Career Everywhere

Avsnitt

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  25 Years of Career Services Leadership: Reflections, Lessons, and Advice from Harold Bell (feat. Harold Bell) 01.09.2026 1h 15min

  What does it take to build a 25-year career in higher ed career services—and know when it's time to walk away on your own terms?In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Harold Bell, who recently wrapped up 25 years as Director of Career Planning and Development at Spelman College, the No. 1-ranked HBCU for 19 consecutive years and, more recently, the top-ranked women's college in the country. Harold is a longtime NACE leader and a mentor to countless career services professionals across higher ed.Harold traces his winding path into the field—from an early student affairs role, to a nonprofit that connected him with employer recruiting, to two corporate stints in banking and consulting, and finally to Spelman, where a key introduction (and a very direct first question: "Will you hire men?") led to a job that had quietly sat open for a year.He talks about the proudest moments of his tenure, including helping bring career services into the classroom through grant-funded work, building out Spelman's virtual career center (powered by uConnect) during the pandemic, and being inducted into the NACE Academy of Fellows.Harold also shares candid reflections on leadership, including why he believes your own team is the most overlooked stakeholder in career services, and why he decided the time was right to leave Spelman this past June.He closes with what "semi-retirement" looks like for him right now, and his philosophy for anyone thinking about their own next chapter: see yourself as the answer to a problem, and the right opportunity will find you.Key takeaways:Your team is your first stakeholder. Harold argues that career leaders often look outward first—to students, parents, employers—without recognizing their own staff as the biggest stakeholder in the work. Investing in your team (and in yourself as the leader) has to come first, not last.A winding path can be the best preparation. Harold's route to Spelman ran through student affairs, a nonprofit, and two corporate roles in banking and consulting. Each stop added a skill he'd eventually bring to career services—recruiting, training, budgeting, and leadership development among them.Relationships open doors that job postings don't. Harold landed the Spelman role through a networking chain: a former colleague, a mutual contact, and a search committee chair who'd already seen his resume before he applied online. As Harold puts it, “It's not what you know. It's not who you know. It's who you know, who knows what you know, and who likes you.”Know the signs it's time to move on. For Harold, the signal wasn't burnout or conflict—it was the sense that the work had become repetitive and that he could no longer move the needle on the things he cared most about advancing.Choosing your own exit is a privilege. Harold left Spelman voluntarily, on good terms, and with a proud legacy—something he considers rare and worth planning toward.Rest before you relaunch. Harold's framework for his “semi-retirement” transition: rest, reset, reload, relaunch. He's intentionally giving himself time before deciding what's next, rather than rushing into consulting or another career services role.See yourself as an answer, not just an employee. Harold's closing philosophy: sustainability in your career comes from identifying the problems you're uniquely equipped to solve and positioning yourself as the answer to them.About the guest:Harold Bell recently retired after 25 years as Director of Career Planning and Development at Spelman College, a private women's HBCU in Atlanta ranked the No. 1 HBCU for 19 consecutive years. Before Spelman, Harold worked in student affairs, at the nonprofit INROADS, and in corporate roles at NationsBank (now Bank of America) and EY. He is a longtime NACE volunteer and was inducted into the NACE Academy of Fellows. Harold now considers himself "semi-retired" and is exploring what's next.Resources from the episode:Harold’s LinkedIn profileNACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers)INROADS—the nonprofit where Harold gained early experience connecting employers with student talentSpelman College's virtual career center (powered by uConnect) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Why Career Services Engagement Matters More Than Your Major (feat. David Kozhuk) 18.08.2026 1h 5min

