Career Everywhere

uConnect
  • 4.9 (18)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

For too long, career services has been an afterthought. Now it's time for career services to be in the driver's seat, leading institutional strategy around career readiness. Join us every other Tuesday for in-depth interviews with today’s most innovative career leaders about how they’re building a campus culture of career readiness… or what we call Career Everywhere.

  1. 10H AGO

    How UConn Transforms Student Employment with Work+ (feat. Eran Peterson)

    What if your on-campus student job could do more than pay the bills? What if it was actually a career development experience? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Eran Peterson, Associate Director of Work+ at the University of Connecticut, to talk about how UConn is reimagining student employment through the Work+ program. UConn's Work+ program — adapted from a national model pioneered by Arizona State University and the Work+ Collective — is built around a simple but powerful idea: student jobs should be more than transactional. They should be intentional learning experiences where students develop and can articulate real career competencies, and where supervisors feel equipped, supported, and valued for the role they play in student success. Eran walks through how the program works in practice, including the professional development content and tools built for student "working learners," the robust supervisor training and resource ecosystem UConn has developed, and the impressive early results from their pilot year — including a jump in students' sense of belonging from 83% to 98%. He also gets into the challenges of scaling a lean operation, the unexpected ways supervisors are finding out about Work+, and his honest advice for anyone looking to start something similar at their institution. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN: — Why UConn focuses on supervisors first — and why that order of operations matters— How the Work+ team is building scalable, on-demand resources so the program doesn't depend on constant one-on-one support— What peer-led supervisor mini sessions look like and why they've become one of the program's biggest wins— How UConn is evolving Work+ to serve supervisors who manage large teams or service-based roles without regular workstation access— Why belonging matters for supervisors, not just students — and how Work+ is working to change campus culture around that— The surprisingly simple job posting tweak that's driving a flood of new supervisor interest ABOUT THE GUEST: Eran Peterson is the Associate Director of Work+ at the University of Connecticut, where he has worked for over 13 years. He started his career at UConn as a career coach before stepping into his current role focused full-time on transforming student employment. Eran is passionate about helping students recognize and articulate the skills they're building on the job — a perspective informed by his own varied work history before landing in career services. RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:— Eran’s LinkedIn profile— Eran’s email: eran.peterson@uconn.edu — UConn’s Work+ program— The Work+ Collective—the national network of institutions building Work+ programs; Eran's top recommendation for anyone looking to get started— Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills—UConn’s virtual career center housing all career development content, resources, tools, and more (powered by UConnect)— Articulate 360/Rise—the e-learning tool UConn uses to build professional development modules for working learners— Suitable—the platform UConn uses to collect evidence of student competency development CONNECT WITH US: New episodes every other Tuesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and visit gouconnect.com/career-everywhere/podcast for full show notes, transcripts, and more. Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    49 min

  2. MAR 3

    3 Ways University of Central Missouri Embeds Career Into Academics (feat. Amber Goreham, Jess Johnson, and Derrick Gill)

    What does it look like when a small career services team thinks big—and builds the systems to back it up? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Amber Goreham, Jess Johnson, and Derrick Gill from the University of Central Missouri's Career and Life Design Center to talk about how their six-person team is scaling career education across a campus of nearly 9,000 students. UCM has spent years building a strategic framework rooted in three pillars—exploration, career readiness, and connection—and those pillars now power three concrete initiatives designed to embed career into the academic experience: a milestone-based student roadmap, a plug-and-play faculty resource hub, and a Career Champions program that's turning faculty into career advocates across campus. Amber, Jess, and Derrick walk through each initiative in detail, share early results, and offer practical advice for other career services leaders who want to take a more integrated, academic-facing approach. KEY TAKEAWAYS How UCM's three-pillar framework (exploration, career readiness, and connection) became the foundation for all three initiativesWhat UCM's milestone roadmap looks like across all four academic years — and how faculty can adapt it to their own programsHow the faculty resource hub makes it easy for instructors to embed career content into their courses with minimal liftWhat the Career Champions program entails and how UCM got immediate buy-in from department chairsWhy scalability and equity are at the heart of UCM's approach to Career EverywhereAdvice for career services leaders who want to start embedding career into academics at their own institutionsABOUT THE GUESTS Amber Goreham is the Director of the Career and Life Design Center at the University of Central Missouri. She has spent 18 of her 22 years in higher education in career services and leads the team's strategic vision for making career education accessible to all UCM students. Jess Johnson is the Assistant Director of Career and Life Design Education at UCM and a first-generation college student herself. She oversees curriculum and student-facing programming and was the primary architect of UCM's milestone framework and faculty resource hub. Derrick Gill is the Assistant Director of Faculty and Employer Partnerships at UCM. He brings a background in business internship coordination and media to his role and has been instrumental in building UCM's visibility with academic leadership and developing the Career Champions program. RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE Amber’s LinkedIn profileJess' LinkedIn profileDerrick’s LinkedIn profileUniversity of Central Missouri Career and Life Design Center (powered by uConnect)uConnect—Virtual Career Center platformDesigning Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (referenced as the foundation of UCM's life design approach)The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education by Jeremy Podany (mentioned by Derrick as a team reading the career center used to gather faculty input) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    48 min

