers, 30 individuals for second year of leadership advancement program

Committees - 150 volunteers on at least 10 committees producing a number of tools and standards either ready for deployment or creating baselines for more development including recruiter evaluation tools and an international virtual job fair.

Marilyn:
Operational accomplishments - products & services (career coaching workshops, JobChoices magazine, October's Salary Survey will be a new product for delivery and flexibility, NACELink network, more electronic deliveries, Int'l Student Virtual Career Fair, more web-based development), financial viability (membership fees cover 20-25% of operating budget by design, more diversified income streams for more budgetary stability), staff support (40 staff total, new research staffer), technology infrastructure (more web & email delivery, Int'l Student Virtual Career Fair), public & media presence
We are a community accountable to each other and those we serve. Within the community are sub-communities. As a community we are here to advance knowledge.

Manny:
Issues going forward - 2008-9 Planning for the future

• Global Initiatives - Ingrata consortium; clearinghouse for members needing info and connections to understanding, connecting, and growing relationships overseas.
• Tech & Web 2.0 - Intent to better engage membership and rewrite understanding of membership; tools for restructuring how we do business and the nature of our roles in relation to each other as content developers.
  
• Strategic Partnerships - Exploration of greater collaboration with groups like SHRM for shared development of certifications and content
  
• Product/Service Review & Improvement - New products like new meetings, new meeting formats
  
• Professional Mentorship Program - Create formal support
• Leadership Advancement - new training and opportunities built into association to equip and open pathways for prospective leaders
• Increased advocacy role on relevant public issues

Audience comments & questions
Q. How is NACE approaching looming Boomer exit from the U.S. workforce and related regional forces?
A. Still emerging dialogue. Looking to help the general public better understand the issues and their real impact, including debunking rumors and misinformation.

Q. Tell us more about the Leadership Advancement program.
A. Deb Cherek (past President) sought to bring together potential leaders together for ongoing training and engagement and continues to evolve. Further helps identify candidates for roles in a fair and effective manner.

Q. What is NACE doing to stay in contact with retiring practitioners?
A. Historically have wrestled with this. Exploring tapping them for supporting mentorships and some projects are a couple ways to integrate them.

Thoughts?

Gone and Sometimes Forgotten

I'm in the 10:45 session about how career services can (and need) to provide services to alums...particularly "mature" alums (those over 40) who are changing careers, have been laid off, or who can't afford to retire.

The big number is that by 2010, 51% of the workforce will be 40 years or older (a 33% increase since 1980). This aging baby boomer workforce is no surprise...but there are economic and personal factors that complicate this situation. The economic factors include the current recession, offshoring, corporate mergers/restructuring, and globalization. The personal factors include increased life expectancy, need for healthcare coverage in retirement, elevated social awareness, and increased desire to 'direct' own career.

Much of the discussion was around how career services can serve alumni and included examples of best practices in connecting career services and alumni offices, what the current (and future) economic situation means for career services, stories about what alumni are looking for (even if they don't know it!) and how to best utilize these alums on campus.

It was a standing-room only crowd...lots of head-nodding as the issues were laid out...and great questions for the panelists.

Most Grads Don't Want Full-time Employment

Jennifer Kushell of YSN.com just completed her presentation at the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) annual conference in New Orleans. Her presentation was entitled, "What Students Don't Understand About You, Your Company, Your Opportunities -- and What You Can Do About It."

She had a lot of great tips and thoughts but two really stuck out for me:

• There was a lot of discussion about how an increasing number of students are accepting offers from one employer and later rescinding their acceptance in order to accept a later, better offer. This drives employers and college career service offices nuts and burns bridges for the candidates. Yet not one person in the room acknowledged that employers have been just as guilty by rescinding offers they've made to students who are then left without an internship to go to for the summer or, worse yet, a job to go to upon graduation. We need to remember that Gen Y are largely the children of Baby Boomers and that generation has done a very good job of counseling their children that they cannot and should not rely upon the good graces of their employer because the vast majority of employers have repeatedly demonstrated that their loyalty to their employees extends only so far as their profit motives allow. At the end of the day, the employers owe a fiduciary duty to maximize the wealth of their shareholders, not to provide employment to their workers.
  
• Only 49 percent of college seniors who are approaching graduation are interested in working full-time for an employer. Most see themselves owning a franchise, distributorship, or other business within a handful of years of graduating. This is good news for organizations such as Valpak but bad news for many and perhaps most of the traditional employers of college students and recent graduates. They either need to find a way to make their opportunities more entrepreneurial in nature or they will find themselves competing for an increasing shrinking candidate pool.
  

Anticipating 2018 - The tech groups

What follows are the rough notes from 2 mini-breakouts in the NACE Future Dirtections Committee session.

Group #1

Following some introductory notes and a brief demo of Twitter conversation moved into texting and the shift from email for some populations. Broadening of techonology - openess - empowers the expanding

Use the students for credibility building, but what about good management of one's web presence?

Threat of technology being used as a career services bypass in the connection between students and employers.


How can NACE better support our own professional development on this front?
1. Continued best practices presentations/content
2. We need to twitter more
3. Intro'd wikis
4. Student focus groups


Group #2
Basic impact of rise of mobile technologies:
1. changes in etiquette

NACE can help with:
1. Information and support on virtual internships
2. Developing strategic partnerships. What are the elements? Need to be able to customize our services to our different constituents.
3. Shaping of best practices standards/outcomes.
4. Tracking and pushing next practices to get ahead of the curve
5. Global links to mine emerging practices from around the world
6. Guides and workshops to help professionals learn and adopt emerging technologies
7. Shaping of etiquette and standards of professional practices and delivery of services - not being on-call 24/7

Time and resources to implement, how to stay current when there is so much going on and coming out? Do we need to adjust our thinking about timelines for viable or sticky applications/tools?

Colleges having to rethink and subsequently advocate on campus for new measures of success.

Rise of virtual worlds and our need to adapt to new environments for work and socialization to meet needs/expectations of students.