Career Center PLAN BOOK

CAP 220-02
Bringing Students to the
Center
Client: The GVSU Career Center
Aja Nero-Williams
12/10/2015

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Table of Contents
Research
SecondaryResearch Pg. 2
FocusGroup Pg. 7
FocusGroup Moderator’sGuide Pg. 13
Survey Pg. 16
ActionPlan
Situational Analysis Pg. 25
SWOT Analysis Pg. 28
ObjectivesandStrategies Pg. 31
Budget Pg. 37
Tactics Pg. 38
CampaignEvaluation Pg. 41
References Pg. 43

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Executive Summary
Research
Secondary Research Findings
“Career Services Office”, “Career Placement Office”, “Career Services Center”, no matter
the varying name every accredited college in America has a career center. When an individual
decides to pursue a higher education, more likely than not that person made that decision in
order to have more opportunities to start or further their career. Career offices are to serve as
a guide and a resource for students to reach their goals from the start of their education.
Career Centers cater mostly to students, but each office must encourage and maintain
certain relationships in order to make that possible. Many employment agencies will partner
up with the career center of a local university and provide them with information about their
companies as well as job and internship postings. Professors can also add their support by
promoting the career center to their classes or initiate an internship program.
There is a standard list of services that each career center should offer to sufficiently
serve students, or be considered a “good” career center (Bradbury, 2015):
 Career Decision Making- A student will set up a meeting with a counselor so
they can determine the best degree program for their career goals. The
counselor assesses the student’s personality and skills, then suggests majors that
highlights and can further the student’s abilities.

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 Career Exploration- The center should have access to career related information
at each student’s disposal, in the event someone wants to start researching their
career path. There should also be a database of alumni who are willing to
discuss their current career with inquisitive students.
 Resume and Cover Letter Workshops- One-on-one sessions where the counselor
helps the student create or revise resumes, cover letters, and CV letters.
 Job Interview Preparation- A main concern of some students is having the ability
to present themselves well during an interview. Career centers that offer
interview preparation services usually sponsor workshops for this or schedule
mock interviews for the student to practice.
 On-campus recruiting- Events where employers of local businesses meet and
mingle with students, offering job opportunities or on-site interviews.
 Career Management System- A database or listing of jobs and internship
postings that is updated daily.
 Graduate School Advisement- Guidance for students who want to take their
education to the next step.
With any institution, having the ability to address and serve diverse populations is
critical. Groups such as minorities, women, and members of the LGBT community have specific
career related needs. For instance, students who are minorities or foreign could make great
use of a minority based professional network that the career center can grant access to.
Disabled people can have a hard time finding steady work; the career center can produce job

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listings that are guaranteed to accommodate disabled employees. A successful career center
would be able to provide information to many specific populations.
One part of being able to efficiently serve the student population as a whole is being
well staffed. The career center should have enough employees to handle the amount of cases
they receive. In the most effective career centers there are fewer than 1,100 caseloads per
counselor, which should permit at least one staff hour per student per year. Most career
services are short and custom by nature, so promising each student at least an hour in the year
is reasonable. If a career center cannot guarantee time for students, then it is essentially
purposeless.
Research conducted by Millennial Branding in 2014 indicates that career centers do not
hold a good reputation for Generation Y. This study took place between January and February
of that year, which surveyed 4,150 students and recent graduates from universities across
America. It was discovered that almost 50% of students admitted never accessing their school’s
career center services, and 61% feel that the center is rarely, if ever, effective in helping them
land a job. Part of this team’s conclusion is that there is a severe lack of staff support for the
students. Close to 1/3 of students felt that centers do not have enough staff to assist them.
Instead of the ideal 1,100 cases, the average counselor is trying to work with a caseload around
1,900.
Grand Valley Career Center
Grand Valley State University has a career center with two locations: one on the main
Allendale campus in the Student Services Building and the other on the downtown Pew campus

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in the DeVos center. Both sites offer full services and cater to students, faculty, and employers.
Cases are managed through majors, a staff member may have anywhere between 10 and 3,500
cases. Each staff member allocates a work day to five scheduled appointments plus drop-ins.
Based on the layout of their website, it seems that career-related events are the
center’s top priority. The first thing a person sees is a banner with three transitioning images,
two of which are promoting a different career fair. The last one promotes a page they have
called “Experience Matters”, where other students share their work and internship experiences
and the opportunities they opened up. The landing page is a schedule of all career events and
workshops to come up until November.
Grand Valley’s career center offers all of the aforementioned services for students with
some under different names. For example, GV has a career management systemcalled “The
LakerJob Board” where students can create a profile, upload their resume and other career
documents, and can search and apply for jobs with ease. It’s a database that is updated daily
by employers on and off campus. Users can filter the job search through categories such as
type of job experience and location. One could also mark “favorites” and save job postings to
apply for later. LakerJobs also provides a guide for creating a resume, phone interview tips, and
career related articles. The career center reaches out to local employers and allows them to
post any open positions to the job board.
Information is available for diverse populations as well. On the main menu bar at the
top of the webpage, there is a tab for “Diversity Resources.” Under this tab, there are services
separated by the groups they are tailored for:

