2000 NACE Excellence Awards
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NACE Excellence Awards: • 2000 Employer
of the Year |
Publications for Students
College Winner
“Lessons Learned: A Survival Guide for Young
Alums”
University of Redlands, California
In the mid-1990s, the alumni board of directors at the University of Redlands came up with the idea of asking alumni to write about life in the “real world” for a booklet aimed at graduating seniors. The board asked Amy Wilms, director of the Office of Career Development, and Neal Pahia, assistant dean of student life, to produce the booklet.
By spring of 2000, Lessons Learned: A Survival Guide for Young Alums had grown to more than 60 pages of advice on where to live and how to buy or lease a car, manage money, stay connected to university resources, embark on a career, stay healthy, and eat right—and lots more.
“Our plan of attack was to contact alumni and ask them to write around one page each,” Wilms says.
Wilms and Pahia found themselves incorporating new sections each year. In 1995, they began to co-teach a January-semester class that used the guide as a textbook.
“Some students said it was the best class they’d taken on campus,” Wilms says.
For Wilms, the booklet—and the award its most recent edition received—stand as tributes to Pahia, who died April 9, 2000, of kidney cancer at the age of 35. She adds that she hopes others will remember Pahia’s commitment to helping students and his enthusiasm in coming up with fresh ideas for the book and the class.
Employer Winner
“Your Guide to Evaluating a Job Offer”
Towers Perrin
When graduating students attend presentations by Towers Perrin recruiters, they receive a professionally designed, 28-page workbook that they can use for the life of their job search.
Bart Palamara, a principal with Towers Perrin, says Your Guide to Evaluating a Job Offer was conceived in early 1998, following a Towers Perrin presentation on the subject at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Palamara, who made the presentation with human resources specialists Jennifer Warne and Michele Colletti Foster, says students welcomed the information.
“Many of them are unaware of the sorts of things they need to know about an employer,” Palamara says. “The job market is very tight and students are receiving multiple offers, but they’re not any more sophisticated in terms of how to evaluate these offers than students have ever been. They don’t have enough real-life work experience. Because of that, everything gets boiled down to one uniform denominator, which is salary.”
Palamara says that in the Temple presentation, in subsequent presentations at job fairs, and in the workbook, the Towers Perrin group emphasized the importance of asking employers about other aspects of the job, including opportunities for advancement, pay raises, employee benefits, company values, and work-life balance.
“Ultimately, we can’t get to every campus we recruit from to do these presentations,” Palamara says, explaining that the workbook helps get the message out.
So far, he says, Towers Perrin has distributed several thousand workbooks at colleges, universities, and military bases. He adds that by 2001, the information also will be posted on the company’s revamped web site.
“We’ve found that even people who are in their first few years of employment value this information,” Palamara says.
Audiovisual Programs
College Winner
“Career Services: It’s Not Just a Job...”
University of New Hampshire, Durham
A young man breaks into a run across campus, fleeing an unseen terror as the theme from Jaws reaches a crescendo. The terror, as it turns out, is not a great white shark, but graduation day.
This is clearly not an outtake from yet another sequel. It is the opening scene in “Career Services: It’s not Just a Job...,” an informative and amusing video that provides viewers with an introduction to the career center at the University of New Hampshire. In the process, the video allays the fears of students facing down career decisions.
The career services staff developed the video primarily to address student concerns and misconceptions about career services, i.e., that the center only serves graduating students. The staff also wanted to emphasize the point that students can use career services throughout and beyond their college years.
The video is emceed by and includes commentary from actual students who describe the services of the center, including internships, interview preparation, workshops, and an alumni job line. The career services staff selected the cast after holding open auditions. The staff also collaborated on a script with the university’s video services department, which produced the program.
The video generates an enthusiastic response wherever it is shown, according to Priscilla March, assistant director/internship coordinator.
“We’ve shown the video in classes and residence halls and also during orientation,” she says. “It always lends itself to discussion, which helps to ensure that the audience is getting the message.”
Educational Programs
College Winner
“Career Advantage Competition”
University at Buffalo School of Management
The Career Resource Center (CRC) staff of the University at Buffalo School of Management developed the Career Advantage Competition to increase student use of—and satisfaction with—its services. The competition was incorporated into an existing multi-day professional development program that is mandatory for all M.B.A.s.
During the competition, teams of students compete for a hypothetical job with a sponsoring employer. The competition includes a career resource scavenger hunt, requiring hands-on use of CRC resources; company and industry research; and an interview with a representative of the competition sponsor.
