Federal Career Opportunities through Partnership for Public Service--at NACE!

As I highlighted in an earlier post, there is a growing interest in careers that benefit the common good. These careers can be found in the exciting diversity of the nonprofit sector, the rapidly growing field of corporate/business social responsibility (CSR or BSR), or the wide range of positions available in all levels of government.

Whether you are just starting to figure out how to answer the increasingly frequent questions by students and alumni about meaningful careers or you have already been involved with finding ways to educate your students and alums about these opportunities, Partnership for Public Service is a great resource to check out and will have several must-attend events at this year’s NACE conference.

The first is the Call to Serve National Summit on Tuesday, May 27th from 2pm to 5pm that brings career services leaders and federal agency representatives together to network, gather and share ideas, and build relationships to collaborate in connecting people to federal government careers. For more information and to RSVP for the Call to Serve National Summit, click on the summit name and look on the right column of the page.

The other event that you will want to put on your schedule is the concurrent session on Wednesday, May 28th at 1pm called “Collaborating to Fill the Federal Skills Gap: How 5 universities and 11 federal agencies made the government an employer of choice.” Agency and university representatives will share effective ways to build a campaign on a campus that allows students to see the federal government as an employer of choice. For the session abstract and location, click here.

With just a week to go, I’m getting excited about all of the NACE events and sessions, but these two are fixtures on my schedule because they address the growing interest in (and availability of!) careers that provide more than just a paycheck.

The Future's so Bright . . .

This year's conference is nearly upon us. Most of us will be wrapping up business in our offices, packing our bags, printing our boarding passes, and confirming our reservations. We may even be meeting with colleagues to determine the sessions of most value and interest to our organizations. Oh, and graduation season is in full swing.

In this flurry of activity you may miss or put off taking a look at the May NACEJournal. Here are a few reasons not to delay (or at least take it on the plane with you):

1. Networking - peruse for icebreakers to use while waiting for a session to start.

2. Get the word on NACE award winners - see your reputation as a prognosticator soar when you predict this year's ChevronTexaco award. No one needs to know you read it there first.

3. Hot off the press research and stats to fuel your insightful questions to session presenters.

4. Get the inside scoop on this year's Future Directions Committee and their presentation "Career Services 2018: Embracing the Seismic Shifts in Work Force Development". This way you can come ready to discuss the future.

Never enough time...USE a PLANNER!

So how do you figure out what to do when you are on site at the conference? Try creating a schedule using the conference planner found here.

This is a cool tool that your whole team can use to plan your day! WARNING: dont forget sessions can fill up so you many want to have an alternate just in case. Rooms should NOT be shut out so early this year as the session rooms are larger but you never know.