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 Students of Color
 LGBT
 Disability
 Women
 International
 Veterans
The website extends a hand out to the school’s faculty to be involved with the career
center. Faculty and staff members can help the career center reach its goals by hosting
workshops the career center sponsors, beginning an internship, or simply promoting career-
related events to their classes. Faculty members are also encouraged to participate in Going
Global, a program that helps students who plan on studying abroad transition to their
destination country.
Grand Valley’s career center issued a report detailing statistics of alumni once they have
graduated. This could be a measure of the school’s overall success rate. Below is a summary
of the report’s findings:

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The office seems to be in line with the makings of a “successful” career center, but more
research must be conducted. Most students graduate and move on to start their careers, yet
student perceptions of the school’s center may be close to the perceptions found in Millennial
Branding’s study. The GVSU career center has expressed that they feel that students aren’t
aware of their presence. If future research reflects the findings in the MB study, then strategies
would need to be put in place to drive students to the career center. Also, the need to make
students feel like they are being adequately served is high. If GV students feel that the center
rarely helps them, then that could be the result of too many caseloads per counselor.
Therefore, strategies must be put in place to ensure that students get the attention they feel is
necessary when visiting the center.
Focus Group
On October 8, 2015, a focus group was conducted in order to find out perceptions of
Grand Valley’s career center from current GVSU students. The focus group contained eight

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people: five females and three males ranging from Junior to fifth year Senior status. Each
participant has spent their entire college career at GVSU up to this point.
With my partners Autumn Perez and Shabria Hathorn, we created a guide of questions
that we believe fully investigates the topic at hand. We organized all of our questions into four
categories: GVSU Students, Social Media, the Career Center, and Services. Within each
category, various trends in attitude were discovered.
METATHEME-GVSU STUDENTS
This category contained questions that are centered on the students and their lives at
Grand Valley. As a first step, it is extremely important to know the extent of students’
involvement and awareness of the university in general. Factors such as living on campus and
being employed can have a number of effects on a student’s perception of the career center.
Themes:
 Everyone to this point has been at GV consistently
 Overall confident with school building locations and knowledge
 Overall consensus: their current job is not in line with their career choice
As expected, many of the students currently live off campus. However, each participant
has spent their entire college career at Grand Valley. Each participant was also confident in
navigating the campus and being familiar with the main buildings. When asked about what
resources came to mind when thinking about Grand Valley, many were named (ie. the LGBT
resource center, the women’s center, etc.); but no one mentioned the career center. Each

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student in this group is currently working, and they all agreed that what they are doing now is
not what they want to pursue for a career.
METATHEME 1-SOCIAL MEDIA
We spent a short amount of time discussing aspects of social media. It is known that
college students often engage themselves by using various social media platforms. This section
provides clarity on which sites resonate with students, and can provide insight on the career
center’s reach over the internet.
Themes:
 Daily Facebook use
 Daily laptop and phone use
 Prefer social media and mass emails
Each participant had their own preferences with using different platform, but everyone
agreed that they are daily Facebook users. All students also agreed that they use their laptops
daily and check their phones countless times throughout the day. When asked about school
services or pages they might follow, two people mentioned following the GVSU Twitter page.
Currently, none of the participants follow GVSU’s career center on any available platform. We
asked the participants “What would be the best way for the career center to reach out to
students?” All agreed that Facebook and mass emails should be the center’s primary means of
informing students. A couple participants mentioned Twitter as a possibility as well.

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METATHEME 2-The Career Center
Once we covered all preliminary information, it was time to move on to the career
center section, which has more depth in exploring students’ awareness of the center as well as
all services, programs, and affiliated events .
Themes:
 Everyone is familiar with the center
 Few have visited/pursued
 Little participation in events and fairs
The group as a whole was familiar with the career center through advertisements, word
of mouth, and some promotion from professors and counselors. Yet out of the group of eight,
two have ever actually visited the center; these participants both felt adequately helped after
their visit. Also out of the eight, one has visited the career center’s page on the Grand Valley
website. This participant felt that the website was basic and user friendly, but she couldn’t
remember much more than that. Another participant noted that when she visited the career
center as a freshman, she did not feel welcome. She used to believe that the career center was
for people closer to graduating. A number of participants expressed having difficulty finding
the actual location of the career center. One suggested that they hold a mixer of sorts to get
student’s comfortable and gain familiarity with the center.
The group seemed familiar with the career center’s main services. A number of
participants admitted that they learned about some very useful services once they felt like it

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was “too late”. For instance one participant stated, “I just found out that they have interview
prep!” Considering the entire group is in Junior standing or higher, that could be seen as very
“late” information. Another participant pointed out that many professors talk about study
abroad opportunities often but do not mention the career center, and shifting that promotion
focus would help raise awareness. This person also suggested that the center should partner
with more student organizations, and the rest of the group agreed.
We also explored the group’s awareness of events hosted by the career center, such as
the career fair and internship fair. The majority participants have never been to a career center
event, but everyone has noticed or received some form of advertisement for such events. The
participants expressed interest in attending one of these events but could not go because:
1. There is usually a time conflict.
2. There is a lack of guidance.
The participants feel like these events should be hosted at a different time. The group mutually
agreed that the late afternoon is best, and noted that students should be able to attend these
events without an attendance penalty if the event happens to be during a class. The one
participant who did attend a career fair felt as if he needed more guidance. He attended the
event not knowing what to expect and he felt unprepared.
METATHEME 3-Services
This is the final section of questions, which explores the perception and awareness of
two of the center’s services: the LakerJob Board and Time for Ten.

