On Mute
Did you also have an amazing MBA journey? Edu, short for Eduardo, graduated with his MBA 3 years ago. Thrilled and excited!
Upon graduation, his university was supportive, organizing career-related webinars and group meetings. But then it stopped…
What happened?
He is lucky to have been able to attend a well-known university. These well-known universities differentiate between YOUNG ALUMNI and ALUMNI. After 3 years young alumni become alumni and with this, the relationship starts changing.
Why so?
Many ranking publishers measure the career performance of graduates up to 3 years after graduation. Ranked universities will do their utmost to control the career development of their graduates.
The better the graduate's success, the more likely it is that the university keeps or grows its ranking position.
They will communicate regularly, organize 1-to-1 sessions with career advisors, and build a support network if needed. Only to ensure that you have a great job.
But once the ranking season is over, the Alumni and Careers Department goes
ON MUTE!
Do you think that this is the right thing to do? Here at eduALTO, we are with you:
Definitely not.
What can Alumni and Careers Department do better when it comes to Engagement with Alumni? We can come up with 5 random things:
- Share the success stories of the so well-tracked young alumni. Their journeys can become references for future graduates.
- Engage your alumni as Career Ambassador. They provide industry or function-specific insights that come in especially handy for recruitment processes
- Identify engaging leaders who can support your local activities around the world and recruit them as Chapter Champions.
- With the speed of the institution's growth, the Admissions Teams usually stay stagnant. Turn your alumni into Admissions Interviewers. Alumni will take pride in selecting future cohorts.
- We are sure that the Marketing Team is always looking out for Event Story Tellers, those who can support the commercial message through their own stories. This gives more authenticity to your events.
Do you want more?
- The most challenging way of engagement is to turn your alumni into Lifelong Learners with your university. Doing it wrong, turns alumni against the institution as it is perceived as only selling more. Doing it right, builds a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship.
- Create a platform where alumni can easily share job and internship opportunities. Alumni will appreciate the top talent and it takes the pressure out of the young alumni relations.
Still more? Ok, one bonus idea:
- It’s a cultural thing: you might convert some of your alumni into donors who financially contribute to the success of the institution.
Alumni engagement naturally vanishes over years. Alumni get busy with other things in life. Even so, there is no reason to forget about them.
Why not?
Some alumni become successful and you want to have them close to the university.
How to do that?
- You can create an alumni board or invite them to be part of the institution's Advisory Board. This drives visibility for alumni as much as for the university.
- At universities, many events are organized. Some events will attract high-profile attendees. Explore to create a VIP alumni group that you can invite to such events.
The final thought is on how to manage and measure the success of the engagement.
Technology can help to manage your alumni and the engagement. To measure it you need to define the KPIs and understand how to compare them and benchmark them even with other institutions.
Engagement does not happen overnight, but if you don’t start today there is nothing to manage, nothing to compare nothing to create successful engagement.
Graduate Success for a university is not limited to fulfilling jobs for the graduates. Thinking about the University Success Cycle, graduates should not disperse into the professional world but converge to give back to nurture future generations of alumni.
Unsure how to do this?
Our Workshops provide the launchpad to start that journey.
About this blog: EDU, short for Eduardo, is a great guy! He is your lead, your candidate, your student, and your alumni. He helps you see things from his perspective. You will understand why things matter to him. On his blog, he will pose questions to which you hopefully have answers - or we help you to find them! So, go ahead a explore more stories at edualto.com/eduardo.