  3. FEB 17

    Why Career Services Leaders Need to Think Like CMOs (feat. Ashley Safranski)

    What if career services leaders thought more like Chief Marketing Officers? In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Ashley Safranski, Chief Marketing Officer at uConnect, to explore why adopting a CMO mindset can help career services leaders elevate their impact across campus. Ashley shares the striking parallels between marketing teams and career centers—from being perceived as cost centers to sitting at the center of institutional strategy. She also outlines five practical marketing strategies career leaders can use to increase student engagement, build campus champions, drive cross-functional alignment, and tie their work directly to top-line goals like enrollment, retention, and outcomes. If you’re ready to strengthen your seat at the table and position career services as a strategic driver on campus, this episode is for you. Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    55 min

  4. FEB 3

    Proving the Value of a Liberal Arts Education in the Age of AI (feat. Sharon Belden Castonguay)

    In an era of constant technological change, a liberal arts education builds the adaptability, critical thinking, and career agility students need to stay employable—even as jobs evolve or disappear. In this episode, host Meredith Metsker is joined by Sharon Belden Castonguay, Executive Director of the Gordon Career Center at Wesleyan University, to explore why a liberal arts education may be more valuable than ever in an AI-driven world. Sharon shares why employability matters more than first-job outcomes, how liberal arts graduates are uniquely prepared to navigate uncertainty, and why “major ≠ career” is actually a strength—not a weakness. She also explains how institutions can use data and storytelling to prove ROI, how AI fits into career preparation without fear mongering, and what students really need to thrive in an unpredictable future of work. This episode is a must-listen for career services leaders, higher ed professionals, students, and families navigating the changing landscape of education and work.Resources from the episode: Sharon’s LinkedIn profileSharon’s TEDx Talk (recently hit 1M views!)Sharon’s 2023 Career Everywhere Podcast episodeWesleyan’s virtual career center (powered by uConnect) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    50 min

  5. JAN 20

    Crafting Employer Engagement Strategies that Align with Your Institution’s Mission (feat. Gerald Tang)

    In this repurposed live session from the Career Everywhere Community, Meredith Metsker sits down with Gerald Tang, Executive Director of Career Services and Internships at Bridgewater State University, to explore how institutions can rethink and strengthen their employer engagement strategies. Gerald shares how his team moved beyond counting career fairs and job postings to develop a tiered, data-informed employer engagement model that aligns with institutional mission, regional workforce needs, and equity goals. From leveraging alumni and labor market data to launching BSU’s Hire Locally campaign, this episode offers practical insights for career services leaders looking to build more meaningful, sustainable employer partnerships. You’ll learn: Why event attendance alone doesn’t equal strong employer relationshipsHow to define and assess employer engagement tiersWhat data sources can inform smarter employer strategyHow regional focus and mission alignment can guide employer outreachResources from the episode: Gerald’s LinkedIn profileGerald’s slide deck (including spreadsheet examples)BSU Elevate campaign and webpageBSU virtual career center (powered by uConnect)BSU Hire Locally pageBSU’s labor market insights module (powered by uConnect)Career Everywhere Community (free and open to any higher ed career services professional) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    51 min