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Themes:
 Most are familiar with or have used the job board
 Overall don’t like aesthetics or design of the job board
 Overall unfamiliar with Time for Ten
 Overall feeling of inadequate advertising for Time for Ten
The LakerJob Board is an online career management database. Students can use this
tool to apply to jobs and internships through connections the school maintains with local
employers. The majority of participants have heard of and used the LakerJob board. When
looking for employment, users in the group checked this board daily. Two students gained
employment using this tool. Everyone who used the job board also felt that the response rate
was better than other traditional job finders (Craigslist, Indeed, Monster, etc.).
Regarding the aesthetics of the board, users in this group were not pleased. They
agreed that they felt overwhelmed when navigating LakerJobs. Some felt that there are too
many options listed at once. Every user noted that the website needs a general update and
“facelift.”
Time for Ten is a fairly new program offered by the GVSU Career Center. It was created
for students who may not have time for a formal appointment. Students can stop by the career
center for ten minutes during a set time block of the day and speak with a counselor and
answer quick questions. The landing page of the career center’s website features an
advertisement for it.

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No one in the group was aware of this program. After explaining what it is, the group
agreed that it is a good idea to offer this. Everyone felt that this service is not advertised well,
and some participants suggested that the center would have more times and locations for this
service.
Conclusion
If this focus group were to serve as a representation of the student body as a whole,
then it would mean that many students have a cloudy perception of the career center. People
are aware that GV has one, and that there are some tools and events, but are unaware of the
extent of the center’s services. To summarize the main points made by the group, college
students typically have many things going on at once, so there should be more effort put into
promotion and working around the student’s availability. Students also feel that the center
needs to change the way it’s presented to appear welcoming to all student populations.
Moderator’s Guide
Focus Group Guide for Career Center
1. Introductory Material (5 minutes)
a. Welcome and purpose of Focus Group
i. Moderator and Group introducethemselves and thank participants for coming
ii. Assignment for CAP220 Class
iii. The campus issuewe will be discussingis GVSU Career center
b. Explanation and signingof complianceform
i. Your participation is voluntary.
ii. You may withdrawat any time without penalty or prejudice.
iii. Any personal information you givewill be kept confidential.
iv. Verify that you are 18 years of age or older.
v. Session may be recorded, ( video and audio)
1. information justused in report for class
2. Your name will notbe published in report
c. Time:

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. This focus group will takeapproximately 45 -50 minutes
d. Moderator’s role
. Start topics
i. Facilitatediscussion
ii. Keep discussion on topic
e. Guidelines and ground rules
. Pleaseturn off cell phones
i. Talk to each other not to me
ii. Answer honesty – No rightor wrong answers
iii. One person talks ata time
iv. Be respectful of others – respect each other's input
v. Make your answers as specific as possible
2. Participantintroductions (3 minutes)
a. Pleasetell us a littlebitabout yourself
b. Name, year in school,special interestor organizational affiliation
3. Body of the discussion ( 35-40 minutes)
a. GVSU Students:
i. Where do you live?
1. Probe: Do you live on campus, off campus, apartment, at home, other?
ii. What year are you?
1. Probe: How many years have you been in college,
iii. If you are a freshmen how do you like the campus so far?
1. Probe: Do you think it is too big, convenient, confusing, easy to remember?
iv. Have you been at GVSU all four years?
1. Probe: If not did you transfer, did you take a break?
v. Do you work?
1. Probe: On campus, off campus, back at home, how many hours?
vi. Is your current job something you see doingfor the rest of your life?
1. Probe: Is your job related to the field you want to go in? if not why are you
working in that job? What job do you want and why haven't you pursued
looking for it?
vii. If you liveon campus how familiarareyou with all of the buildings on campus?
1. Probe: can you name a few of them?
viii. Are you aware of any of the services campus has to offer?
1. Probe: Can you name some of the services? One at a time.
b. Social Media:
i. Do any of you have any social media platforms ?
1. Probe: What ones do you use, which one do you use the most, why?
ii. How often are you on your laptop?
1. Probe: Laptop v.s. phone?
iii. Do you followany of the school's social media sites?
1. Probe: If yes, which ones? Do you follow GVSU on facebook, instagram, 2020
desk
iv. Now I want to ask you about one of the services in particular,Do you follow the career center on
facebook?
1. Probe:
c. The Career Center:
i. Who has heard of the career center?