  What if the single biggest predictor of a student's success after graduation isn't their major, their GPA, or even their school's brand name—but simply whether they engaged with career services?In this episode, host Meredith Metsker welcomes back David Kozhuk, Founder and CEO of uConnect, for his second appearance on the show. David makes the case that career services engagement is the most important thing a student can do during college—more influential on outcomes like retention, graduation rates, and earnings than the major they choose or the classes they take.David traces this conviction back to his own experience as a finance student at UMass Amherst, where regular use of the career center helped him land multiple internships and his first full-time job.He also shares the story of how he returned to campus several years after graduating to recruit top-performing students for a few open roles at his company. Despite the marketing and promotion, a great venue, catering, and the whole nine yards, only three students showed up to his presentation. That gap between what career services offers and how few students actually engage with it inspired David to start uConnect and build the first-ever Virtual Career Center platform—now trusted by hundreds of institutions across the country. From there, the conversation turns to the data. David unpacks:Why so many institutions are sitting on a goldmine of outcomes data they aren't usingHow uConnect is helping schools connect career services engagement to outcomes data and real-time labor market trendsHow AI is now making it possible to deliver personalized, trustworthy recommendations to students at scale (no matter your career team size)He also gets candid about what's at stake—for students, staff, and institutions—when career readiness stays a talking point instead of a funded priority, and offers concrete advice for both career leaders and senior higher ed leadership on how to close that gap.Key takeaways:Career services engagement is the No. 1 influence on student outcomes. David points to data showing that students at institutions with strong, scalable career services engagement see meaningfully higher average earnings, retention, and completion rates than the NACE national average—across hundreds of institutions and hundreds of thousands of students.Small amounts of engagement can have an outsized impact. An hour spent in a mock interview or talking with an alum about a career path they'd never considered can do more for a student's trajectory than almost any other hour of their college experience—largely because it builds confidence, and confidence compounds.Non-engagement is rational, not a motivation problem. Students who don't know what they want to do often assume the career center can't help them until they do—a branding and positioning gap David sees as one of the field's biggest opportunities, especially for reaching underserved and unengaged students early.Outcomes data is one of higher ed's most underutilized assets. Most schools collect rich first-destination survey data but rarely operationalize it. It sits in a spreadsheet rather than informing real-time recommendations to current students or messaging to prospective ones.Reframe outcomes data as inspiration, not judgment. David encourages senior leaders to stop treating outcomes data as a referendum on institutional effectiveness and start using it—even a small sample size—as proof of what's possible for students in a given major or pathway.Intentionality is a career leader's edge. David points to other podcast guests like Barbara Zerillo (Post University) and Josh Domitrovich (PennWest) as examples of career leaders who used data to earn a seat at the table. Josh manually tracked correlations between career services engagement and institutional KPIs for years before career became part of PennWest's strategic plan.The stakes are institutional, not just individual. David connects career services engagement directly to enrollment, persistence, completion, and ultimately institutional revenue—arguing that as other funding sources shrink, delivering on the ROI promise of a degree becomes existential for many schools.About the guest:David Kozhuk is the Founder and CEO of uConnect, the all-in-one Virtual Career Center platform used by hundreds of institutions across the country. He started uConnect over a decade ago after a formative experience recruiting on his own college campus, where he discovered how few students were engaging with the career center that had shaped his own path from student to full-time offer.David built an early prototype of the Virtual Career Center concept to help make career services more visible, accessible, and personalized for students—and has spent the years since working directly with career leaders, provosts, and presidents to connect career services engagement to measurable student outcomes.Resources from the episode:David’s LinkedIn profileDavid’s article: The Answer to Higher Ed’s Outcomes Problem is Hiding in Plain SightuConnect websiteBarbara Zerillo episode (Post University)Josh Domitrovich's episode (PennWest): Coming soon! Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Career Services + Student Affairs: A Blueprint for Partnership (feat. Nicole Hall and Christian Garcia) 04.08.2026 1h 2min

  In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Nicole Hall, Senior Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students, and Christian Garcia, Associate Vice President of Career and Professional Development, at the University of Virginia. Christian is also Nicole's direct report—a dynamic that shapes nearly everything they discuss.The conversation opens with trends the two surfaced during a recent fireside chat at the Virginia ACE conference: the deepening of skills-based hiring, a widening gap between internship demand and supply, the state of Virginia's growing involvement in internship policy, and the layered, still-unsettled role AI is playing in the job market.Nicole, who currently chairs the NACE Board of Directors, brings a national data lens. Christian brings the day-to-day view from UVA's career center, where he's seeing high fair attendance and strong demand for one-on-one advising even as some employers pull back on-campus interviewing (or “on-grounds” as they call it at UVA).From there, the episode turns to what makes this pairing unique: Nicole's path from 20+ years leading career centers into executive student affairs leadership, and her decision—negotiated during her own UVA hiring process—to bring career services into her portfolio rather than let it sit as a separate, siloed unit.Christian and Nicole talk candidly about what it's like to work together day to day, how they balance "reading the tea leaves" with tactical execution, and the advice they'd give other career leaders hoping to build stronger relationships with student affairs (or vice versa).Key takeaways:Career Everywhere means shared ownership, not shared job titles. Christian compares it to a mental-health-referral mindset: you don't need to be a career counselor to play a role in a student's career readiness—faculty, staff, peers, and alumni all have a part.Skills-based hiring is deepening, not just spreading. Nicole points to NACE data showing employers have moved from mentioning desired skills in job postings to building specific skills assessments directly into their application and interview processes.Internship demand is badly outpacing supply. A 2023 Business-Higher Education Forum survey found that eight million students wanted internships, but only about four million internships were available—pushing career centers toward creative alternatives like short-term, skills-rich projects that don't require a full semester or summer commitment.AI anxiety is real, but the "doom and gloom" narrative isn't backed by employer data. Citing NACE's 2026 Job Outlook, Nicole notes 61% of employers surveyed have no intention of replacing roles with AI, while about 25% are exploring ways to augment existing roles with it. The bigger opportunity for students, both guests agree, is building genuine AI literacy.Bringing career services under student affairs was a deliberate, negotiated choice. Nicole pushed for the structure before she'd even accepted her offer, driven by a belief that career development should be woven through the entire student experience rather than managed in isolation.A thought-partnership beats a reporting relationship. Christian and Nicole describe weekly check-ins built around mutual trust rather than oversight—Nicole intentionally stays "at arm's length" from day-to-day career center decisions so Christian can lead.Relationship-building is the real integration strategy. Christian's practice of meeting broadly across campus (352 meetings in one semester alone) helped him build trust quickly in a new role—something both guests see as foundational to breaking down silos between career services and the rest of the institution.Career leaders should apply their own advice to their own careers. Both guests encourage career professionals to stay open to unexpected opportunities and to release the pressure that career advancement has to mean climbing to a director- or VP-level title.About the guests:Dr. Nicole Hall is the Senior Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students at the University of Virginia, and the current Chair of the NACE Board of Directors. She spent 20+ years leading career centers before moving into executive student affairs leadership, and now oversees career services alongside orientation, fraternity and sorority life, leadership development, and other student-facing units at UVA.Christian Garcia is the Associate Vice President of Career and Professional Development at the University of Virginia and 2024 winner of the NACE Mackes Leadership Award. Longtime listeners may recognize him from Season 1 of the podcast, when he led career services at the University of Miami. He also hosts UVA's "Living Room on the Lawn" video interview series.Resources from the episode:Christian’s LinkedIn profileNicole’s LinkedIn profileNACE Job Outlook 2026 (referenced for AI adoption data among employers)Business-Higher Education Forum internship demand/supply surveyChristian’s previous Career Everywhere Podcast appearance (episode 14) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  BONUS: Answer a Question + Leave a Question (Live from NACE 2026) 28.07.2026 17min

