Young Professionals?

Ok - I'll admit it! I am a boomer (mind you on the very back end but still there ). I read a great article today about engaging younger members at meetings and was wondering if this is an area that we should be exploring?

Do we need to have a group for young professionals to network and engage at the meeting? How should such a thing or area be set up? Should we have a forum for young professionals? Is it different for Career Services and Recruiters?

Wow, I am full of questions....anybody want to comment?

Exploding Offers: Here They Come Again

Less than a week ago I wrote that there have been exploding offers this year and will be more but there won't be as many as there were in the 2001-03 recession. An exploding offer is a job offer which an employer makes to a candidate, which the candidate accepts, and which the employer later rescinds usually because of changing economic conditions.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal included an article about how a year ago law firms were falling all over each other to recruit and retain entry level lawyers for their summer associate programs (sort of like internship programs) and as first year associates (entry level lawyers). Now some of those same law firms are cutting back:

• Some law firms like New York-based, 800 attorney Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP shrunk the duration of their summer associate program from 12 to 10 weeks. That effectively cuts the pay of their summer associates / interns by almost 17 percent.
• Other law firms are delaying the start date of some of their first year associates. In addition to Pillsbury cutting its summer associate program, it is also delaying the start date of its first year associates.
• Chicago-based, 700 lawyer Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP is taking an even harsher approach. It admits to exploding the offers for two summer associates and two first year associates who had accepted offers to work at its Charlotte, North Carolina office.

Exploding offers are not confined to law firms. Over the next couple of months we'll see many more examples emerging from employers large and small, public and private, urban and rural.

I get why these employers believe that they should not pay money to employees whose work is not needed. But what I hope that all employers get is that their long-term viability depends upon these interns and entry level hires for college recruiting is strategic and without college hires entering the employment ranks, an organization is doomed to a lack of managerial and executive talent within a decade. If the organization manages to survive it will need the success of some very highly paid headhunters to acquire the talent that the organization could have brought on board at much less expensive rates through its college recruiting program.

It will be interesting to hear from the experts in New Orleans about this issue. When potential presenters were submitting their proposals last summer, the economy was humming and exploding offers were about the furthest thing from anyone's mind. Today though, the situation is quite different as virtually all lay people and many economists believe that we're in a recession and with recessions come exploding offers. I suspect that the The 2008 NACE Graduating Student Survey: Student Perceptions and Approaches to the Current Job Market session will be quite informative on this topic. I'll be in the audience. Will you?

Developing Global Citizens

What do you think about this article from cnn. com yesterday? A good idea? or not so hot?

There is a session at the conference called Give or Take? on helping students become good citizens. Interesting concept? And is it a part of your mission in career services? How about recruiting? Do you expect the same thing in your new hires?

Another voice chimes in . . .

This is quite a privilege. For me that is. I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.

My name is Chris Miciek and I have been drafted as part of the 2008 conference's blogging corps. As of this moment I am the Director of Career Services for Baker College's Online and Center for Graduate Studies campuses. Baker is Michigan's largest private, non-profit institution of higher education. I assumed this role a little over five years ago. At that time my two campuses did not offer career services and were facing a majority population outside of the state. Since the institution's mission statement expressly addresses lifetime career support, there was a need to develop a response and enfranchise those students and alumni. My task was to create and run what became the first 100% online career services office. This has included a full slate of standard career services offerings, plus supporting a required internship program. Our combined student population is currently just shy of 6000. Over 60% are outside of Michigan. Some of those are overseas as expats or foreign nationals. It has been an amazing ride.

Yes, I have a bit of interest in the intersection of career services, education, and technology. Because of the strong technology environment I have lived in the past five years, I will be focusing much of my attention on the technology and future casting content of this year's conference. Technology isn't strategy, but it must be a key piece of our strategic plans and vision.

I say "as of this moment" because when I have the chance to meet all of you in New Orleans I will be there as a Drexel Dragon. And I do expect to meet all of you at the Future Directions Committee's session on Thursday morning. Sure it's early but what better way to start the day? Okay enough shameless plugging for now.

Other's have mentioned it so I'll chime in - join us at the Habitat worksites. These are great opportunities to be contributors and not just tourist/conventioneers. It is a pertty good way to network, too.

Embrace your chopsticks.

Networking With 1,500 of Your Closest Friends

One of the real challenges in attending a large gathering like the annual NACE conference is getting together with the people that you really want to see and meeting some new people who you really need to meet. So how do you do it?

I don't pretend to have all of the answers. I don't even pretend to have most of them. But I am happy to pass along a few suggestions that have worked well for me over the years:

1. It is too late for the 2008 conference but try to be one of the speakers. It is VERY easy to meet people if you are a speaker because they come up to you before and especially after your presentation to introduce themselves and pick your brain. Give away a lot of nickels in life. They tend to come back as dollars.
2. Regardless of whether your regional ACE chapter is organizing the conference, volunteer. I volunteered for about half a day a few years ago in Milwaukee and helped check attendees in as they arrived. Yup, I was one of the folks handing over the bag full of presentation materials, water bottles, and other assorted goodies. I probably helped 200 people check-in that day. That's 200 people with whom I had an opportunity to say hello and open the door to speaking with later in the conference.
3. When you have breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc., deliberately sit at tables where you don't know most of the people. It is okay to know one or two but don't just speak with them. Speak with the others at the table. You all have things in common: the conference and even the hotel banquet hall chicken in front of you. Complain about your flight, laugh about the meal, share advice about presentations you attended or plan to attend, whatever. But have fun and enjoy yourself.
4. Arrive at sessions at least five minutes early and sit beside people you don't know. Introduce yourself and ask about their work lives first and perhaps their personal lives (married? kids?) later.
5. Business cards. You can never bring enough or hand out enough. Never, ever leave home without 'em.

Keynote Update!

Dan Pink is launching a new book today called The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, written in manga (a Japanese comic book style - which I only know about because a friend of my teenage son is a BIG fan of it!). The site includes a video ' movie trailer' which is very interesting. I have NOT read the book but it will be carried in the NACE bookstore!

Talk about an interesting marketing campaign designed to capture the intended readers. Perhaps we can all learn a bit from looking at this program!

Hello, my name is...

Hey there!

My name’s Meg Busse and I coordinate Idealist.org’s Nonprofit Career Transitions Initiative. The focus of my work is to find ways to connect people to and educate folks about the exciting, diverse range of career opportunities in the nonprofit sector.

My main project over this past year has been the creation of The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers, a comprehensive guide to finding a job in the nonprofit sector. This free (!) book is available online in downloadable pdfs; check it out at www.idealist.org/careerguide. We’ve just finished the second edition: one version is specifically for first-time job seekers and the other has information tailored to sector switchers and mid-career transitioners.

Along with co-authoring these books, I present workshops around the country at conferences like NACE, NSEE, and ASPA, as well as at Idealist’s Nonprofit Career Fairs.

In fact, I spent this past week in Minneapolis and DC, and am heading to Indianapolis on Tuesday for three of our Nonprofit Career Fairs. It’s been thrilling to talk to so many people at our fairs who are looking for a “career with meaning” or some way to connect their paycheck and their passion. The best news is that there are so many ways for people to do this!

There are also plenty of other things I’m passionate about. I’ve lived in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA for the past five years and love the Pacific Northwest for a whole host of reasons, including great food, amazing music and hiking, and the fact that I could snowboard, swim, windsurf, walk on the beach, and take a vineyard tour all within the same day (if I had enough energy!). I love Portland, but I did grow up in New Jersey and am a Jersey girl through and through and always love to connect with fellow New Jerseyians.

I’m so excited to be back in New Orleans this May—it’ll be my second NACE national conference (I had the opportunity to present a workshop at last year’s conference in New York) and this year I’m excited to be exhibiting and roaming around trying to meet as many folks as possible! Do stop by and see me at booth 505 in the exhibit hall and share the nonprofit, west coast, or Jersey love!