Voices of Santa Clara Podcast Voices of Santa Clara

Today, we'll hear from Mr. Dylan Houle, who became the Executive Director of Career & Professional Development at the SCU Career Center about a year and a half ago. Dylan began his professional journey as an English teacher in the New York City area before transitioning into the field of career services. From assistant director roles at Pace University and USF to his most recent position at Menlo College as the executive director of internships and career services, Dylan consistently raises the bar for what it means to lead a career center.
You can further explore his insights through the podcast he hosts, titled 'Career Services Leadership in Higher Education’. Our conversation with Dylan covers a lot, we talk about past experiences and advice for students currently looking for a job or internship and what to do when you land an opportunity.

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Arturo: Going off of Barry Posner’s 5 practices of Exemplary Leadership, “effective leaders are to have an understanding of their own values”. We would love to hear about your values?
Bill: I'd have to talk a little bit first about their origins. My mom was a homemaker, formerly a teacher and my dad was a pastor in the Lutheran church. From early on, I remember a great sense of responsibility and fidelity to one's family, how to support one's family, how to encourage family bonds, and also challenge in an appropriate way. Another is a sense of responsibility to make things better than when you found them, it's a sense that you're entrusted with a certain amount of time, different people and different programs, and there's a responsibility that goes along with trying to improve all those things. Then maybe the third, fourth, and fifth that come from my own faith as a Christian, are faith, hope, and love.
Armando: We know you’re grounded in your wife and kids. What are the three most important lessons you want your kids to know before leaving the nest.
Bill: I want my kids to have this understanding of themselves as having the power and ability to create environments that are not just conducive to their own flourishing but to others in their community. Another lesson is to understand that they are loved even when the world is a place that may not feel like it's loving them back but it’s there if they create it. And back to my values, to try to make things better than how they found it. 
Arturo: In the previous interview, you mentioned a quote from your parents, “be like a duck, smooth on the surface but underneath, scurrying like crazy”. What tactics do you recommend to students who are “scurrying like crazy” maybe without direction.
Bill: I’d like to use a new metaphor. “To see their life as a mountain with no top”. What I mean by that, is that life can be really exciting and fun if you focus more on the process and become less focused on specific outcomes. If there’s that hope and faith that things will turn out the way they're supposed to be. It's a lot of fun to be able to focus on what you're doing at the moment and what you can do today to make yourself the best possible version and what you can do tomorrow to continue that growth. Along with that metaphor is the idea that we need to rest, stop, and look around at what you've accomplished so far. See who's accompanying you on that climb and take a look at the beautiful scenery from different vantage points in life. Maybe look up the mountain and see which routes make the most sense to move forward to the next ledge.

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In this discussion, we had the pleasure of speaking with President Julie Sullivan as she walked us through instrumental moments throughout her life journey such as her upbringing in North Florida that sparked her passion for learning and planted the seed for her future as a teacher, how she made her decision to join SCU as our President, and her thoughts on strategic ways to build upon Santa Clara’s Jesuit reputation and pursuit of academic excellence.
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In this episode, Antonio, Darius, and Malachi provide tips and insight on networking as they recount silly memories as an early college student attempting to network, beginning the process of networking, best practices for preparing an informational interview agenda, common mistakes people make when attempting to network, and how networking has enhanced their job search experience.


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In this episode, Sallyanne Tejan and Jaya Kapoor walk us through how they made the most out of their Santa Clara experience, socially. With stories reminiscing on their first time meeting over lunch after DMing on Facebook, their journey through Greek life, notorious darties within the SCU community, off-campus venues to visit, and hilarious memories from The Hut and Bronco Bars, you’ll get an inside look into how social SCU really is behind the scenes.
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In this episode, Darius, Antonio, and Malachi sit down to discuss how they secured internships at Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Google, respectively, during the summer of 2022. With topics such as the process of discovering internship opportunities, the highlights and lowlights of their recruitment experiences, and the value of performing research/preparing for interviews with intention, there are plenty of key takeaways that you can utilize as you head into your internship/full-time recruitment this Fall. Enjoy!


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