  In this second bonus episode recorded live at the uConnect booth at NACE 2026 in Denver, host Meredith Metsker puts a twist on the "Answer-a-Question/Leave-a-Question" segment from the regular show. Each guest answered a question left by the person before them, then left a new question of their own—resulting in a fun, unpredictable chain of career-focused insights and lighthearted personal stories.Here were a few themes:Career services wish lists. Guests floated ideas for improving the field, from more seamless resume upload tools to better support for adult learners building online portfolios that translate previous work experience into new career paths.Supporting students who need it most. Several answers focused on equity and access—covering funding support for students in unpaid internships, and coaching strategies to help students with disabilities navigate disclosure and self-advocacy in the workplace.Mentorship as a throughline. More than one guest credited a mentor—sometimes an unofficial one—for shaping their own career path, reinforcing a theme that's come up throughout the podcast: mentorship can come from anywhere.AI and the human touch. One guest's piece of advice to students: don't let AI replace the personality and human element that make you stand out in a job search.Lighter moments, too. True to the "no rules" nature of the segment, guests also shared favorite (or hated) first jobs, childhood dream careers, go-to road trip snacks, sports loyalties, and more—showing off the personalities behind the profession.Tune in to hear the full chain of questions and answers, live from the NACE conference floor. (Apologies for any less-than-ideal audio issues!) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Internships for Everyone: How ODU Removes Barriers to Work-Based Learning, Part 2 (feat. Barbara Blake) 21.07.2026 43min

  If you haven't listened to part one yet, start there first. In that episode, Dr. Barbara Blake walks through the origin story of ODU's Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office—why it was created, how it's structured, and how four distinct pathways are making work-based learning accessible to every student regardless of major, background, or circumstance.In part two, the conversation goes deeper. Host Meredith Metsker and Barbara dig into what the office has accomplished in its first three years, how Barbara secured $8.5 million in funding from more than 20 sources, and what it looks like to turn a $5 million Mellon Foundation gift into 75 brand-new internships that never existed before. Barbara also takes on one of the field's thorniest issues—unpaid internships—and makes a compelling case for why career services leaders need to stop accepting the status quo and start advocating for change.She closes with some of the most practical advice in the two-part series: how to find your people on campus, how to think small when it comes to grants, and why doubling down on what you do best is the right move for any career office that's stretched too thin.Key topics covered in this episode:Why myth-busting is mission-critical for first-gen students—and how assumptions about unpaid internships, year-long commitments, and eligibility requirements are keeping students from pursuing opportunities that are actually available to them.How ODU's $5 million Mellon Foundation grant funds the Monarch Humanities Internship Academy, which pays humanities students $20 an hour—including at nonprofits that previously couldn't host interns because they couldn't afford to pay them. Since early 2024, the academy has created over 75 brand-new internships.Why unpaid internships deserve real advocacy, not just workarounds—and what career services leaders can do right now at the institutional level to push for change, from reaching out to faculty and departments to challenging accrediting bodies to explain and revisit policies that prohibit pay.What the office's biggest win actually looks like—not a funding milestone or an engagement metric, but a student who submitted 50 applications with help from the team, landed a life-changing national internship, and a student whose Congressional internship led her to write that her whole world had changed.How ODU's virtual internship office, powered by uConnect, launched in fall 2025 and already boasts the highest engagement rate among comparable R1 institutions in Virginia—and how the office has struck the right balance between high-touch counseling and scalable technology.Barbara's top advice for career leaders who want to do something non-traditional: look for the helpers, think small when it comes to grants, and double down on what your office does best instead of trying to do everything.About the guest:Dr. Barbara Blake is the Chief Internship Officer and Executive Director of the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. An economist by training, she has taught economics for over 20 years, conducted economic research for NATO, worked in the corporate world for companies like Hanes Mexico, and owned her own consulting business. Since launching the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office in July 2023, her team has secured $8.5 million in funding from more than 20 funders and built one of the most distinctive experiential learning models in higher education. Dr. Blake holds a master’s degree from the University of Leeds and has published and presented original economic research in the United States and the United Kingdom.Resources from the episode:Dr. Blake's LinkedIn profileDr. Blake's email: [email protected] Internship & Co-Op Virtual Office (powered by uConnect)Part one of this conversation Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  BONUS: What Does Career Everywhere Mean to You? (Live from NACE 2026) 14.07.2026 14min

