Photo courtesy of Amy Adams
With graduation on the horizon and the job search in full swing, Pepperdine students now have a useful tool for networking. The Pepperdine Career Network has created an arena for professional connections between current Pepperdine students, alumni and friends of Pepperdine.
“The Pepperdine Career Network is an online mentoring platform that allows students to connect directly with alumni and friends of Pepperdine within their field of professional interest,” Career Center Director Amy Adams, who spearheaded the creation of the network, said.
Both students and alumni can log into the network using their Pepperdine credentials and search for mentors and advisors they want to learn from. The system coordinates the scheduling and communication between the advisee and advisor. Advisors offer career consultations, resume critiques and mock interviews for current students and alumni.
According to Adams, there are more than 300 advisers “eager and willing to connect with Pepperdine students to help with the career exploration and the internship and job search process.”
Adams explained the opportunities the network offers.
“The launch of the network is just one strategy being implemented to help students prepare and compete for great professional opportunities post-graduation,” she said.
The network is part of the HIRE Pepperdine Campaign that hopes to help students explore careers and develop professional goals with advice from the larger Pepperdine community. Through the campaign, alumni, parents, donors, faculty/staff and friends of Pepperdine are invited to “help one Wave.”
They can offer help through advising/mentoring, networking/speaking, advocating for Pepperdine/referring to a company or hiring interns/employees.
“The idea is that if everyone in our community helps just one Wave, we can have a big impact on student professional success,” she said.
Other in-person programs that connect students and alumni are the Career Coaching Program and Project E(x)ternship. What makes the Pepperdine Career Network unique is that it connects the global Pepperdine network, which includes close to 100,000 people throughout the world.
Adams said future efforts of the campaign will focus on in-person mentorship opportunities by partnerships with clubs, organizations, affinity groups and regional alumni chapters along with the expectation that the number of advisers and the “diversity of their experience” will grow.
“Our hope is that students will take advantage of this great resource and personally connect with alumni in the system,” she said. “We expect that some of those relationships will have the potential to blossom into more longstanding mentoring relationships when mutually desired by both parties.”
Graduating senior Steven Lesky appreciates it, though it will not help with his field particularly.
“As an Education major, student teaching is the main way I gain experience, it’s just how it is,” he said. “But I definitely see the value in it for others.”
Junior Tanya Garcia also said she appreciates the opportunity for connection through the network and plans to use the tool.
“It’s a great idea, because connections are almost more important than having a diploma today,” she said. “I’m definitely going to use it.”
Students can log into pepperdine.evisors.com or visit the Career Center for more information.
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