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1. Probe: How did you hear about it, friend, teacher, poster, sign, website,
yourself, work their?
ii. Have you ever visited the career center website?
1. Probe: if so, what did you think about it? Was it easy to navigate around it?
iii. What elements do you look for in the help of the career center?
1. Probe: Can you exaggerate on that? What do you mean? What are some that
would make a good career center (if you have/haven't) been to it/one.
iv. What is mostimportant to you when visiting/ or plan on visitingthecareer center, Internships,choosinga
major,future careers,or study abroad opportunities?
1. Probe: Why?
v.
vi. Out of all the communication platforms,which one do you believe is beneficial for getting the word out
about events around campus?
1. Probe: Which one do you think is best for the career center to reach Gvsu
students more effectively?
vii. Perceptions:Overall,whatis your current perception of the Career Center?
1. ALSO: What are some statements or opinions you can recall from friends and
other students when talking about the center?
viii. There are many events that the Career Center hosts, such as job and internship fairs.
1. Who all here has seen advertisements for such events? What mediums?
2. YES: How would you say you responded to the advertisement? Did it draw you
in?
3. Has anyone ever attended any of these events?
4. YES: Which event? Describe your experience? How well do you feel the event
was organized? What would you suggest to improve that?
d. Services provided and not provided
i. If you ever heard of the career center, how do you hear about the events they have going on around
campus?
1. Probe: Do you hear them thru GVSU website, orgs/peers, Twitter, Signs on
campus, etc
ii. If the career center was to add a career lab to help reach your need more proficiently would you take
advantage of this resource?
1. Probe: Why or why not?
iii. Who has heard of the LakerJob Board?
1. Probe:
a. No:Provide shortdescription,then continue
b. Yes: When job hunting, how often did/do you check the board? (multipletimes a day, once a day,weekly,
etc.)
iv. Have you ever found employment usingthis tool?
1. Probe: what job did you find,what were you lookingfor?
2. Probe:
. How is the response rate on LakerJobs compared to going door to door or other job sites (monster,
indeed, etc.?)
a. USER FRIENDLINESS: How do you likethe appearanceof LakerJobs? How do you feel about navigating
through the site?
v. Has everyone here heard of Time for Ten?
1. Probe:
. No: provide short description then continue:
a. Yes: How often do you notice advertisingfor it? Through which mediums?
b. Who here has actually used it?

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i. Probe: (Yes): How would you describe your experience, (No): why haven’t you?
c. GENERAL: How do you feel about this idea?
vi. What would help you to set up an appointment to talk to someone about your future?
1. Probe: Do you think freshman and sophomore year is too ear? Just right?
4. Conclusion ( 3 minutes)
a. Conclude the findings found with the information we have collected.
i. Summarize
b. We have almostcome to the end of our focus group session.Is thereanything elseyou would liketo add
or one piece of adviceyou could give to improve the GVSU career center?
c. Do the observers need clarification on any points?
d. Do you have any other questions or concerns about what was conducted here?
e. Thank you so much for your participation!Wetruly appreciateyour help with our classproject.
Survey
Introduction
Grand Valley’s Career Center is seeking to improve the quality of their services and
the overall perception students’ may have towards the center. The career center has
two locations: one in Allendale in the Student Services Building, and the other is
downtown in the Devos Center. The GV Career Center wants to build awareness and
increase engagement, all while supplying student needs in a way that fits the student
best.
Survey Design
The survey my group and I designed is made up of two pages which equal a total of
10 questions. The first page of questions contains the demographic questions and the
second page is more career center specific. This was created on SurveyMonkey and
distributed through mass emails and social media promotion. Each question is designed

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to measure the student’s awareness of the career center and which areas of service
need to improve.
Results
1. What is your class standing
2. Type of Student
3. Major
a. Advertising/Public Relations: 15
b. Health Communications: 2
c. Communications: 2
d. Liberal Studies: 1
e. English: 1
f. Biomedical Sciences: 1

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g. Nursing: 1
h. Public and non-profit administration: 1
i. Film and video: 1
j. Photography: 1
k. Special Education: 1
4. Employment status
5. Are you aware that GVSU has a career center?
6. If you’ve gone to the career center, did you feel like you received the help you
needed regarding your future?

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7. Have you ever gained employment using LakerJobs?
8. Do you feel the career center is hard to locate?
9. Do you feel that the career center does well with accommodating to students’
schedules?

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10.What do you feel is/are the best way(s) for the career center to inform
students?
Demographic Findings
We were able to collect 26 responses. This is not the ideal number for a
representative sample; however it is what we have so my analysis will be based on that
population.

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Out of the 26 respondents, the majority (38.6%) are in Junior class standing. In order
after that comes Seniors, Sophomores, Super Seniors and then Freshman coming in with
the least respondents (7.69%). This may indicate that Juniors has the highest level of
concern when regarding the career center because they are close to graduation and
thinking about the senior year ahead. Majority of the respondents are currently in an
undergraduate program. Only three are transfer students and one is a graduate
student. Majority of the respondents also hold a major in the communications
department; there were only 2 biomedical sciences majors, one nursing, and one
photography.
61% of this population is currently employed. 19.23% are unemployed and looking
and another 19.23% is unemployed and not interested in finding work.
Survey Findings
Four out of the 26 respondents are not aware that GVSU has a career center.
Awareness may be an issue, but it may not be the main issue of concern. 11
respondents actually visited the center; and out of them, eight people felt like the
career center adequately helped them out and three did not share this feeling. The
remainder of respondents has never been to the career center. This could be because
this group didn’t feel the need to go. In the focus group that was conducted in early

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October, many of the participants weren’t fully aware of the services that the career
center offered. This could be the cause of the skewed numbers.
Fitting this into the campaign:
This information supports the basis of the first strategy in the Career Center’s action
plan: To inform students of the services the career center has to offer. Students may
not have felt the need to visit the career center because they didn’t know all it has to
offer. Awareness of the career center will increase with exposure of their niche
product.
Regarding the Laker Job Board, three respondents never heard of it. We asked if
students ever received employment using LakerJobs or if they’ve received a job through
any other career center service. Seven students successfully found a job through
LakerJobs, but no one received employment from using any other career center
resource. This may also be why some students do not feel the need to visit the center
or why some students didn’t feel helped when they did visit the center. This also
indicates that a lot of students prefer the LakerJob board over other listing sites.
Though it wasn’t discussed in the survey, the findings of the focus group must be kept in
mind, and the focus group expressed that the overall look and navigability of the
LakerJob board is displeasing.

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With this information, it is logical to try a cosmetic upgrade for the LakerJob board.
Re-vamping the directory would encourage more students to use it, and make it more
comfortable to use for current users. If the upgrade is treated with public exposure,
then it would direct more traffic to the tool as well.
Majority (38.46%) of respondents feel that the career center is just a little hard to
locate. 34.62% feel that the centers are easy to find. Perhaps the center should
implement a small increase of “hand holding” for the students to reach the center
appropriately.
This campaign will include a strategy for increasing awareness of the center,
especially during a student’s freshman and junior year.
Students were asked if they felt the career center accommodates well with their
schedules. College students usually have an overflowing plate of an incredibly busy
schedule, so it is imperative to know if the career center can fit in time with any student
who needs assistance. Seven students felt that they could easily schedule an
appointment with the center. Only one respondent expressed going through difficulties
when trying to schedule an appointment. The remainder of the students has no opinion

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on the matter. Since one responded filled in the negative answer, their experience may
have been circumstantial. The people with no opinion more than likely contains the
people who have never been to the center.
Coupled with the results from the focus group, I believe there should be an emphasis
on the career center’s Time for Ten program. This walk-in opportunity would be great
for students who have a hard time scheduling a formal appointment or may not have
time to at all.
The final question discusses the possibilities of communication. Over what medium
would students prefer to receive information from the career center?
College students of this generation pretty much live on the internet, so it isn’t a
surprise that the majority of students feel that mass emails, social media, and online ads
are the best ways of informing and getting in contact with students. Face to face
interaction is more personal, and it seems that students would like to experience more
of that. The one “other” response details referral; sharing of information through
classroom professors.

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With the information above, the action plan for the career center will contain mainly
electronic forms of communication.
Conclusion
Based on the findings of this survey, awareness of GV’s career center is not the main
issue, but rather awareness of their services is. Increasing engagement and traffic
begins with drawing more attention to what the center offers. With this survey, we can
determine the best way to reach out to students and work on rebranding the career
center so that it’s more student friendly and isn’t associated with “professionally
awkward” tone.
Action plan
Situational Analysis
The career center of Grand Valley Statue University has indicated that they are having
issues with reaching students properly. The center aims to provide career related services to
the student population. The center wants to build awareness of its’ presence and supply
student needs in the best way for them.

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In order to determine the true needs of the career center some research was
conducted, including a focus group and a survey distributed throughout the university.
The GVSU career center has two full service locations on their two main campuses,
Allendale and Pew in Grand Rapids. The center has a webpage on the main GVSU website.
They also hold a presence on Facebook (1,283 likes), Twitter (3,736 followers), Instagram (139
followers), and Pintrest (586 followers). Their services include:
 Career Decision Making- A student will set up a meeting with a counselor so
they can determine the best degree program for their career goals. The
counselor assesses the student’s personality and skills, then suggest majors that
highlights and can further the student’s abilities.
 Time for Ten- In the day, there is a block of time that students can come in
without an appointment, and discuss any concerns that can be covered within 10
minutes. This is designed for students with busy schedules.
 Career Exploration
 Resume and Cover Letter Workshops- One-on-one sessions where the counselor
helps the student create or revise resumes, cover letters, and CV letters.
 Job Interview Preparation- Tips and mock interview practice.
 On-campus recruiting- Events where employers of local businesses meet and
mingle with students, offering job opportunities or on-site interviews.
 Career Management System- Here it’s called LakerJobs or the Laker Job Board.
It’s a database or listing of jobs and internship postings that is updated daily.

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 Graduate School Advisement- Guidance for students who want to take their
education to the next step.
The center feels that lack of awareness is the main issue. To explore that possibility, a
survey was distributed among the student body. Based on the findings of this survey,
awareness of GV’s career center is not the main issue, but rather awareness of their services is.
A great majority of the respondents were aware that the center existed, but were unfamiliar
with all the center has to offer.
A focus group was conducted to determine some perceptions around the center. Most
students know that there is a career center, so perceptions around it could be a factor why the
center is experiencing low engagement. The focus group indicated that the student body’s
perception of the career center is cloudy. People are aware that GV has one, and that there
are some tools and events, but are unaware of the extent of the center’s services. To
summarize the main points made by the group, college students typically have many things
going on at once, so there should be more effort put into promotion and working around the
student’s availability. Students also feel that the center needs to change the way it’s presented
to appear welcoming to all student populations.

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Below is a SWOT analysis of the GVSU career center:
Strengths:
 Locations on main campuses
 Offers standard services
 Offers services based on diversity
needs
Weaknesses:
 LakerJob Board Design
 Specific locations-hard to find
 Promotion methods
Opportunities:
 Time for Ten
 Social Media Presence, especially
Facebook
 Career Events
 Welcome and orientation events
 Student Organizations
Threats:
 Word of mouth with negative
perceptions
 Current navigability of the website
Strengths:
The career center falls in line with the standards of a successful career center when it
comes to the services they offer. The survey shows that most students who have received help
from the career center felt adequately helped. The GVSU career center has all of the parts, and
the car runs well; it’s just that the information isn’t getting out there. The career center has an
authentic product, which already makes it that much easier to market.
Another big strength is that the center has locations on the main campuses. That is
another fact that may go over many students’ heads in the information overload of college.
The center also provides career related resources to many diverse populations, such as
women, international students, LGBT students, those with a disability and even veterans.
These services need to be highlighted as well because these populations may not know the
career center could help them.

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Weaknesses:
During the focus group, there were many participants who were unsatisfied with the
appearance of the LakerJob Board. They felt that the board was a bit hard to navigate and
were displeased with the aesthetics of the site in general.
Even though there are two accessible locations, getting to the specific room of a specific
building proved to be a little difficult for the majority of survey participants. Some noted they
could have used more guidance.
There may be an issue with how the career center promotes their services and events.
There is a great deal of print advertising and only some online promotion. College students
spend most of their time on a laptop, or smartphone, and are constantly checking the internet
for a variety of reasons. It is more likely for the targeted public to notice an advertisement
online than posted on a bulletin board. Some participants in the focus group felt that they
could have used more guidance coming in.
Opportunities:
Time for Ten is one of the services offered by the career center. College students have
an incredibly busy schedule, and Time for Ten caters to that. Students can come in any time
during a designated portion of the day for any quick questions or concerns if they don’t have
time for a formal appointment. The focus group indicated that this was a great idea, but no
one in the group had heard of it prior to the study. Capitalizing on this could help reach the
student public and increase engagement.

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A good way to reach out to college students is through a strong social media presence.
The GVSU career center has an account for many mainstream platforms. Individually, students
have their own preferences as far as social media goes, but almost every single student has a
Facebook account, whether it be for work, class, or personal. The survey indicated that
students feel social media is the best way to inform students and the focus group expressed
that Facebook would be the best platform for this goal.
One of the misperceptions of the career center is that it’s mainly designed to service
students with a junior or senior standing. We could change this perception by marketing more
to freshmen and sophomores, reaching out to them and highlight that the center has services
for all students and serves them equally.
To get students to engage with them, they should engage more with students. A perfect
way of doing this is to partner up with a few student organizations for events or workshops.
Threats:
Negative or inaccurate perceptions about the center tend to spread fast, and the
students listen. A student who hears the career center only serves juniors and seniors will
more than likely never step foot in the center.
The webpage on the main GVSU website is also a little difficult for students to navigate,
according to the focus group. An unpleasant experience on the website can deter a student
from revisiting.

31 | P a g e
Objectives
Based on the findings of my research, the Grand Valley career center should have three
primary objectives: Increase student awareness of services through engagement. Mainly,
have solicitation of services increase of 30% by December 2016. The career center should
identify the entire student body as their general public, but the key publics for this campaign
are freshmen and sophomores. As students getting accustomed to life outside of high school,
they will need more guidance. Plus it will reduce the number of juniors and seniors who learn
about the center “when it’s late.” This campaign is designed to run for one calendar year, from
the start of the winter semester in January 2016 to the end of the fall semester in December
2016.
Strategy 1: We want to inform the student body of some of the services the career center has
to offer. Time for Ten should especially be highlighted because students have very hectic
schedules, and this is an opportunity with a great deal of potential.
An idea I have is to create an online promotion. The overall theme of it would be “What
could you do with 10 minutes?” The promotion would include a hashtag and a video.
The video would be a commercial, featuring a respected figure on campus. The overall
message of the commercial would be “Didn’t you have a question about your resume? You
could stop by the career center.” The commercial would be humorous, and the respected
figure in it would increase its likelihood of being shared.