  In this special bonus episode, host Meredith Metsker brings listeners inside the NACE 2026 conference in Denver, where she did live mini-podcast interviews at the uConnect booth and asked career services professionals from across the country the question at the heart of this show: What does Career Everywhere mean to you?The result is a fast-moving montage of voices—more than 20 higher ed professionals, from front-line advisors to executive directors—each offering their own take in just a sentence or two.While every answer is personal, a few clear themes emerge:It's not confined to one office or one appointment. Guest after guest described Career Everywhere as something that has to live outside the career center—in classrooms, dorms, student orgs, and everyday conversations with faculty and staff.It's a whole-institution effort. Many guests emphasized partnership: faculty sending students their way, employers showing up for more than recruiting, and every corner of campus rowing in the same direction.It spans a student's entire journey—and beyond. Several answers pushed back on the idea of career readiness as a single milestone (like a capstone course or a first job), framing it instead as something that starts on day one and extends well past graduation.Equity is central. A number of guests connected Career Everywhere directly to access—making sure career support reaches first-gen students, students without existing networks or cultural capital, and anyone who might otherwise be left out.Mentorship shows up everywhere. From coaches to professors to fellow students, guests pointed to the wide range of people who shape someone's career journey, not just formal career staff.Tune in to hear the full range of answers, in guests' own words, recorded live amid the energy (and noise!) of the NACE conference hall. Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Internships for Everyone: How ODU Removes Barriers to Work-Based Learning, Part 1 (feat. Barbara Blake) 07.07.2026 46min

  What would it look like if every college student—not just the ones who knew to ask, or had the time, or could afford to go unpaid—actually got a meaningful work-based learning experience before graduation?That's not a hypothetical at ODU. It's the mandate.In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Barbara Blake, Chief Internship Officer and Executive Director of the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office at Old Dominion University, for the first installment of a two-part conversation.The Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office doesn't run career fairs. It doesn't do resume workshops. It has one job: make sure every ODU student—regardless of major, college, or background—has a work-based learning experience before they walk across the stage. That singular focus is what sets it apart from ODU's traditional career center, and from most career services models entirely.That focus is also by design. ODU is a minority-serving institution with high Pell and first-gen populations and a large military-connected community—students who are statistically less likely to complete internships and who face real barriers to access, from transportation to professional attire to the simple reality of not being able to afford to work for free. Barbara built her office around the belief that those barriers are solvable, and that solving them requires dedicated infrastructure, not just good intentions.In part one, Barbara and Meredith dig into how the office came to be, how it sits within ODU's broader ecosystem alongside the Center for Career and Leadership Development, and how four distinct pathways—for-credit internship courses, a free zero-credit co-curricular course, prior learning assessment, and prior internship recognition—are making sure work-based learning is accessible, documented, and on the transcript where employers can see it.Stay tuned for part two, dropping later in July, where Barbara and Meredith get into the office's biggest wins so far, what their funding strategy looks like, how they address challenges around unpaid internships, and what’s next for the office. Key takeaways:Placing internships in Academic Affairs changes everything. The Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office reports to the Provost—a deliberate choice that signals internships are part of the learning journey, not an optional add-on. Barbara says she wouldn't have taken the job if it had been placed anywhere else.One focus. One job. Unlike traditional career centers, which carry a wide range of responsibilities, the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office has a single mandate: help every ODU student get a meaningful work-based learning experience. That clarity of purpose is both a strategy and a cultural statement.Four pathways make work-based learning accessible to more students. For-credit internship courses, a free zero-credit co-curricular course, prior learning assessment, and prior internship recognition give students multiple ways to have their experiences acknowledged.Getting it on the transcript is the goal. Barbara's office treats the transcript as the primary deliverable. When graduates send transcripts to employers, having an internship listed there becomes a conversation starter—and a differentiator. Several ODU graduates have already reported that their transcript note was the first thing an interviewer brought up.You have to change the culture before you can change the numbers. The office's first priority wasn't programming—it was shifting campus-wide language from "if" students do an internship to "when." That required buy-in from the president, the provost, faculty, and staff, and Barbara credits top-down institutional commitment as foundational to the office's early success.Capturing invisible internships matters. Many students are already doing internships that their institutions don't know about. ODU's free co-curricular course has documented over 500 internships that would otherwise have gone unrecognized—along with the employers and students behind them.High touch isn't just a nice-to-have for this population. ODU serves high Pell, high first-gen, and military-connected students who need real guidance, not just a job board. Barbara describes an approach that feels more like a human resources office than a traditional career center—open Monday through Friday, no remote work, and ready to help students think through the actual logistics of getting an internship, from financial constraints to geography to timing.About the guest:Dr. Barbara Blake is the Chief Internship Officer and Executive Director of the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. An economist by training, she has taught economics for over 20 years, conducted economic research for NATO, worked in the corporate world for companies like Hanes Mexico, and owned her own consulting business. Since launching the Monarch Internship & Co-Op Office in July 2023, her team has secured $8.5 million in funding from more than 20 funders and built one of the most distinctive experiential learning models in higher education. Dr. Blake holds a master's degree from the University of Leeds and has published and presented original economic research in the United States and the United Kingdom.Resources from the episode:Dr. Blake's LinkedIn profileMonarch Internship & Co-Op Office at ODUStay tuned for part two of this conversation, dropping later in July, for more on the internship office’s biggest wins so far, what their funding strategy looks like, how they address challenges around unpaid internships, and what’s next for the office.  Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  How to Make Career Services a Campus-Wide Strategic Priority (feat. Barbara Zerillo) 23.06.2026 41min

