Adapting to AI: Strategies for Career Centers and the Students They Serve

We know AI is here, and it's not going away, but the speed at which this new technology has infiltrated our lives is disorienting for many. Here is what most of us know already:

  • AI and prompt engineering are new, in-demand skills that students should pursue.

  • AI will help career services staff with parts of our jobs and transform how we spend our time.

  • Students can use generative AI to get feedback on their resumes or for interview prep.

What's more challenging is what we don't know. 

  • How can students learn AI in a way that aligns with the future of work?

  • As career center staff, how do we most efficiently leverage AI in our everyday work?

  • What is the quality of the advice students receive from AI tools, and how do we help students understand how to balance this useful technology with their voice/brand?

In this blog post, we aspire to answer these fundamental questions to provide a baseline of knowledge and recommendations about leveraging this equally exciting and overwhelming tool.

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Margaret McGee-Newton
10 Tips For Your Digital Front Door

Career Centers can learn a lot from disruptions and innovations in other industries. One of the most significant healthcare revolutions underway before the pandemic, which has accelerated rapidly, is the concept of a "digital front door." 

According to Phreesia, a healthcare technology firm, "digital front door" refers to the collection of technologies that healthcare providers use to manage and improve the patient experience….It represents a radical shift in healthcare administration from a provider-centric, paper-based approach to a more digital, patient-centric framework."

Does this sound familiar? Many Career Centers made large investments in digital assets and experiences during the pandemic. Still, more must be done to fully leverage a stakeholder-centric approach to your online services and resources. Don't make the mistake of saying, ‘We have a career center website, so we are all good.” HOW you approach your digital front door is paramount to your success in student engagement. 

Below are ten pro tips for assessing and maximizing your digital front door. 

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Margaret McGee-Newton
Why Sophomore Year is a Career Development Sweet Spot

In response to increasing questions about the value of higher education, many colleges and universities have made career advising, career pathways, and student outcomes a highlight of their admissions/recruitment process. Career centers often focus a lot of energy on getting first-year students in the door of the career center or, at the very least, prodding them to explore careers within first-year seminars. 


Fewer institutions have succeeded in leveraging opportunities to engage second-year (or sophomore) students in career exploration and planning. This is a missed opportunity for meaningful engagement at a pivotal time for many students, often characterized by a lack of institutional structured support, especially compared to their first-year experience.  


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Margaret McGee-Newton
Why Career Education is Core to Student Retention Initiatives

In our career ecosystem consulting work at The Career Leadership Collective, we often see a perceived boundary between student success and career outcomes. While most campuses understand the relationships between wellness, financial security, and academic success, career planning or exploration is rarely considered a factor in retention. The pressure to secure a good job and repay student loans after graduation can be overwhelming, and the fear of not living up to those expectations can be daunting. For this reason, career education or readiness should be a core component of college retention initiatives. 


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Margaret McGee-Newton
3 Mistakes to Avoid in Strategic Planning

Most of us think we're strategic thinkers, but getting out of the weeds of our hectic daily task lists can be challenging when leading or collaborating on a strategic plan. This Career Thread offers three common mistakes to avoid.

1. Confusing Tactics for Strategy:

One of the most common mistakes in strategic planning is a fundamental confusion between strategy and tactics. To keep it simple, think of strategy as what you want to accomplish; tactics are the how. But how do we decide what our goals are?

Generally, strategic planning starts with mapping out and honing in on your mission (the overall purpose of your work), values (your guiding beliefs), and vision (where you are headed).

Now, we're at a challenging point in the process. You know where you want to be in the next 3 to 5 years, but how do you get there? This is often where over-eager strategic planners skip strategy and go straight into tactics. "What if we created a first-year experience focused on career exploration, targeting liberal arts majors during spring break?!" Before moving to the tactic stage, we must map out long-term strategic objectives aligning with our environment - our strengths, obstacles, and opportunities. 

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Margaret McGee-Newton
Pro-Tips for Creating or Revamping a Peer Advising Program

Peer advising programs are crucial in enhancing the reach and effectiveness of career centers across different campuses. While the specific duties of peer advisors vary, it's essential to explore the best practices for creating and managing a peer advising program that enriches the student employment experience and caters to the evolving needs of students and career centers.

Research has shown that peer advising on university campuses is one of the most effective ways for students to achieve desired learning outcomes. Peer advising is considered a best practice by both NACE and NACADA.

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Margaret McGee-Newton
We tackle the challenge of “selling spinach in a candy shop" and demonstrating relevance to students.

Creating a well-defined brand for your career center is essential to fostering trust among students and ensuring they perceive the center as a valuable resource. Marketing any product or experience to students demands a deep understanding of the “new” 5Cs, outlined in this article from the Future of Commerce: Company DNA, Community, Global Culture, Circularity, and Customers.

Using this framework, let's explore how adopting these principles can transform your career center into a support hub for all students, regardless of their major, background, or aspirations.

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Margaret McGee-Newton
Let's dig into how ChatGPT and other generative AI might impact our work in career services.

Career services leaders and staff are beginning to ask, how will Generative AI impact our field, for better or worse? A recent survey of higher education leaders found that 90% are discussing generative AI, such as ChatGPT, with other leaders. The survey also found that 70% of respondents believe that generative AI will positively impact higher education, while 20% think it will negatively impact it. Our career teams can harness the power of generative AI to help us scale our work and increase impact with our constituents.

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Margaret McGee-Newton
3 New Career Team Superpowers

In my 20+ years in higher education, I have observed a shift in skillsets and job functions primarily focused on scaling services and activating the campus and community ecosystem. Some of these shifts relate to staffing changes, but many are the product of increasing awareness of student behavior/preferences, insights from learning experience design, and data-based best practices.

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Margaret McGee-Newton
Transforming our Services to Support Career Wellness

According to a survey by Active Minds, “80 percent of college students say the pandemic has negatively affected their mental health.” Students are not only experiencing uncertainty about their academic and professional futures, but they’re also grappling with environmental and social upheaval. Now that we're transitioning out of the pandemic and into a still uncertain future, we must transform our services to provide a more holistic and nurturing approach to a student's career journey.

Wellness is core to career development.

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Margaret McGee-Newton