Letter to the Editor: A response to 'Tufts should expand career advising for humanities, social science majors'

I would like to thank the Daily for offering its opinion on the work of the Career Center in its Oct. 10 editorial.When I arrived at Tufts over two years ago, I made a concerted effort to reach out to student leaders, student organizations and individual students to seek feedback on how we could continue to improve what we do. Continuous feedback is what makes us better and what allows us to serve Tufts students in the best way possible.

I agree with much of your editorial and I applaud you for also recognizing that sometimes students need to be more proactive in using our services and programs. With the goal of giving students a full view of the situation, I am writing to provide additional information to round out your editorial.

It is important to note that in recent years recruiters and organizations in every industry have come to see the value of a liberal arts education. In fact, the strength of our liberal arts programs is one of the main reasons that so many employers seek Tufts students for internships and full-time opportunities. Similarly, in most cases, specific jobsand career paths aren’t linked or limited to one particular major. It may surprise you to know that after your first full-time job, very few companies will even ask you what your major was. Rather, it is about understanding the competencies you have developed and how they apply to particular roles, and that process is certainly where one of our career advisors can be extremely helpful.

Speaking of advising, we have eight advisorsthat are focused on providing services to students from Arts & Sciences. Our other four advisorsare focused on alumni, graduate students and students in the School of Engineering. Our 1:1 advising appointments and drop-ins are up significantly over the past few years, meaning that students are taking better advantage of our services for their job, internship and graduate school searches. We are excited about this progress, and we continue to encourage students to seek our advising services no matter where they are in their career development journeys.

The editorial states: "In an ideal world, every student would find a plethora of opportunities tailored to their intellectual and professional interests at the biannual career fairs."One should note that while career fairs are a great resource and well worth students’ time, the majority of Tufts students do not get their internships or jobs from a career fair. From my experience, that is the case in every other higher education institution. Instead, career fairs are one of many ways for students to explore opportunities, network with recruiters (many of whom are Tufts alumni) and build relationships with organizations of interest. Most students find jobs and internships through networking, including conversations at Industry Nights (which feature both alumni and employer reps), other career programs and fairs, and of course, through referrals from former supervisors, Tufts alumni, friends, family and others.

We have worked diligently over the past few years to increase the number and diversity of organizations that attend the Fall and Spring Fairs. For instance, the Fall Career Fair used to draw about 130 organizations, and this year we had 196 organizations in the Gantcher Center. With increased attendance comes an increase in the diversity of the organizations represented.

The editorial made an incorrect assumption that smaller organizations are not able to participate in our fairs due to financial reasons. In reality, we have never turned away an organization that could not pay a fee, and we offer discounts to smaller nonprofits and the like. A smaller organization’s decision not to attend a career fair -- at Tufts or otherwise -- is often more about staffing resources than finances. Some employers may not allocate staff time for career fair attendance, while others limit their recruiting to selected schools due to particular recruiting policies. In the latter case, we leverage our amazing alumni to help students make inroads and navigate the recruiting process.

I appreciate that the original piece mentions our new Industry Night programming. Industry Nights are an opportunity for Tufts students toconnect with professionals about specific industries; learn about new industries, organizations, emerging trends and roles; explore different career paths; strengthen and build confidence in communication and networking competencies; and connect with others who are interested in the same career fields. The goal of these events is to expose students from all majors to the variety of roles that exist in each of these broad industries. Spring 2019 will bring events focused on health and life sciences, education and advocacy, art and design, and sports and entertainment. We hope to see you at one of these programs.

Above all, we are committed to continual improvement of our services and programming. Let this letter serve as an invitation for students to seek me out and chat about the different ways we can work together to meet this goal. I am all ears.

Respectfully,

Greg Victory Executive Director, Tufts Career Center