Dear Colleagues —

Over the past several months, the Career Center has reached out to you—our friends, colleagues, and campus partners—for help nominating, recommending, and referring students for three major initiatives we're working on for the new year. I have been amazed and humbled by how you have shown up for us.

On behalf of my team, THANK YOU for your incredible support; here's a brief summary of the student impact you're helping us make: 

Diversity Works Expo & Awards
Tuesday, February 13, 2024, 5-8 p.m.

• 16 faculty and staff nominated 38 students and student organizations
• 157 students and 21 student organizations have completed an award submission
• This is a 100%+ YoY increase in submissions

Tech Accelerator Program with Possible and Seattle University
Cohort #1 launches in January 2024

• 50+ faculty and staff nominated 130+ students from across the university
• 75+ students have accepted their nomination and applied

Career Clarity Retreat with Campus Ministry and CAPS
January 6-7, 2024 | Vallombrosa Center

• 44 students have applied for 20 spots
• This is a 100% increase from 2020, the last time an overnight retreat was offered

This is work we cannot do alone, and these numbers are an excellent reflection of Santa Clara University's commitment to a "career everywhere" strategy.

As always, I am excited to work together to deliver on the promise of higher education for all of our students: a good job, social capital, and economic mobility in pursuit of a more humane, just and sustainable world.

Thank you,

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We are proud to share that Inside Higher Ed spotlighted the Career Center in a recent article titled "Career Prep Tip: Host a Reverse Career Fair".

Last year, as part of our annual Diversity Works Expo & Awards event, we added a reverse career fair to give participating student groups the opportunity to engage with employers in a new and unique way. This caught the attention of Handshake's elite Whiteboard Advisors team, who brought it to the attention of Inside Higher Ed.

Kudos to Melissa Thiriez, who is quoted twice in the article, for championing this idea and to all of the Career Center staff and student groups who made it a success.

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The Career Center was thrilled to collaborate with the Center for Sustainability to host a career meet-up for current students to network with representatives from the City of Santa Clara and Silicon Valley Power, the City of Santa Clara’s not-for-profit municipal electric utility.

Photo by Jim Gensheimer

The event was followed by an intimate dinner with scholars and fellows of the Silicon Valley Power Sustainable Futures Program, university leadership, and several City of Santa Clara elected officials including the Honorable Mayor Lisa Gillmor.

Read the full story here »

Thank you to Lindsey Kalkbrenner, Veronica Johnson and Matt Hendricks for your partnership.

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On Tuesday, November 14, distinguished members and friends of Santa Clara's Parent & Family Council teamed up with the Career Center for a timely conversation on how students can advance their network, career exploration, and connections over the holidays.

Thank you to our panelists Piyush Mangalick, Alan Louie, Felipe and Marne Velasquez, Jim and Susan Cracraft, and Julie Schaefer for participating.

And a special thank you to Caitlyn Yates for helping to organize.

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To help kick-off the holiday season, last Wednesday, November 29, the Career Center joined our colleagues from the School of Law's Office of Career Management and the Leavey School of Business's Graduate Business Career Management team for the 1st Annual Career Services Holiday Luncheon—the start of a fun and lasting annual tradition for our teams.

Later that same day, we hosted a Holiday Pizza Party for students, staff and faculty to take a break from finals, mix and mingle, and make ornaments. We had a great turnout—cheers to everyone who stopped by!

Events like these are fun and authentic manifestations of our "career everywhere" strategy. If you're interested in learning more about how you can partner with and support the Career Center (and receive priority invitations to our parties 😉), please consider joining our Career Influencers Network.

Questions about the Career Influencers Network? Email Colleen Withers, Director of Career Development and Campus Integration, at cwithers@scu.edu.

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Following the Class of 2023 Commencement, the Career Center invited recent gradutes still looking for employment to participate in the Recent Grad Job Search Group, led by Myriam Bartz, Assistant Director of Graduate Students and Alumni.

One participant, Esteban Samayoa Mayora '23, credits this group with helping him find career success after graduation.

Esteban Samayoa Mayora '23
Computer Science

"This program was one of the pillars that supported my journey to landing a job. ... [T]he support from the Career Center—particularly Myriam—was invaluable. ... The program unveiled a profound truth: I was not alone in my struggles. I am not the only one struggling, I am not the only one going through these conflicting feelings about whether I am good enough. The sharing and vulnerability that comes with the program had an incredibly profound impact on my search and wellbeing."

Esteban secured a position as Field Support Engineer at Ondas Holdings.

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The Career Center is excited to announce that we have officially signed a contract with Focus2Career, an industry-leading career assessment platform.

Beginning in winter quarter, Focus2Career will replace The Myers-Briggs Company—which offered the iStartStrong and MBTI reports—as our primary career assessment platform. This decision will help us better execute on our campus integration strategy at lower cost.

How is Focus2 different from The Myers-Briggs Company?

Focus2 offers unlimited access at a flat rate. The Myers-Briggs Company charges per individual assessment. With Focus2's affordable flat rate, the Career Center can be more bullish on not only encouraging more students to take the assessment but also encouraging more faculty and other departments to incorporate the assessment in their classes and programs.

What type of assessments does Focus2 offer?

Focus2 offers a Work Interest assessment that is based on the Holland Code system. The Myers-Briggs Company offers the iStartStrong assessment, also based on the Holland Code system. With Focus2, students will still be able to map their two- or three-letter Holland Code to the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database.

Focus2 also offers assessments on career readiness, values, skills, personality, leisure, and academic strengths as well as career planning tools, none of which is offered by The Myers-Briggs Company.

(The Myers-Briggs Company also, obviously, offers the MBTI assessment, but there are actually very few requests for this assessment.) 

What should I do if the iStartStrong is incorporated into my syllabus or programs?

The Career Center will maintain a subscription with The Myers-Briggs Company through June 30, 2024 to accommodate any faculty or staff who have integrated either the iStartStrong or MBTI assessment into their class or program.

However, we only have a limited number of pre-purchased assessments, which means that when we run out, individual departments will be responsible for purchasing more. For that reason, we encourage you to transition to Focus2. 

Who should I contact to learn more about Focus2?

Please email Colleen Withers, Director of Career Development and Campus Integration, at cwithers@scu.edu.

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Questions, concerns, ideas, suggestions?
Please email careercenter@scu.edu.