  6. JAN 6

    Small Team, Big Impact: How Career Services Teams of 1-5 Can Drive Outsized Outcomes (feat. Anita DeCianni Brown, Nick Edwards, and Tyler Orr)

    What does it really take to scale career services when you’re a team of one—or leading a very small team? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker is joined by Anita DeCianni Brown (SUNY Empire State University), Nick Edwards (Hardin-Simmons University), and Tyler Orr (Southern Virginia University) for a candid conversation about doing more with less. The panel shares practical strategies for expanding reach, leveraging technology, building faculty and campus partnerships, and advocating for resources—all while staying focused on meaningful student impact. Whether you’re building career services from the ground up or rethinking how to scale sustainably, this episode offers real-world insights, lessons learned, and encouragement for career services professionals at any institution size. Resources from the episode: SUNY Empire’s Virtual Career Center (powered by uConnect)HSU’s Virtual Career Center (powered by uConnect)SVU’s Virtual Career Center (powered by uConnect)uConnect (Virtual career center platform)Labor Market Insights module by uConnect HandshakeCareerShift FOCUS 2 Big InterviewSkillsFirstYouScienceLinkedIn LearningForageCareer Everywhere Community (free and open to any higher ed career services professional) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    52 min

  7. 12/23/2025

    Funding Unpaid and Underpaid Internships Through Cross-Campus Collaboration (feat. Matt Cowley)

    In this episode, Dr. Matt Cowley of Virginia Tech shares how his team united career services, financial aid, procurement, legal, payroll, advancement, and employers to build a creative, compliant solution for funding unpaid and underpaid internships. Matt discusses how simple leadership moves—framing the problem around student impact, asking the right people to the table, and staying open to iteration—turned a complex challenge into a scalable system that gets real dollars into students’ hands. Key Takeaways: Solving unpaid internships required cross-campus collaboration, not just career services leadership.Matt brought together typically siloed teams by clearly articulating the student problem and inviting partners to co-create the solution.The final model routes support funds through employers, allowing students to be paid while staying aligned with institutional and financial aid policies.Data helped define the scope of the issue, but student stories drove urgency and buy-in.Early success shows that building the system matters as much as securing the funding—and that iteration is part of the process.Resources: Matt’s LinkedIn profileMatt’s email: matthewpaulc@vt.eduVirginia Tech’s virtual career center (powered by uConnect) Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    54 min

  8. 12/09/2025

    Launching an Experiential Learning Center at PennWest (feat. Josh Domitrovich, Rhonda Gifford, and Meaghan Clister)

    How do you launch a university-wide Experiential Learning Center—in just one year—across three campuses, during budget cuts, staffing challenges, and constant organizational change? In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Josh Domitrovich, Rhonda Gifford, and Meaghan Clister of PennWest to unpack the strategy, persistence, and cross-campus collaboration behind their brand-new Experiential Learning Center (ELC). You’ll hear how the idea evolved from a one-person internship center into a robust, centralized hub designed to promote, track, and assess experiential learning for all PennWest students (across three physical campuses and online). The team shares how they gained buy-in from senior leadership; aligned their work with institutional priorities like enrollment, retention and outcomes; and built a campus-wide culture around experiential learning. They also open up about early wins, lessons learned, and the signals they watched closely to guide their timing and approach—insights that any career services leader can apply on their own campus. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why experiential learning became a strategic priority at PennWestHow the team navigated shifting leadership, limited resources, and campus integrationThe proposal strategies that finally earned a “yes” from senior leadershipHow the ELC is breaking down silos and centralizing data across programsWhat early results show, and where the team is headed nextWhether you’re exploring experiential learning initiatives or looking to make career services indispensable at your institution, this conversation is packed with inspiration and practical takeaways. Continue the conversation in the Career Everywhere Community! Join 2,000 other higher ed career services leaders today: careereverywhere.com/community

    52 min
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4.9
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

For too long, career services has been an afterthought. Now it's time for career services to be in the driver's seat, leading institutional strategy around career readiness. Join us every other Tuesday for in-depth interviews with today’s most innovative career leaders about how they’re building a campus culture of career readiness… or what we call Career Everywhere.

Information

  • Creator
    uConnect
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    88
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 uConnect
  • Show Website
    Career Everywhere

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