Innovation is the guiding force that drives the leadership strategy of Nicole Hall, director of Career and Professional Development (CPD) at UNCG.
“How can we learn, how can we move the needle,” she asks herself when thinking about ways her team can better serve the student population.
Hall oversees a group of career coaching, employer relations and operations support professionals, who work together to support students in their professional development and employment acquisition journey. The team provides services that educate, counsel, and engage students in career planning and decision making, experiential learning, continuing education, and employment search activities.
“My team is incredibly talented and very passionate about the work they do,” Hall says. “Our goal is to have a lasting impact on students.”
Technology + Experiential Learning Take Center Stage
One of Hall’s primary responsibilities is to make sure that every student is prepared for the job market. The pandemic has made access to CPD resources more challenging for students, and with more UNCG students enrolled in online programs, some students needed unique tools.
Technology
But as a career innovator, Hall is skilled at evolving programs in the face of changing dynamics. She understood that to reach these students the department needed to scale their services using technology and enhance their in-person offerings. Platforms like Handshake enable students to connect directly with employers, network with peers, and prepare for interviews. The department also implemented a tool that uses artificial intelligence to analyze and provide feedback on resumes.
Student response to CPD’s hybrid model has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly from students who have received unprompted interview requests from hiring companies via the Handshake application and from alumni who can no longer access CPD resources in-person.
This level of accessibility to career development resources sets UNCG apart from similar departments Hall has worked in throughout her 20 years in the industry.
Experiential Learning
Another way the CPD supports students’ professional preparedness is through experiential learning opportunities that introduce them to new industries and provide invaluable insight into corporate expectations and hiring processes.
One such event was an excursion to Wake Forest University. Forty students from underrepresented ethnicities networked with a group of organizations that the CPD identified as exceptionally inclusive. Many participants had little experience representing themselves in a professional way, so Hall hosted a preparation session prior to the event, where she and her team explored networking strategies and effective ways to present oneself when communicating with potential employers.
For Hall, it was an impactful experience seeing this underrepresented student population develop the competency to communicate with employers in an authentic and skillful way. It’s this type of work, she explains, that makes her excited to come to UNCG each day.
Connecting Academics + Employment
In addition to interactive learning events, the CPD focuses deeply on supporting students’ secure workplace experience through employment on campus or nearby. This helps alleviate the financial constraints that many students face, while also giving them transferable skills they can apply upon entering the workforce.
To take it a step further, the CPD recently launched an initiative called Spartan Ready, which uses structured conversations between student employees and their supervisors, helping students understand the correlative connection between their academic studies and their on-campus workplace experience.
These pointed conversations have improved students’ verbal communication and time management skills and helped them apply critical thinking when forming opinions and solving problems.
Helping Employers Find Talent
The CPD is an incredible asset to the UNCG student body, but that’s only part of the story – it’s also a valued resource to over 5,000 employer partners. Hall leads an employer relations team responsible for managing the CPD’s partnerships with companies in North Carolina and beyond.
Half of this team focuses on cultivating the existing network of companies, and the other half coordinates outreach to new potential employers. To do this effectively, her team stays abreast of new organizations moving into the area as well as those that have interest in new academic concentrations at UNCG, like the recently added Hospitality and Tourism Management major.
For partnering employers, the CPD offers a wide range of in-person opportunities to identify and connect with students, including career fairs and experiential learning events. Employers also use the Handshake platform to post job opportunities, learn about potential student candidates, and engage with those candidates virtually.
Representing the Underrepresented
With an impressive history of leadership in career services at distinguished universities, Hall followed an intentional pathway to UNCG, so she could support historically underrepresented individuals.
To better equip herself for this mission, Hall enrolled in UNCG’s Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations Program, which focuses on social, economic, and educational equity in schools. The topic of her dissertation research was “Cultural Wealth, Social Capital and Career Outcomes: Black Alumnae in a Minority Serving Institution in the Southeastern United States.” Hall defended her dissertation October 12th and will use her doctoral research to open doors for historically marginalized students.
Hall and her team will continue to “move the needle” for UNCG students, empowering students to seek professional success utilizing both in-person and online CPD resources.
Get ready for the job market.
Learn more about UNCG’s professional development and employer recruiting events.
Story by Leah Thompson, AMBCopy
Photography by David Lee Row, University Communications
