NACE 2013 Wrap Up - CareerEnlightenment.com

How to Get Students to Follow Your Advice?What if this student had a clear understanding of who they were and what they want? And if the career advisor could nudge them into making  a decision about their future, wouldnt that move them forward?So one volunteer stood up to help the career advisor pull, clarity of purpose; a personal brand.What if the student used their personal brand to build a compelling online reputation, including a nice looking LinkedIn profile, a history of Tweets and compelling posts on their Facebook Timeline?So one volunteer stood up to represent a polished online presence to help the career advisor.What if the student used their nice looking profiles to reach out to alumni, and other information interview sources to gather information and, more importantly, build alliances within their target organizations?So one volunteer stood up to represent a good intentioned alumnus.Pull nowand the student made it to their job!But check it out. At no point did the caree r advisor burdon the student with a technology class. If they did so, it would have been another  responsibility  to drag the student backwards.Instead, social media would have been used to help the student reach each of those three milestones: Brand, Polish and Engage.Key point: social media is a tool to support an overall framework of job search.  Career Advisors Dont Need to Teach Technology, whew!The audience admitted that their students could probably run circles around us when it comes to understanding social media. Trying to teach it sets us up for failure.Rather, our jobs as career professionals is to teach the frameworks, and let the student figure out what the best tool is.How to get students to use LinkedIn? Give them a task that requires them to use it, such as, research your target companies and find out what their issues are, or find five alumni working in your target industry.Start with why, as Simon Sinek famously said.When I said, You dont need to teach technology o ne woman from Florida State University sighed audibly and smiling  exclaimed, What a  relief!Oh, and This Curriculum Already Exists(I wrote it!)It was clear by the end that these career advisors didnt want to be technology trainers. And they also dont have time to assemble, research and test curriculum that goes beyond just a clicky-class for LinkedIn.When I introduced my social media training curriculum, the audience got pretty excited. The two 2-hour workshops teach the frameworks Ive developed from years of working with job seekers. It comes with:Lecture notesSyllabusSlidesIn-class activitiesOnline videos for technical trainingThis program easily bolts onto most career centers current programming, and it costs much less than hiring me to come on campus to speak.Getting it setup is simple. The school just needs to order 25+ books from me, and I send them the Instructors Manual. Simple.For more information about the curriculum or to download a copy of the syllabus visit my Facilita tors Portal.