  What does it actually take to make career services a campus-wide strategic priority—not just in name, but in budget, staff, and institutional structure?In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Barbara Zerillo, Senior Director of the Career Development Center at Post University, to talk about how she turned career readiness into one of the institution's five official strategic pillars.When Barbara arrived at Post about a year and a half ago, the career center was a team of three serving a large and diverse student population—including a significant online learner community. Within less than a year, she had secured approval to hire 10 new staff members, build out a comprehensive technology stack, and restructure career services as a formal institutional pillar with its own project manager, dedicated time with the president, and multiple strategic initiatives underneath it.Barbara walks through the full journey: how she benchmarked Post against peer institutions in New England, what she included in her "Why" document for the president, how she made the case that career is not just important but that not investing is a risk, and what it looked like when the institution said yes.She also covers the practical realities of scaling a team quickly, the role project management principles played throughout, and her honest advice for career leaders who want to do something similar.Key topics covered:Stop saying "career development is important" and reframe around institutional riskBring leadership into the research process through site visits, not just reportsMine both external benchmarking data and internal persistence data to tell the full storyKnow what keeps your president up at night and align your case to those prioritiesWhy staggering your hires matters more than you thinkResources from the episode:Barbara's LinkedIn profilePost University Career Hub (powered by uConnect)uConnect—the virtual career center platform Post University uses, referenced by Barbara as a key part of their tech stack. Three other career centers mentioned in this episode (Bentley University, Suffolk University, and Boston University) also use uConnect.Career Everywhere Community—free network for higher ed career services professionals; mentioned by Meredith during the episodeRecent episode with Josh Domitrovich of PennWest—Barbara cited Josh's persistence data research as an influence on her own internal data strategy. Other episodes featuring Josh are here and here.Episode with Joe Catrino of Dartmouth—another example of presidential buy-in for career services, referenced by Meredith Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Online Career Development that Reaches All Ages, Programs, and Places (feat. Amy Ballard) 09.06.2026 46min

  What does it take to build a career development program for students you may never meet in person—students scattered across time zones, juggling jobs and families, logging in at 3 a.m.?In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, Amy Ballard of Eastern University talks about how she built an online career development program from scratch for a population that's as diverse as it is distributed.Eastern University, located just outside Philadelphia, serves close to 10,000 students—and roughly two-thirds of them are online. Amy joined as a new hire in early 2025 with a background in adult education rather than career services, and was immediately tasked with creating something that didn't yet exist: a centralized, meaningful career experience for online learners of all ages, across all programs.Drawing on adult learning theory and Priya Parker's philosophy on the art of gathering, Amy shares how she moved away from generic programming and toward targeted, high-impact content built around specific student populations. She scaled from occasional drop-ins to 90+ events in a single year—webinars, networking nights, alumni panels, employer presentations, and more—reaching thousands of students who might otherwise never have connected with career services.She also shares what didn't work (an alumni event with 40 RSVPs and zero attendees), why those flops were just as instructive as the wins, and the practical principles any career services team can apply—regardless of staff size or institutional type.Key topics include:— Why targeted, program-specific events outperform general programming every time— How to partner with academic departments to reach students who are already gathering— Turning one-on-one appointment FAQs into scalable webinar content— Using platforms like Gatherly to make online networking feel less like another Zoom— Why belonging—not just information—is the real goal of online career programmingResources from the episode:Amy’s LinkedIn profileEastern University Virtual Career Center (powered by uConnect)Gatherly: The gamified virtual networking platform Amy uses to host interactive events where students navigate a map and join themed conversation booths.The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker: A book on creating meaningful gatherings rather than simply fulfilling a function. Amy highly recommends it for career development professionals working in online spaces.Malcolm Knowles – Adult Learning Theory (Andragogy): The foundational framework Amy used to understand online learners' motivations and needs.Career Everywhere Community: where Amy first presented this session liveAmy’s slide deck: from Amy’s original presentation in the Career Everywhere CommunityNew episodes every other Tuesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and visit gouconnect.com/career-everywhere/podcast for full show notes, transcripts, and more.  Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Reframing Experiential Learning in a World Without Enough Internships (feat. Todd Schuster) 26.05.2026 46min

