Career Services + Student Affairs: A Blueprint for Partnership (feat. Nicole Hall and Christian Garcia)

In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Nicole Hall, Senior Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students, and Christian Garcia, Associate Vice President of Career and Professional Development, at the University of Virginia. Christian is also Nicole's direct report—a dynamic that shapes nearly everything they discuss.

The conversation opens with trends the two surfaced during a recent fireside chat at the Virginia ACE conference: the deepening of skills-based hiring, a widening gap between internship demand and supply, the state of Virginia's growing involvement in internship policy, and the layered, still-unsettled role AI is playing in the job market.

Nicole, who currently chairs the NACE Board of Directors, brings a national data lens. Christian brings the day-to-day view from UVA's career center, where he's seeing high fair attendance and strong demand for one-on-one advising even as some employers pull back on-campus interviewing (or “on-grounds” as they call it at UVA).

From there, the episode turns to what makes this pairing unique: Nicole's path from 20+ years leading career centers into executive student affairs leadership, and her decision—negotiated during her own UVA hiring process—to bring career services into her portfolio rather than let it sit as a separate, siloed unit.

Christian and Nicole talk candidly about what it's like to work together day to day, how they balance "reading the tea leaves" with tactical execution, and the advice they'd give other career leaders hoping to build stronger relationships with student affairs (or vice versa).

Key takeaways:

• Career Everywhere means shared ownership, not shared job titles. Christian compares it to a mental-health-referral mindset: you don't need to be a career counselor to play a role in a student's career readiness—faculty, staff, peers, and alumni all have a part.
• Skills-based hiring is deepening, not just spreading. Nicole points to NACE data showing employers have moved from mentioning desired skills in job postings to building specific skills assessments directly into their application and interview processes.
• Internship demand is badly outpacing supply. A 2023 Business-Higher Education Forum survey found that eight million students wanted internships, but only about four million internships were available—pushing career centers toward creative alternatives like short-term, skills-rich projects that don't require a full semester or summer commitment.
• AI anxiety is real, but the "doom and gloom" narrative isn't backed by employer data. Citing NACE's 2026 Job Outlook, Nicole notes 61% of employers surveyed have no intention of replacing roles with AI, while about 25% are exploring ways to augment existing roles with it. The bigger opportunity for students, both guests agree, is building genuine AI literacy.
• Bringing career services under student affairs was a deliberate, negotiated choice. Nicole pushed for the structure before she'd even accepted her offer, driven by a belief that career development should be woven through the entire student experience rather than managed in isolation.
• A thought-partnership beats a reporting relationship. Christian and Nicole describe weekly check-ins built around mutual trust rather than oversight—Nicole intentionally stays "at arm's length" from day-to-day career center decisions so Christian can lead.
• Relationship-building is the real integration strategy. Christian's practice of meeting broadly across campus (352 meetings in one semester alone) helped him build trust quickly in a new role—something both guests see as foundational to breaking down silos between career services and the rest of the institution.
• Career leaders should apply their own advice to their own careers. Both guests encourage career professionals to stay open to unexpected opportunities and to release the pressure that career advancement has to mean climbing to a director- or VP-level title.

About the guests:

Dr. Nicole Hall is the Senior Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students at the University of Virginia, and the current Chair of the NACE Board of Directors. She spent 20+ years leading career centers before moving into executive student affairs leadership, and now oversees career services alongside orientation, fraternity and sorority life, leadership development, and other student-facing units at UVA.

Christian Garcia is the Associate Vice President of Career and Professional Development at the University of Virginia and 2024 winner of the NACE Mackes Leadership Award. Longtime listeners may recognize him from Season 1 of the podcast, when he led career services at the University of Miami. He also hosts UVA's "Living Room on the Lawn" video interview series.

Resources from the episode:

• Christian’s LinkedIn profile
• Nicole’s LinkedIn profile
• NACE Job Outlook 2026 (referenced for AI adoption data among employers)
• Business-Higher Education Forum internship demand/supply survey
• Christian’s previous Career Everywhere Podcast appearance (episode 14)

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