32 | P a g e
The hashtag is designed to go along with the commercial. The hashtag #Time410GV can
become associated with the service and the commercial. Students who go to Time for Ten can
be encouraged to post something about their experience with that hashtag in the post. The
hashtag can be promoted in the commercial as a way to get it noticed as well.
After a few months of the commercial and hashtag circulating, a new branch of the
campaign can start. This is where the engagement comes in: A new promotion will begin
where students can send in their own video renditions of the Time for Ten commercial, with
#Time410GV tagged on it. Each week a different student’s video will be featured on YouTube,
Facebook, and the main GVSU career center webpage. Not only is this promotion designed to
increase awareness, but also increase engagement of services.
Measurable Goals:
1. Time for Ten engagement increase of 10% by December 2016.
2. Original commercial views of 5,000+ by December 2016 (based on the average amount
of views for top Grand Valley videos.)
3. Ongoing: Progress of the #Time410GV hashtag
Strategy 2: The career center can strengthen their presence on campus and increase
engagement of students by getting involved with student organizations.
The career center could pair up with career related student orgs and organizations with
a diverse nature, like the Advertising and Public Relations Club or the Freshman Queer Alliance

33 | P a g e
for example. In these partnerships, the center can provide workshops during a club meeting or
set up meetings with an experienced guest speaker. Hosting workshops with these clubs would
be a way for the career center to come to the students, the ones with career related concerns.
Also, visiting these clubs would show how the career center is able to cater to these audiences.
The career center hosts different events throughout the academic year, like the career
and internship fairs. While partnering with these organizations, the career center can extend
formal invitations to these events to these clubs. In the focus group, some participants noted
that they were unaware of the fairs that the career center hosted. Being involved with many
organizations and spreading word through them dramatically increases the organic reach of
that information.
Measurable Goals:
1. Host a workshop with 10 organizations by the end of April 2016.
2. Increase of Career Fair attendance by 10% in the next Career Fair.
Strategy 3: The career center needs to shift the perceptions that are around it, and one way to
do that is by improving their presence on the GVSU website and the LakerJob board. I suggest
there be a cosmetic upgrade on both platforms.
The layout of the main GV webpage could be changed to be more “user friendly” and
somehow showcase that they serve everyone from freshmen through alumni.

34 | P a g e
Also, improving the look of the LakerJob Board will improve the experience for the
student, and they are more likely to pass the tool on to other students with positive reviews.
The career center could use this as an opportunity to engage with students more. The career
center could host a competition for coding and art students to come up with their best design
of both platforms. The student with the best design will have their work implemented into the
new websites and win a $150 cash or gift card prize.
Measurable Goal:
1. 15% increase of user likeability on each platform by the end of December 2016
Strategy 4: Students feel that they don’t get the information that they should at the times that
they should. In order to serve students better, the career center needs to improve how they
distribute information among students.
In the survey findings, students noted that the best way to get information to them
would be via social media, mass emails, and online advertising. Based on that, the career
center should reallocate some of the weight from their print advertisements and go online.
Just as with any other official school message, the career center should be able to send
out a few mass emails or newsletters to students throughout the year. For instance, one
reminds students of certain services, one to announce events coming up, etc. College students
must check their email multiple times a day, so finding a way into their inboxes would ensure

35 | P a g e
they notice more announcements. These newsletters can be sent out on a monthly basis, so it
could serve as a light reminder and not be considered too spammy.
Alongside of that, the career center should draw more attention to their Facebook page.
In the focus group, every single participant owned a Facebook account. Due to the nature of
social media today, the majority of Grand Valley has a Facebook account and checks it daily.
The Facebook page is active enough, so we should draw focus on gaining more “likes” on the
page. This can be done in a number of ways, including but not limited to:
 Plugging the career center Facebook page in newsletters
 Encouraging visitation and likes after consultation
 Linking the #Time410GV hashtag and videos to the page
The Career Fair is one of the biggest events put on by the career center every year, and
it should continue to grow. Every student should know that this fair is available to them. Also
note that during the focus group, a few participants expressed having trouble at the event.
They attended it not fully knowing what was in store. I suggest that a press release be sent out
to the Greater Grand Rapids news outlets. A press release will have more details about the
event than a flier, and it could contain the information students need to feel better prepared
when attending the career fair. Also, being able to engage with media partners would expand
awareness incredibly, and it could attract more potential employers who want to express
interest in Grand Valley.

36 | P a g e
Measurable Goal:
1. Increase of Career Fair attendance of 10% by the next Career Fair
2. Gain 500 likes on the Facebook page by the end of December 2016
Strategy 5: The career center should target incoming freshmen to make sure students have the
information they need right from the start.
38.4% of students have expressed that the career center could be just a little hard to
locate. While this is seen as a weakness, there is a fun opportunity within this. The career
center could host a scavenger hunt for incoming freshmen. The hunt would ultimately lead to
the career center locations, as well as inform students of the services offered through hints and
clues in the hunt.
Another tactic would be to encourage promotion from professors who instruct
fundamental classes. These instructors could offer extra credit as an incentive for students to
either:
 Visit the career center
 Use a career center service or sign up for the LakerJob Board
 Or even just to search the website and present something they learned about it
 Anything that they can come up with regarding the center

