Engage with Mentors Through The Updated Kenyon Career Network
By Matt Mandel '19
The Kenyon Career Network (KCN) has been updated to offer Kenyon students and alumni a smoother and more intuitive way to connect with the greater Kenyon community. This year, at the beginning of January, the Career Development Office (CDO) launched the new KCN to students after engaging over 1,400 alumni mentors during the fall. In only a month, about 500 students have already created profiles to get involved with alumni, and more students and alumni are joining everyday.
Unlike LinkedIn, which requires users to connect with one another before they can engage, the new KCN is set up so that step is not necessary. It has easy-to-use options that make it simple to request a chat or call, including agenda suggestions to get the conversation started, and a scheduling tool for phone calls. It only takes a minute for students and alumni to sign-up.
“With more than 1,400 alumni now on the KCN, chances are that you can find someone to connect with who shares your background, career interests, or both,” said Assistant Director for Career Development Jazz Glastra ’11, who helped spearhead this new initiative.
You can search the site by industry, company, major, club or sport affiliation, and geographic location to find alumni whose advice will be valuable to your unique situation.
“Doing your own research on companies or industries is a great place to start, but it's no substitute for actually speaking with someone who's out there doing the work,” Glastra said. “The Kenyon Career Network provides an environment where students can find people with the right expertise and know they are there to help.”
When students type a keyword into the search bar, more advanced filters pop up, including the “Willing to Help With” option. By selecting items like Reviewing Resumes; Advising about Specific Industries or Careers; Finding an internship; or several other options, students can sort by the kind of assistance they’re looking for.
“All the alumni are in here because they’ve signed up specifically to help students. What’s nice about this new platform is that we had to build up profiles from scratch, so everyone has just signed up within the last three months and have indicated the ways they’re willing to help out when it comes to career advising and mentorship,” Glastra said.
The “Willing to Help With” feature also includes an option for assistance with finding a job shadow or externship. This means that for a student who may want to participate in Kenyon’s Job Shadow Program, they can now search for available job shadow opportunities and pursue potential sites without needing the CDO to make introductions on their behalf. (Suggestions for how to write an outreach email can be found in the CDO’s Networking and Informational Interview Guide.)
For students who do not yet know what industry they want to pursue, the new KCN can help. There is a list of industries to scroll through and find relevant alumni profiles to see what jobs Kenyon alumni have done in that sector. All students are also encouraged to browse the different affinity-based digital communities to join discussions on professional topics organized by areas of common interest. Students can look at posts in a community related to a particular sector to easily hear from and engage with alumni in that field.
“Communities provide an opportunity for students and alumni of similar interests to connect through discussion forums. Each community serves as a platform in which students or alumni can ask open questions, post relevant news articles, or share insight and respond to one another’s thoughts,” said Charlie Woolsey ’19. “Think of it like a more formal Facebook news feed — with the communities feature you immediately see people who not only work in the fields you’re interested in or live in the places you’re interested in, but they’re also people who are going to be engaged because they’re doing this to connect with and help Kenyon students. From the beginning you know who’s willing to talk and share advice,” Woolsey added.
By making the process of connecting with alumni more manageable, Kenyon students will have more information about particular career paths and will be able to find referrals more easily.
“I think the new KCN will help students see how invaluable and easy it is to reach out to mentors who want to help us with our internship and job searches, or to better understand career paths,” Woolsey said.
“You have to have your credentials and resume and be a good candidate to get a job, but about 70 or 80 percent of jobs come from referrals,” said Glastra. “ It’s important to start building your network early and often. Doing this is so helpful in the long run … [KCN] is a friendlier environment because it’s comforting knowing alumni and students all have the Kenyon experience in common,” Glastra added.
The new platform is another resource that students can use to help develop their career paths. If you have questions or feedback about the KCN, contact Jazz Glastra at glastraj@kenyon.edu.