The University recently appointed Anne Garner as the executive director of the Career Center to help restructure the center’s approach to student career services.
Garner previously worked as an associate director at the George Mason University Career Center before arriving at Hopkins. With a focus on specialized career advice, Garner hopes to encourage students to make use of integral but under-utilized resources that the center has to offer.
Garner addressed her priorities for reforming the career center, beginning with revamping basic services such as resumé and cover letter reviews.
“The first order of business for me was to make sure that we were offering those basic services in terms of resume reviews, cover letter reviews, how to interview, how to search careers, how to explore major and career options,” Garner said.
The cornerstone for Garner’s three-year plan to revitalize the Career Center comes in the form of career academies, which are distinct services and networks for students pursuing similar career paths.
“The theory behind the career academies is teaching the students how to translate what they’re learning in the classroom to the world of work based on specific industry areas,” Garner explained. “[They’re] about creating a unity of people who are focused in a particular industry area so that they can teach students what to do to be prepared to go into that industry.”
There are currently six types of career academies offered by the Career Center: consulting, financing, government and non-profit, arts, media and marketing, health sciences, STEM and innovation. Garner wishes to gauge student interest as well as their engagement with these different academies and adjust the system from there.
“Right now we are just doing the career academies based on what we think the students are interested in,” Garner said. “But depending upon where they actually end up gravitating towards we could end up giving more support.”
An example of the specific services these career academies provide is information on the hiring and training periods in different industries.
“Every industry has different hiring timelines, so if you’re financing and consulting you better be ready at the front end [of the year],” Garner said. “But if you’re in the arts, media and marketing, we are actually going to focus our work with them in the spring because of when their industry tends to recruit. That, I think, is an educational piece for students.”
Sophomore Emma Lee commented that while the career academies seem helpful, many undergraduates will have future jobs that are innovative in ways these academies cannot foresee.
“I can see how the career academies make sense as an idea, but at the same time I feel like our generation’s careers are much more likely to be interdisciplinary, so I’m curious to how they handle that,” Lee said.
Garner explained that the career academies respond to the student body’s need for more individualized attention at the Career Center.
“My interpretation of [the issue] was that students weren’t feeling like they were getting targeted career services. I interpret that to mean services that were particular to their career and interest,” Garner said. “These academies are one step closer to where we can be to help students.”
Garner also commented on the necessity of setting up an efficient feedback system for students.
“So I really haven’t decided what the best way is, but I want to create the feedback loop that makes the most sense for students so that they feel like their voices are heard,” Garner said. “Being in an executive director role I’m not going to see students on a regular basis, but I need that input because these programs and services, they’re designed to support students. If I’m not getting that input, then I am not going to be effective in supporting the student population.”
Ultimately, Garner wants to increase the use of parents and alumni as a resource for students by integrating them into career academies.
“Long term, my goal is to build up those academies so that they become really robust,” Garner said. “They become a place where students feel like it’s not just going to the career center, it’s like ‘Wow, I have this whole network of people here on campus and outside of the campus, so in person and virtually that I can reach out to once I understand what my interests are and that can help me reach my goal.’”