37 | P a g e
Measurable Goal:
1. A 10% decrease of students who feel the center is hard to locate by the end of
December 2016
2. A 15% increase of users on the LakerJob board by December 2016
Estimated Project Budget: $4,015.00
1. New Video Production: $0-$500
2. Hashtag Tracking Analytics: $0-$120
3. Workshops for student organizations: $450
a. Labor- 24 hours in the year
b. Materials- print items and misc. practice supplies
4. Website and LakerJob Board graphic revamp
a. Promotions- $85
i. Social Media Image 5x 5"
Web Ad (1 Week)
Plasma Ad (1 Week)
1 Facebook and Twitter post
3 Hours Of Design Time
b. Prize money- $150
c. Coding services- $1,500
5. Press Release draft and distribution: $270
6. Newsletter template design: 0-$20
7. Scavenger hunt design and implementation: $680
a. Promotions- $180
i. 1 Inkjet Paper Banners 42"x72"
150 Black & White Posters 11"x17"
400 Black & White Pluggers
Web Ad (1 Week)
Plasma Screen Ad (1 Week)
Campus Posting
4 Hours Of Design Time
b. Materials-up to $500
8. Membership of online tracking tools: $200
9. Survey design and implementation: $40

38 | P a g e
Tactics
News Release: The purpose of the news release is to draw more attention to one of the career
center’s main events, the Winter Career Fair. Press releases are best for when a company wants
to reach out to external publics that may otherwise never get the chance to receive such
information.
Grand ValleyState University—CareerCenter Immediate Release
PressRelease
For more information,contact:AjaNero-Williams
15614 MountVernon,Southfield,MI48075
Phone:248-667-1643
Email:nerowila@mail.gvsu.edu
WINTER CAREER FAIR COMING UP
February 18—Grand ValleyState Universityishostingtheirannual WinterCareerFairon
Thursday,February25, 2015. “It’s goingto be evenbiggerthanlastyear!”said LisaKnapp,directorof
the career center. There will be over200 employersofferinginformation,interviews,andimmediate
hires. The fairwill runfrom1:00PM-5:00PM at the followingaddress:
DeVos Place Convention Center
303 Monroe Ave NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Thiseventisopento all studentsandalumni of the local collegesanduniversities. Attendees
are encouragedtodressprofessionallyandhave multiple copiesof theirresumeonhand. More
informationisavailable at www.gvsu.edu/careers.
Grand ValleyState University—CareerCenter, 206 StudentServicesBuilding,Allendale,MI49401 (616)-
331-3311, email:careers@gvsu.edu

39 | P a g e
Advertisement for Web Design Contest: This is an advertisement that could be used over the
web or as a print ad. It’s designed to gain the attention of students who may possess the
creative and technical skill to redesign the LakerJob board. The red motherboard design will
hopefully catch the eye on the light blue background.
Newsletter: This newsletter is designed to go out once a month to all students via mass email,
highlighting the events in that month to come. It will include features of experience matters,
reminders of services, and tips for interviews and job hunting.

41 | P a g e
CampaignEvaluation
In order to measure the efforts of a public relations campaign, there are evaluations
done before, during, and after actual implementation. The hope is to be able to measure a
change in outcome or outputs. Also, it’s best to evaluate each separate component of a
campaign, rather than the entire campaign as a whole. This will help determine which parts of
the campaign are succeeding and failing, so you can know exactly what to change if need be.
For this particular campaign, the list of measurable goals is composited below.
1. Time for Ten engagement increase of 10% by December 2016.
2. Original commercial views of 5,000+ by December 2016 (based on the average amount
of views for top Grand Valley videos.)
3. Ongoing: Progress of the #Time410GV hashtag
4. Host a workshop with 10 organizations by the end of April 2016.
5. Increase of Career Fair attendance by 10% in the next Career Fair.
6. 15% increase of user likeability on each platform(LakerJob Board and Web Page) by
the end of December 2016
7. Gain 500 likes on the Facebook page by the end of December 2016
8. A 10% decrease of students who feel the center is hard to locate by the end of
December 2016
9. A 15% increase of users on the LakerJob board by December 2016
Goals 1 and 5 are action goals that will be measured by count and attendance, compared to
the year prior. Goals 2, 3, 7, and 9 will be measured with the use of social media analytics and
tracking, along with observation of activity on these pages. These will be an ongoing
observation periodically throughout the timeline of the campaign. Goal 4 will be measured
through planning and keeping up with the schedule for working with student organizations. A
short survey can be given to club leaders in order to evaluate how the club liked having the
Career Center as a guest. As for goals 6 and 8, these will be evaluated with a survey in the

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middle of the campaign and at the end, to gauge perceptions of the newly designed platforms
and the center in general.

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References
Bradbury,P. (2015, 9 29). WhatDo College Career ServicesOfficesDo? RetrievedfromAboutCareers:
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/careerchoicechan/a/career_services.htm
Clark,K. (2014, July14). Howto Judgea Collegeby its Career Services Office. RetrievedfromTime:
http://time.com/money/2982931/college-career-services-office-job-placement/
GVSU Career Center.(2015, September29).RetrievedfromGrandValleyState University:
http://www.gvsu.edu/careers/
Jr.,D. A.(2007). Howto Plan and Develop a Career Center. Infobase Publishing.
Knapp,L. (2015, September30).CareerCenterQuestions.(A.Nero-Williams,Interviewer)
Office,G.V.(2014). 2012-2013 Post-GraduationEmploymentReport. Allendale:GrandValleyState
University.
Vogt,P.(2015, 12 9). Whatto ExpectFrom YourCampusCareerCenter. RetrievedfromMonster:
http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/career-assessment/what-expect-campus-career-
center/article.aspx

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