On Monday, Aug. 29, Syracuse University Career Services unveiled ‘CuseConnect, the new community for connecting SU students and grads with established alumni for career guidance and exploration. This community will reside on LinkedIn.com, the popular professional networking site on which more than 70,000 SU students and alumni currently have profiles.
‘CuseConnect replaces Mentor@SU, a program that has successfully hand-matched students with established alumni mentors for career networking since 2006.
‘CuseConnect will give students and grads the opportunity to connect with alumni who have volunteered to serve as career resources. Before gaining access to the community of alumni, students will need to attend a ‘CuseConnect Orientation offered through Career Services. In this session, they will learn key networking skills and best practices for effectively communicating with alumni.
Unlike Mentor@SU, ‘CuseConnect will not hand-match students with alumni. Instead, students will be free to connect with as many alumni as they wish.
“As they explore careers and prepare to enter the job market, it is critical for us to offer students an opportunity to foster relationships with alumni across different career fields and geographies,” says Mike Cahill, director of Career Services. “As such, we’ve changed the structure of our alumni networking program to make it easier for students and recent grads to gain career information and advice from alumni.”
Kim Brown, alumni programs coordinator in Career Services, will serve as the primary administrator of ‘CuseConnect.
“LinkedIn is where professional networking is happening,” says Brown. “Moving our alumni networking program to LinkedIn makes sense because it will help students to learn the ins and outs of the site—a site which will most likely play a key role in their career development well into the future.”
‘CuseConnect can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4052030. Individuals will need to “request to join” the group.
For more information about ‘CuseConnect or other alumni career networking offerings, contact Brown at kmbrow04@syr.edu, 443-3616.
