Elliot Steeves-
The Gustavus Career Center has transferred to the new UConnect platform [linked here] to host many of its functions found on both Handshake and PeopleGrove. The move involves the shift of many features, such as the time and location of networking events which required a login to access.
The website is also designed to look substantially more modern than the previous website. Based on student feedback, the Career Center implemented more pictures and videos than previously featured.
The Career Center can also customize how often they put out and pull off blog posts. Students will also have the ability to choose how often they receive updates through the website, be it weekly or monthly.
A similar migration occurred last year, when the Gustie Athletics website moved to a new client to better host the Gustavus sports teams.
“Every office on campus is trying to find tools and systems that will make the student experience better,” The Chief Technology Officer at Gustavus Tech Services Jerry Nowell said. “We want to make your time here more valuable. This was a synergy that came about with all of the work that was going into PeopleGrove and Handshake, and from that perspective, it seemed like a logical choice.”
The Career Center was able to sign onto a pilot program for this new website for a year and a half. Due to the many changes currently present on campus, Assistant Director for Career Advising Jill VanOsdol believed it best to not immediately commit to the website permanently.
“A group of us on campus explored career information,” VanOsdol said. “Through this group, we were exposed to UConnect. Once we knew that we wanted to change our website, I brought in Hector Aguilar [Assistant Director for Outcome and Strategic Initiatives] and Katherine Tunheim [Vice President for Mission, Strategy, and Innovation].”
While the Career Center has wanted to improve its website for quite some time, it did not know specifically how.
“When the opportunity with UConnect came along, it seemed like the right time to try something new,” VanOsdol said. “It was sort of unexpected, but we were probably always going to try something new with our website all along.”
Nowell confirmed that part of the reason was a discount that the Career Center received for an earlier start time on the offer they received to migrate to UConnect.
“We had larger plans for the college, and the Career Office felt like this was a great opportunity for this time,” Nowell said. “We had our conversations, and wanted to benefit students in the short term as much as possible.”
When asked about why the Career Center was getting an earlier start, Nowell alluded to a broader new website design for Gustavus that is currently being worked on.
Both VanOsdol and Nowell hope that the UGrove platform can be the central location for students working on their careers, and not just a small additional piece.
“I hope that this can be the go-to resource for career information, for how to build a resume, and for interviewing tips,” VanOsdol said. “We want this to be information you can go to anytime and anywhere in your career journey.”
“Keep expressing what you need and what you expect out of both your college experience and the tools that the college provides,” Nowell said. “Students have needs and interests well outside of what a fifty-year-old man [like me] would know and care about. The voice of students is the most powerful on this campus.”