BYU’s career relationship managers hook students upB y J O S E P H M O X O N

BYU’s relationship managers are second to none at hooking students up ... with a career.

Perhaps surprisingly for some, BYU hasn’t invested in full-time “love gurus” but has “career gurus” on lock. BYU Career Services has rechristened its counselors as “career relationships manag-ers” because they do more for students than counsel them on which classes to take. They essentially set students up on “blind dates” with poten-tial employers and make sure they’re on their “A-game.”

Jodi Chowen, the new direc-tor of University Career Ser-vices, is behind the strategic shift from career counselor status to career relationship manager. She explained why “relationship manager” is a more accurate title for what her team is involved in.

“Traditionally, career coun-selors are known for their involvement, mostly on the stu-dent side,” Chowen said. “The goal with the new title of ‘career relationships managers’ is to empower our staff to be manag-ers of career processes for the people we assist.”

Career relationships manag-ers will help students search for jobs and help employers connect to globally prepared candidates through on-campus recruitment, interviews and internships.

“This requires a lot of rela-tionship building so that our career relationship manag-ers will be a trusted source for careers from any one of these constituencies,” Chowen said.

Monte Marshall, who spe-cifically assists engineering students, said helping students secure a good career takes three steps: working with students individually, work-ing with campus entities and career fairs and facilitating employer relations.

“That’s a really big part of what we do — going out, selling BYU to great employers, trying to find the very best opportuni-ties for our students to go forth and serve — to have opportuni-ties where they can really have an influence,” Marshall said.

With approximately 30,000 students, BYU has only seven career relationship managers, but they don’t work alone. BYU also has a recruiting services team dedicated to facilitating employers’ recruiting needs.

Tony Jewkes is the manager of employer and external rela-tions and oversees the team that coordinates all BYU job post-ings and recruiting activities such as interviews, information sessions and the general career fair. Jewkes tries to convince employers to invest the time and expense required to visit

Provo and meet BYU students.“BYU graduates are pre-

pared, professional and prin-cipled,” Jewkes said. “What has been most effective is to share what I’ve learned from other employers who have hired BYU students in the past.”

Marshall said some strive to convince employers to hire just one intern from BYU because if they do, they’ll want more. One example is the team of BYU graduates working for the Dis-covery Channel. Management started by hiring one unpaid intern and was so impressed that they kept coming back to BYU for more — not just for interns, but for full-time employees as well.

Career Services works closely with the Marriott School of Management, which has its own career center, but most of

its principles are the same as those of the main campus.

Logan Foutz, a recent Mar-riott School graduate from Fa r ming ton, New Mexico, began working for CSX, one of the nation’s leading trans-portation sup-pliers, when h e g r a d u -ated. Of more t h a n 1 , 6 0 0 a p p l i c a n t s from all over the country, three of the seven hired at CSX were BY U g radu-ates. Foutz attributed this to BYU’s services.

“Getting a job is about who you know and how they per-ceive you,” Foutz said. “BYU

does a good job per fect-ing your attri-b u t e s a n d d i s p l a y i n g them. Mock i n t e r v i e w s helped a ton,” he said.

W h i l e d oi n g w e l l in class and g r a d u a t i n g is important, c o m p e t i t i o n for jobs is a problem. So what can stu-dents do to stand out?

“Students ... need to be think-ing ‘career’ early on. You need

to be thinking: ‘How do I build my résumé?’ Why are employ-ers going to choose you? Just part-time work, an internship or those kinds of things make all the difference,” Marshall said.

Marshall’s second sugges-tion is that students recognize available resources to help with career development and getting hired after college. He also suggested using “The Bridge” at bridge.byu.edu that was released this spring.

“If you want to interview with a company that’s coming to campus, that’s where you’ll sign up for interviews. That’s where you’ll find out about career fairs,” Marshall said.

McKenzie Lawyer Davies is the career relationship man-ager assigned to to the Fam-ily, Home and Social Sciences Department. She also works with the Kennedy Center for International Studies.

“Studying abroad is a huge asset,” Davies said. “Employ-ers want students with well-rounded experience. A study abroad is a great way to show that you have a well-rounded education, cultural competen-cies and that you work hard. It can help with language acquisi-tion, which is one of the ‘num-ber one’ skills BYU produces.”

Davies attested to the perks of study abroad programs from personal experience.

“When interviewing with a government agency in graduate school for a very competitive internship, my interviewers only asked questions about my time in Spain,” she said. “Inter-national experience is a way to demonstrate further skills, interests and competencies.”

The “career gurus” are ded-icated to the success of BYU students. Students can take advantage of their services and let them manage their relation-ships with future employers.

More information can be found at ucs.byu.edu and the Career Services office in 2400 WSC.

NEXT: UNIVERSITY FORUM

This event will also be broadcast to the JSB Auditorium.

TODAYUNIVERSITY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, September 16, 11:05 a.m.,

Marriott Center

Elder Dale G. Renlund was sustained a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2009. At the time of his call he had been serving as a member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy in the Utah Salt Lake City Area. After receiving an MD degree from the University of Utah, Elder Renlund received further medical and research train-ing at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

He was a professor of medi-cine at the University of Utah and the medical director of the Utah Transplantation Affiliated Hospitals (UTAH) Cardiac Transplant Program. Elder Renlund served as a full-time missionary in Sweden and as a stake president, bishop, and Area Seventy. A native of Salt Lake City, Elder Renlund is married to Ruth Lybbert, and they are the parents of one daughter.

Elder Dale G. RenlundMember of the First Quorum of the Seventy

Mickey EdwardsFormer congressman and founder of the Heritage Foundation

Selected speeches available at http://speeches.byu.edu.

Sept. 23, 11:05 a.m.Marriott Center

PLAN NOW TO ATTEND.

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WORRY

THE TWIGLIGHT ZONE HAS ALL OF YOURSUGARY NEEDS

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WORRY

THE TWIGLIGHT ZONE HAS ALL OF YOURSUGARY NEEDS

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.com • (801)422-2400

BYU Career Services

BYU Career Services Counseling and Recruiting Team back row left to right: Dottie Jensen, Brindisi Olsen, Beth Hiatt, Monte Marshall, Jony Jewkes, Richard Ang, Heidi Vogeler, Judy Pearce, Becky Li. Front row left to right: Allison Coe, McKenzie Lawyer Davies, Jodi Chowen, Lisa Christensen, Barbara Thompson.

“The goal with the new title of ‘career

relationships managers’ is to empower our

staff to be managers of career processes for the people we assist.”

Jodi ChowenDirector of University Career Services

The Universe, September 16 – 22, 2014 3