  The internship landscape is shifting—and if you've been feeling the pressure in your career center, you're not alone. In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Todd Schuster, Senior Director and Head of Network Development at Forage, to take an honest look at the state of experiential learning in higher education.Todd brings a rare dual perspective: he spent the first half of his career working directly with students as an academic advisor and hall director, and the second half in edtech, now working with hundreds of employer partners through Forage's virtual job simulation platform.Together, they unpack why internships are becoming increasingly competitive, what employers are really looking for in early-career candidates right now, and how career centers can help students build a meaningful portfolio of experience even when a traditional internship isn't in the cards.KEY TAKEAWAYS— The internship gap is real, but demand is the bigger driver. More institutions are requiring experiential learning across all disciplines, more students are competing for a limited number of spots, and AI is replacing some of the entry-level tasks that internships traditionally covered.— Experiential learning is bigger than internships. On-campus jobs, student org leadership, research projects with faculty, co-ops, capstone projects, and virtual job simulations all count—and career centers play a critical role in helping students translate those experiences into language employers understand.— Employers are prioritizing soft skills more than ever. Critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and the ability to work through conflict in an in-person setting are now at the top of hiring managers' wish lists.— Start career exploration in year one, not year three. Students who explore early are better positioned to pursue the right internship when the time comes—and virtual job simulations are a low-stakes way to test-drive careers and companies before committing.— Forage simulations are free and employer-informed. With over 300 simulations built in partnership with companies like Citibank, Red Bull, BCG, and Bloomberg, students who complete a simulation are more likely to land a role with a participating employer.— Virtual simulations work best alongside in-person experience. Todd was candid: the best-case scenario is pairing virtual exploration with on-campus roles, internships, research, or leadership experiences that develop in-person soft skills.ABOUT TODD SCHUSTERTodd Schuster is the Senior Director and Head of Network Development at Forage, a platform that partners with leading employers to create free virtual job simulations for college students. Before joining Forage, Todd worked as an academic advisor and hall director at the University of Denver and the University of Northern Colorado, and later led operations in the coding and cybersecurity boot camp space. Connect with Todd on LinkedIn.RESOURCES MENTIONEDForageuConnectCareer Everywhere Community (free for higher ed career services professionals) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  How Career Centers Can Build a Sustainable Content Ecosystem (feat. Nikki Pebbles) 12.05.2026 1h

  What career services team wouldn't benefit from reaching more students—without adding more hours to the workday? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Nikki Pebbles, Learning and Development Specialist for the City University of New York and a career content creator with over 400,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.Nikki shares how career advisors can position themselves as trusted micro-influencers for their students, and walks through her practical, framework-driven approach to building a sustainable content ecosystem—no marketing degree or big team required.In this conversation, you will learn:Why career advisors are already subject matter experts—and how to leverage that as a micro-influencerHow Nikki's 3 AM Method helps career centers generate content ideas rooted in what students are actually worried aboutHow the Content Anchor System turns one workshop or presentation into a semester's worth of content across multiple platformsWhy consistency matters more than frequency when you're just getting startedHow Nikki ran a LinkedIn Bootcamp at St. John's University that generated hundreds of student posts, drove appointment bookings, and created a replicable content blueprintThe tools Nikki recommends for beginners: Edpuzzle, Loom, Descript, CapCut, and iMovieWhy starting a podcast—even a simple audio-only one on Zoom—is her top recommendation for career centers ready to dip their toes into content creationWhether you're a one-person career center or a larger team looking to be more strategic, this episode will leave you feeling like you can actually do this.Connect with Nikki Pebbles:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nikkipebblesEmail: [email protected]: nikkipebbles.comTikTok, Instagram, YouTube: Search "Nikki Pebbles"Resources mentioned in this episode:EdpuzzleLoomDescriptCapCutiMovie Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  When Career Becomes a Presidential Priority: One Career Leader's Partnership Playbook (feat. Joe Catrino) 28.04.2026 50min

  What does it actually look like when a university president makes career a strategic priority — and how does a career services leader make the most of it?In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Joe Catrino, Executive Director of the Center for Career Design at Dartmouth College, for a candid look at what's possible when career services has a seat at the highest table on campus.Joe joined Dartmouth in early 2025, stepping into a rare situation: a president who had made career one of her core institutional pillars. In just over a year, he's nearly doubled his team, helped close a $30 million fundraising campaign for student internships, and built a partnership with President Sian Beilock that has become a model for executive-level collaboration in career services.In this conversation, Joe shares how that partnership actually works — from the structure of their regular meetings and the impact reports he brings, to the business plan he built to align his center's goals with institutional priorities. He also offers practical advice for career leaders who don't have direct presidential access yet and want to start building those relationships from the ground up.Key topics include:What it looks like when a president is genuinely committed to careerHow Joe structures his regular meetings with President BeilockThe business plan framework he built with Dartmouth's advancement officeHow to connect career center outcomes to institutional prioritiesWhy Joe spent his first five months on a listening tour before building anythingPractical advice for career leaders who don't have presidential access (yet)Learn more about the Dartmouth Center for Career Design*: careerdesign.dartmouth.edu*Dartmouth's virtual career center is powered by uConnect Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  From Deficit to Asset: How Career Centers Can Serve Students in an Uncertain World (feat. Justin Lawhead) 14.04.2026 45min

  What if "not knowing" wasn't a problem to fix—but exactly where students are supposed to be?In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Justin Lawhead, Assistant Vice President for Career Readiness and Postgraduate Student Success at the University of South Carolina, to talk about one of the most persistent challenges in career services: the deficit model. Justin is working to replace it with something better—an affirmation model that treats career uncertainty as normal, reframes exploration as the goal, and meets students where they actually are instead of where we think they should be.Justin shares how his team redesigned their University 101 presence, ran a user-centered design exercise that surfaced exactly who students trust for career guidance (hint: it's not the career center—yet), and introduced "exploration" ribbons at career fairs so employers can better support students who are still figuring it out. He also gets into the harder questions: how do you measure what actually matters in career services, how do you bring your staff along through a mindset shift, and how do you communicate real impact to senior leadership?If you're a career services leader thinking about how to build a culture of exploration on your campus—and make the case for it up the institutional ladder—this one's for you. Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  How Career Services Can Support Students in a Tough Job Market (feat. John Koelliker) 31.03.2026 45min

  The job market hasn't been this hard for students and recent grads in decades. In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with John Koelliker, co-founder and CEO of Leland—a platform that connects students and professionals with expert coaches and partners directly with career centers to amplify their impact.John works with tens of thousands of students and the employers trying to hire them. He brings a clear-eyed, front-row view of what's actually happening out there—and what career services professionals can do right now to help students navigate it.In this episode:Why this job market is uniquely difficult—and what's really driving itWhere the real pockets of opportunity exist for new grads (hint: it's not where most students are looking)Why the "generalist business" path is struggling and what students should do insteadThe power of being hypothesis-driven early—and how career centers can help without overwhelming studentsWhy in-person still wins in an era of AI-generated applicationsWhat the best career centers are doing differently right nowWhy career services engagement is one of the strongest leading indicators of student outcomes—and how to make that case to leadershipAbout John Koelliker: John Koelliker is the co-founder and CEO of Leland, a platform connecting students, recent grads, and professionals with expert coaches for career navigation and skill-building. Leland also partners with career centers to extend their reach and support for students. Before founding Leland, John worked in venture capital and operations and started his career at LinkedIn. He's based in Utah.Resources from the episode:John's LinkedIn profileJohn's email: [email protected] Leland—platform connecting students and professionals with expert career coaches; also partners directly with career centersDesigning Your Life—referenced indirectly through the "life design" and "prototyping" conversationSandbox—entrepreneurship program mentioned by John that gives college students academic credit to build companies; currently offered at a handful of universities Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  How UConn Transforms Student Employment with Work+ (feat. Eran Peterson) 17.03.2026 48min

  What if your on-campus student job could do more than pay the bills? What if it was actually a career development experience?In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Eran Peterson, Associate Director of Work+ at the University of Connecticut, to talk about how UConn is reimagining student employment through the Work+ program.UConn's Work+ program — adapted from a national model pioneered by Arizona State University and the Work+ Collective — is built around a simple but powerful idea: student jobs should be more than transactional. They should be intentional learning experiences where students develop and can articulate real career competencies, and where supervisors feel equipped, supported, and valued for the role they play in student success.Eran walks through how the program works in practice, including the professional development content and tools built for student "working learners," the robust supervisor training and resource ecosystem UConn has developed, and the impressive early results from their pilot year — including a jump in students' sense of belonging from 83% to 98%.He also gets into the challenges of scaling a lean operation, the unexpected ways supervisors are finding out about Work+, and his honest advice for anyone looking to start something similar at their institution.IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN:— Why UConn focuses on supervisors first — and why that order of operations matters— How the Work+ team is building scalable, on-demand resources so the program doesn't depend on constant one-on-one support— What peer-led supervisor mini sessions look like and why they've become one of the program's biggest wins— How UConn is evolving Work+ to serve supervisors who manage large teams or service-based roles without regular workstation access— Why belonging matters for supervisors, not just students — and how Work+ is working to change campus culture around that— The surprisingly simple job posting tweak that's driving a flood of new supervisor interestABOUT THE GUEST:Eran Peterson is the Associate Director of Work+ at the University of Connecticut, where he has worked for over 13 years. He started his career at UConn as a career coach before stepping into his current role focused full-time on transforming student employment. Eran is passionate about helping students recognize and articulate the skills they're building on the job — a perspective informed by his own varied work history before landing in career services.RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:— Eran’s LinkedIn profile— Eran’s email: [email protected] — UConn’s Work+ program— The Work+ Collective—the national network of institutions building Work+ programs; Eran's top recommendation for anyone looking to get started— Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills—UConn’s virtual career center housing all career development content, resources, tools, and more (powered by UConnect)— Articulate 360/Rise—the e-learning tool UConn uses to build professional development modules for working learners— Suitable—the platform UConn uses to collect evidence of student competency developmentCONNECT WITH US:New episodes every other Tuesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and visit gouconnect.com/career-everywhere/podcast for full show notes, transcripts, and more. Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  3 Ways University of Central Missouri Embeds Career Into Academics (feat. Amber Goreham, Jess Johnson, and Derrick Gill) 03.03.2026 47min

  What does it look like when a small career services team thinks big—and builds the systems to back it up?In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Amber Goreham, Jess Johnson, and Derrick Gill from the University of Central Missouri's Career and Life Design Center to talk about how their six-person team is scaling career education across a campus of nearly 9,000 students.UCM has spent years building a strategic framework rooted in three pillars—exploration, career readiness, and connection—and those pillars now power three concrete initiatives designed to embed career into the academic experience: a milestone-based student roadmap, a plug-and-play faculty resource hub, and a Career Champions program that's turning faculty into career advocates across campus.Amber, Jess, and Derrick walk through each initiative in detail, share early results, and offer practical advice for other career services leaders who want to take a more integrated, academic-facing approach.KEY TAKEAWAYSHow UCM's three-pillar framework (exploration, career readiness, and connection) became the foundation for all three initiativesWhat UCM's milestone roadmap looks like across all four academic years — and how faculty can adapt it to their own programsHow the faculty resource hub makes it easy for instructors to embed career content into their courses with minimal liftWhat the Career Champions program entails and how UCM got immediate buy-in from department chairsWhy scalability and equity are at the heart of UCM's approach to Career EverywhereAdvice for career services leaders who want to start embedding career into academics at their own institutionsABOUT THE GUESTSAmber Goreham is the Director of the Career and Life Design Center at the University of Central Missouri. She has spent 18 of her 22 years in higher education in career services and leads the team's strategic vision for making career education accessible to all UCM students.Jess Johnson is the Assistant Director of Career and Life Design Education at UCM and a first-generation college student herself. She oversees curriculum and student-facing programming and was the primary architect of UCM's milestone framework and faculty resource hub.Derrick Gill is the Assistant Director of Faculty and Employer Partnerships at UCM. He brings a background in business internship coordination and media to his role and has been instrumental in building UCM's visibility with academic leadership and developing the Career Champions program.RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODEAmber’s LinkedIn profileJess' LinkedIn profileDerrick’s LinkedIn profileUniversity of Central Missouri Career and Life Design Center (powered by uConnect)uConnect—Virtual Career Center platformDesigning Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (referenced as the foundation of UCM's life design approach)The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education by Jeremy Podany (mentioned by Derrick as a team reading the career center used to gather faculty input) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Why Career Services Leaders Need to Think Like CMOs (feat. Ashley Safranski) 17.02.2026 54min

