Executive Director talks new branding, goals
On Feb. 21, 2020, The Space, Wofford’s center for entrepreneurship and professional development, was officially renamed the Career Center and Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Mungo Exchange. Within the umbrella of the Mungo Exchange—a rebranding effort to consolidate and clarify the efforts and purpose of the student resource —are the Career Center, Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Office of Student Research, Office of International Programs and the Center for Community Based Learning. The name change was announced at February’s Board of Trustees meeting and prefaces a change in design to the building’s windows as well as a formal open house celebration in April.
“Our goal [with rebranding what was formerly known as The Space] was to find a name that was truth[ful] in advertising; it said what we did and what we were about…[The] Mungo Exchange really is a collection of programs, not necessarily a place,” explained Curt McPhail, Executive Director of the Career Center and Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
“In the past,” he added, “The Space was our Career Center and Entrepreneurship Center. Those are two separate offices now, but we will continue to collaborate…Our hope is [that] in the name change it becomes clear for students where they need to go for what exactly they need.”
“One of the things we’ve heard from students and alum was the lack of opportunities to connect with one another in a way that seemed easy and natural,” McPhail continued.
In order to bridge this gap, the office launched the My Mentor program in the fall of 2019. My Mentor is a searchable online alumni database that allows alumni and students to make a profile as either a mentor or mentee. Profiles of the two parties are then matched based on interests, field and geography. Prior to My Mentor, LinkedIn was one of the only ways students could connect with alumni—often through a chance invitation or suggestion to connect. Now, students and alumni can connect, set up video conferences and schedule meetings on a single site.
McPhail hopes that, in order to promote My Mentor, the Career Center and Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation can develop a partnership with Campus Union. The larger the database, he explained, the more useful it becomes.
Another of the office’s newer resources is Handshake. Handshake was introduced in March of 2019 and replaced Terrier Black Book. In addition to providing a place for searchable jobs and internships geared towards undergraduates, Handshake also allows students to engage in peer-to-peer mentoring. This gives students the chance to share their experiences at various places of employment so that others can know what to expect.
Recent data indicates that about 40% of Wofford students are “actively using” the site, meaning they have completed a profile and have uploaded a résumé and headshot. There are currently more than 5,200 jobs and 4,600 employers on Handshake, McPhail said. As of last February, 1,100 job applications had been submitted through the site.
My Mentor and Handshake, as well as LinkedIn, are three tools that allow students to learn about opportunities, jobs and company cultures. Each of these tools complement the work of the Career Center, which McPhail explained centers its work around three tenets: meeting students where they are, i.e., using individualized approaches to students’ needs; teaching (networking, interview conduct, résumé building and the like); and finally, promoting a four-year plan, which begins with creating a résumé in the first year and builds from there. However, McPhail emphasized that the concept of a four-year plan should not discourage students who have yet to meet with the Career Center in their second, third or even fourth year from doing so. “We’ll meet with you as many times as you make an appointment,” he said.
McPhail also discussed the nature of his office with particular attention to the distinction between Wofford’s Career Center and a traditional job center.
“There’s a difference between a job placement center and a career center. We would be doing students a disservice if we were a job placement agency, because [they] would walk in here, we would open our magical file cabinet, and we’d hand [them] an opportunity. [In this case] you haven’t learned anything about the strategies around doing that [or] the strategies of informational interviews and you just were handed something…You have no understanding on how to find your next opportunity.”
He continued: “I think what our role is as the Career Center is to add value to [the liberal arts education]. And the value that I think we see is, ‘How do we help people…make sure what they’re putting forward is the best that it can be? How do we help them present themselves in the best possible light?’”
McPhail also encouraged students to remain open to a variety of options as they search for internships and jobs.
“Your major should not define, for the most part, what you want to do,” he said.
What employers value in potential employees, he explained, is an ability and willingness to learn and a high level of emotional intelligence.
“We recruit opportunities for all kinds of students,” he continued, referring to a concern regarding a disproportionate number of employers brought in by the Career Center that seem to target finance and accounting majors, as well as students planning to enter the medical field.
“This is a fair assessment from the outside,” he said. He acknowledged, though, that “In a graduating class, there’s a disproportionate number of business majors and biology majors [and] the largest major[s] that we have right now are accounting and finance…” However, he also noted that, though many companies that Wofford brings to campus for job fairs may be identified with, for example, the business sector, they are more concerned with the ability of their employees to form relationships and be teachable than anything else.
In the fall 2019, the Career Center and Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation reported 1,466 students at appointments and events, in addition to having edited 876 documents (such as résumés) and conducted 60 mock interviews. The top services by appointment were about résumés and internships. They also reported a 98.8% and 99.8% average career outcome and knowledge rate, respectively, for 2019 graduates.
