The document discusses the deficiencies in the Career Development Office's (CDO) website at Yale SOM, highlighting that nearly 60% of students are unaware of its existence or find it unhelpful. Through focus groups and surveys, recommendations are made to improve the website's organization, usability, and accessibility, including the use of industry-specific portals and clearer navigation. The document stresses the importance of raising awareness about the CDO resources through club leaders and career coaches, alongside best practice examples from other business schools.

1. Improving the Career Development Office’s Web PresenceIdentifying Issues & Suggesting Solutions• Yale SOM InReach •

2. AgendaWhat we did

3. Conducted focus groups and school-wide survey

4. Reviewed current website

5. Researched best practices

6. Our Recommendations

7. Proposed Organization of Website

8. Student Wishlist

9. Problems and Solutions for Current Website

10. Best PracticesAlmost 60% of the Students Don’t Know There’s a Website or Don’t Think the Information on It is Useful. What has prevented you from using the CDO website more often?

11. Yet Many Say They Would Use It If Better It Were Easier to UseHow could the CDO website better support your job search?“It could be much better organized and easier to access through mySOM.”“If it were easier to use / more intuitive.”“If you selected the industry you wanted, and then entered a portal where everything was dedicated to that industry, that would be great.”“Better organized.”“More easily accessible, more clear as to what resources belong where (make it more intuitive/user friendly). "“Needs to be easy to navigate.”

12. Students Like the Idea of Organizing by Both Industry and StageWhich of the following structures makes the most sense to you in terms of organizing the website?

13. So We Propose an Organization and Layout that Uses BothFinance GenMgt&OpsMarketing Non-Profit OtherConsulting Standard Static Homepage with Corner with Highlights from the eNewsQuick way to understand how to use the website, links to stages of search or graphic with hyperlinks that say hey click here for blah blahblahWork with graphics designer to come up with easy to use and understand clickable navigation graphicTop links that people use: cover letter, resume, alumni directory, interviews, let people know resources are under respective industriesABOUT USSTAGE OF SEARCHExploring

14. Networking

15. Applying

16. Interviewing

17. Post-OfferSo We Propose an Organization and Layout that Uses Both (cont)Finance GenMgt&OpsMarketing Non-Profit OtherConsulting Industry Research Career Profile Career TimelineLinks to External Sources Inside and Outside of YaleClubsCompetitions/ ConferencesCourses/ Professors to TakeTreksEvents/Workshops/Corporate PresentationseListservesContact: Relationship ManagerABOUT USSTAGE OF SEARCHExploring

18. Networking

19. Applying

20. Interviewing

21. Post-OfferProposed Site Map

22. Student Wishlist

23. Also, Generating Awareness of the Website is Very ImportantClub leaders can be changeagents – get them involved in organizing the information on their respective industry webpage

24. Career coaches can also be change agents – they should always point to resources students can use on the website and how to use it

25. Emphasize during CDO curriculum – website could be on the CDO curriculum magnet and should be prominently introduced during CDO Fridays

26. A good website will bring about its own awarenessBut People Really Like CDO eNews!“eNewsis how I find out about CDO offerings and that suits me fine.”“These are good!”“The CDO eNews is great!”

27. Problems and Solutions for the Current Website

28. Best Practices by Other Business Schools

29. Arriving at Careers PageProblem: Solution(s):One link to the new homepageNavigating to Careers page from MySOM is not intuitive

30. Main Careers PageProblem: Solution(s):Simply have a ‘Home’ category on the page, which will return visitors to MySOM where they can find all of these linksRedundancy of categories on main page. Why have links to MBA Focus 2009 and 2010, or to ‘courses,’ ‘careers,’ ‘IT,’ etc when students have just eschewed these categories to come to the CDO page? (Note: The following assumes that students access the CDO Careers site via MySOM)

31. Main Careers Page (cont)Problem: Solution(s):Replace the images with more applicable photos or remove them altogetherPoor graphics.The photos are completely random: FFT, soccer, families, etc

32. Navigating Back to the Main Careers PageProblem: Solution(s):Change the ‘Careers’ graphic so that this feature is obvious to students using the site‘Careers’ button takes you back to the beginning of the Careers page, but it isn’t obvious. People who don’t want to hit home and be taken all the way back to MySOM need an obvious way to get back to the main Careers page.

33. Email CDO/CDO Staff CategoriesProblem: Solution(s): ‘Email CDO’ and ‘CDO Staff,’ should be collapsed into a single category called ‘Contact Us’ (under ‘About Us’), which would then give you the option to send an email to the CDO staff member best equipped to answer the question, or to send a general email if applicableWhen you click ‘Email CDO,’ you automatically get pushed through to a generic email address, when it’s possible you were looking for someone with a specialization to answer your question

34. CDO Curriculum CategoryProblem: Solution(s):No more non-starter links!Eithereliminate this category altogether, move the relevant content to the CDO Careers page, or have the category link directly to the right portion of MBA Focus without forcing students to log in again (which may be difficult given that students use different names and passwords for the two sites)CDO Curriculum category is completely unhelpful. It just refers users to MBA Focus.

35. Policies and ProceduresProblem: Solution(s):Get rid of a link that goes to a link that goes to a page (e.g., minimize clicks)Increase ease of navigation around page (i.e., keep pertinent items “above the fold” or shorten agreement)Most students probably didn’t read this in the first place, and it definitely isn’t something they likely want to revisit. Move this page to a less conspicuous place on the site– perhaps to the bottom left-hand corner of the pageToo many clicks needed to access.

36. General Information CategoryProblem: Solution(s):One single link, visually unappealingStreamline appearance of links throughout website

37. Job Reporting PageProblem: Solution(s):Change the name of the links, so people don’t mistakenly believe that they can get information about other students by clicking on themIntegrate this tool with the Careers page or MBA Focus seamlessly, to avoid ‘back button’ annoyances and difficulty with students locating the toolNo one knows this site is here

38. Students are likely to look for this tool in MBA Focus