The CRC staff clearly achieved what it set out to do. More students are taking advantage of CRC services and resources, and using them earlier, according to Cynthia Shore, CRC director. “Three years ago, fewer than 50 percent of M.B.A.s registered with the CRC,” she says. “Today, more than 90 percent are registered by the start of their second semester.”
Employer Winner
“Arthur Andersen Tax Challenge®”
Arthur Andersen
Taking textbook examples to the nth degree, Arthur Andersen’s Tax Challenge® offers students exposure to real-life tax consulting situations through a case-study competition.
The tax challenge is posed to students chosen by faculty representatives from the accounting and/or tax programs of more than 100 participating colleges and universities.
here are two divisions—graduate and undergraduate—and two levels—regional and national—of competition. At each level, teams of up to four students complete a complex, hypothetical case study involving the federal tax issues confronting an individual or family that owns a business. The case study tests student skills in the areas of information analysis; identification of data, issues, elections, and alternative tax treatments; and performance of required calculations.
At the end of the seven-hour competition, each team prepares a written report evaluating the client’s tax situation and makes tax-planning recommendations. A panel of Arthur Andersen judges evaluates the reports and awards scholarships to the schools of the winning teams.
“The competition gives students a practical, real-world idea of the challenges and rewards of the tax profession,” says Howard S. Engle, an Arthur Andersen LLP tax partner and architect of the tax challenge.
Through the program, Arthur Andersen also has strengthened relationships with students, faculty, and universities, connections that are critical to the firm’s recruiting efforts.
Honorable Mention
“Study and Work in Australia/New Zealand
or the UK”
Iowa State University
Study and Work in Australia/New Zealand or the UK, a program of Iowa State University, provides students with an opportunity to acquire career-related experience in an international stetting.
The program was developed by Steven R. Kravinsky, director of business/LAS career services, to enhance students’ cross-cultural awareness and to facilitate global relationships among career services practitioners.
The program is offered in conjunction with the University of North London and the University of Technology, Sydney, and includes an academic component—a three-credit course entitled “International Perspectives in Career Development.”
Technical Innovation
College Winner
“Web-Based Career Tutorial Series”
San Diego State University
Students at San Diego State University who don’t have the time or opportunity to attend career services workshops can participate in similar activities online, thanks to the career services department’s career tutorial series.
The self-paced series is open to all students who are registered with the career services department, and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It includes five segments: Job Search for Results, Write a Great Resume, Interview With Confidence, The Business Etiquette Quiz, and Do You Want to be an Entrepreneur?”
“The students have found our program to be very, very flexible and informative, and they’re excited that they can access the information 24/7,” says Judith Gumbiner, the university’s director of career services. She adds that department staff developed the program for students on tight schedules, distance learners, and those who are prevented by disabilities from attending “live” workshops.
The tutorials are written in a friendly, engaging style, and include cartoon illustrations that demonstrate typical job-search situations, animated graphics, and links to other tutorial segments.
“Students are very pleased with the tutorial series,” Gumbiner says.
Employer Winner
“Retailology.com”
Federated Department Stores Inc.
Back in November of 1998, the college relations team at Federated Department Stores Inc. gathered to discuss how to send a clear online recruiting message to students interested in retail careers—and to help them learn more about the firm and careers in the industry through a company web site.
“We spent two days locked in a room,” says Susan Burns, director of college relations, with a laugh. Burns explains that team members “brought to the table what they really thought the site should be. We laid out what we wanted it to look like, feel like, and a little bit about navigating the site.”
Burns says that because students are more familiar with the store chains that comprise Federated Department Stores—Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Stern’s, Burdine’s, The Bon Marche, and several others—the group decided that it could be creative in choosing a name for the site.
“Students and many others don’t really recognize Federated,” she says. “So when we came up with the name of the site, we wanted to make it a little bit mysterious and make it fun.” Burns says the group also wanted to ensure that students understand exactly what a career in the retail industry entails.
“We learned there was a tremendous need for additional information,” she says. “There are a lot of misconceptions about what a career in retail is like.”
In its first year of operation, the site incorporated streaming videos, and audio clips, including “day in the life” segments featuring the video images and voices of 20 different Federated employees. During that year, the site attracted more than 270,000 visitors.
“Those were actual visitors—not hits,” Burns points out. The visitors successfully downloaded more than 5,000 audiovisual clips from the site—and the firm hired 47 new employees who had learned about Federated from the site.
In September of 2000, Federated revamped the site in hopes of attracting even more visitors.
“We want to keep it fun and interesting and very functional,” Burns says.
Award Programs:
