Important things: employer visits and a picture of a field

Depending on the day, we can see close 60 new job postings coming down the Zotlink* pipeline. I thought I’d share a bit about how we decide which companies to which I’ll request a visit. Here is a sampling of what I’m asking myself…

•  Are lots of students applying to this job?
• Is this a unique opportunity for our student?
• Or, on the flip side, is it in one of our top recruited areas, but offering a new angle or “niche” opportunity?
• Is the position itself unique? True story – I visited an organization looking for Robotics Teaching Interns. There are definitely fewer Robotics Teaching Intern positions than there are, say, Marketing Intern opportunities. 
• Was the job or company description especially engaging or attention-grabbing?
• Is there potential for a long-term recruitment relationship with this organization?
• Did this company invite me to visit?

Hopefully that gives a general sense – there are certainly more reasons outside of this list, but these are some of the basics.

Since we’re up to the third post now, I can probably let you all know that I am a fan of anything that looks like the country (which is one of the many reasons I’m excited to go to Texas next week for the National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE] conference). Apparently, you can take the girl out of Eastern Washington, but you can’t take the Eastern Washington out of the girl. On that note, here is a picture I took after one of my employer visits. It’s not what I think of when someone says “Orange County” but lo and behold, it’s indeed the OC. Please excuse me while I go park in the field and turn on some country music.  

Happy Thursday!

-DBO

*Zotlink is UCI’s online job posting board, which comes in the form of a snazzy website that is free for employers to use (and free for students to use to apply)

Meets & Greets

Greetings from the UCI Campus!

It’s a rather gray morning (for Orange County…meaning that it’ll probably be gorgeous in about an hour) and I’m putting in some hours in the office before I head out to two employer visits and a networking event this afternoon. “Meeting employers” is pretty high priority on my weekly to-do list here at UCI, so I thought I’d share some insight what exactly I’m trying to do. As it turns out, the employers I meet while out and about generally fall into two groups…

Group 1 – Employers that are already recruiting UCI students
To do list:
• Introduce myself and my position, and let them know about the rest of the Employer Relations team here at UCI. Not many realize that there are professional staff members on campus here to help support their recruiting efforts
• Meet the people and personalities behind their online job positing
• Get a sense of their organization, culture, values, and of the responsibilities associated with their current job openings.
• Learn about their industry so I can accurately describe their opportunities to the rest of my team
• Give them an idea of what kind of options they have when recruiting UCI students (the traditional online job posting is just the tip of the iceberg)

Group 2 – Employers that are not currently recruiting UCI students
To do list:
• Covertly mention the high caliber of our students, and their readiness for employment/internships
• Cross my fingers that they become part of Group #1

Okay, there’s maybe a little more to working with Group 2, but that will have to wait for another post.

As always, see you out there!
-DBO

Now that I’ve got my nametag on…

Greetings from UCI!  Let me personally welcome you to the newest blog to come out of the Career Center.  You’re probably busy, so I will waste no time in telling you what you will find here.

Who: I’m Dena B. Ogden! In my professional life, I do Employer & Community Outreach for the Career Center at the University of California, Irvine. I have a background in higher education and recruiting, and I joined the Career Center in February of 2011. I am also currently pursing my MA in Organizational Leadership. In my personal life, I’m a Gen Y wife with a pet rabbit and passion for pop culture and current events.  And in both lives, you’ll find me referencing that I’m a native Washingtonian with a coffee habit who is still occasionally surprised by OC culture. 

What: Live from Orange County promises regular entries about diving into the local business scene, tales of networking and navigating through corporate culture, and posts about what employers should know about students and recent graduates.  I will be interspersing updates about college recruitment and employment trends on a local and national level, as well as updates about Gen Y and professionalism since those are areas of particular interest.  I may or may not include personal anecdotes from time to time (or often. We’ll see how it goes!)

When: Only when I have something interesting to say, I promise

Where: all over Southern California, but mostly Orange County (Irvine, to be specific). Occasionally I will be traveling to conferences and visiting out-of-town employers, so I also reserve the right to write on location. Though  for the record, my office is based here, on the UCI campus:

Why: It quickly became apparent after only a few months in my new role that I’ll be gathering valuable information about the Orange County business scene, how to network, and also learning more about what the greater OC community thinks about the fabulous students of UCI. My goal with this blog is to blend all of these areas into one, insightful, informative and (fingers-crossed) entertaining place that our employers, community members, and students can enjoy. It’s a venti order, but I’m confident that I can deliver – I will be asking you guys, my readers, to help keep me accountable.

Thanks for stopping by, and looking forward to meeting many of you in the field!

 -DBO