  What if career services leaders thought more like Chief Marketing Officers?In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Ashley Safranski, Chief Marketing Officer at uConnect, to explore why adopting a CMO mindset can help career services leaders elevate their impact across campus.Ashley shares the striking parallels between marketing teams and career centers—from being perceived as cost centers to sitting at the center of institutional strategy. She also outlines five practical marketing strategies career leaders can use to increase student engagement, build campus champions, drive cross-functional alignment, and tie their work directly to top-line goals like enrollment, retention, and outcomes.If you’re ready to strengthen your seat at the table and position career services as a strategic driver on campus, this episode is for you. Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Proving the Value of a Liberal Arts Education in the Age of AI (feat. Sharon Belden Castonguay) 03.02.2026 49min

  In an era of constant technological change, a liberal arts education builds the adaptability, critical thinking, and career agility students need to stay employable—even as jobs evolve or disappear.In this episode, host Meredith Metsker is joined by Sharon Belden Castonguay, Executive Director of the Gordon Career Center at Wesleyan University, to explore why a liberal arts education may be more valuable than ever in an AI-driven world.Sharon shares why employability matters more than first-job outcomes, how liberal arts graduates are uniquely prepared to navigate uncertainty, and why “major ≠ career” is actually a strength—not a weakness. She also explains how institutions can use data and storytelling to prove ROI, how AI fits into career preparation without fear mongering, and what students really need to thrive in an unpredictable future of work.This episode is a must-listen for career services leaders, higher ed professionals, students, and families navigating the changing landscape of education and work.Resources from the episode:Sharon’s LinkedIn profileSharon’s TEDx Talk (recently hit 1M views!)Sharon’s 2023 Career Everywhere Podcast episodeWesleyan’s virtual career center (powered by uConnect) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Crafting Employer Engagement Strategies that Align with Your Institution’s Mission (feat. Gerald Tang) 20.01.2026 51min

  In this repurposed live session from the Career Everywhere Community, Meredith Metsker sits down with Gerald Tang, Executive Director of Career Services and Internships at Bridgewater State University, to explore how institutions can rethink and strengthen their employer engagement strategies.Gerald shares how his team moved beyond counting career fairs and job postings to develop a tiered, data-informed employer engagement model that aligns with institutional mission, regional workforce needs, and equity goals. From leveraging alumni and labor market data to launching BSU’s Hire Locally campaign, this episode offers practical insights for career services leaders looking to build more meaningful, sustainable employer partnerships.You’ll learn:Why event attendance alone doesn’t equal strong employer relationshipsHow to define and assess employer engagement tiersWhat data sources can inform smarter employer strategyHow regional focus and mission alignment can guide employer outreachResources from the episode:Gerald’s LinkedIn profileGerald’s slide deck (including spreadsheet examples)BSU Elevate campaign and webpageBSU virtual career center (powered by uConnect)BSU Hire Locally pageBSU’s labor market insights module (powered by uConnect)Career Everywhere Community (free and open to any higher ed career services professional) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community
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  Small Team, Big Impact: How Career Services Teams of 1-5 Can Drive Outsized Outcomes (feat. Anita DeCianni Brown, Nick Edwards, and Tyler Orr) 06.01.2026 51min

  What does it really take to scale career services when you’re a team of one—or leading a very small team? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker is joined by Anita DeCianni Brown (SUNY Empire State University), Nick Edwards (Hardin-Simmons University), and Tyler Orr (Southern Virginia University) for a candid conversation about doing more with less.The panel shares practical strategies for expanding reach, leveraging technology, building faculty and campus partnerships, and advocating for resources—all while staying focused on meaningful student impact. Whether you’re building career services from the ground up or rethinking how to scale sustainably, this episode offers real-world insights, lessons learned, and encouragement for career services professionals at any institution size.Resources from the episode:SUNY Empire’s Virtual Career Center (powered by uConnect)HSU’s Virtual Career Center (powered by uConnect)SVU’s Virtual Career Center (powered by uConnect)uConnect (Virtual career center platform)Labor Market Insights module by uConnect HandshakeCareerShift FOCUS 2 Big InterviewSkillsFirstYouScienceLinkedIn LearningForageCareer Everywhere Community (free and open to any higher ed career services professional) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community