LinkedIn and PwC launched a tool last week to help students map their careers, find related job openings and network with professionals following similar career paths.
“Career Explorer is an online tool and resource that allows students to map several career tracks available to them,” US recruiting leader for PwC Holly Paul said. “They can look to see what sorts of tracks other people have taken as well.”
Students will have the same information available to them that LinkedIn already offers, but by using Career Explorer they will have a personalized path with specific job titles and salaries.
“The challenge for liberal arts students is that they like so many things, that it is really hard for them to focus,” UH career counselor Helen Godfrey said. “Managing their expectations about how long it might take to get from their undergraduate degree to where they want to go eventually is helpful.”
Godfrey said she would recommend the program without hesitation because having all of those choices available is very powerful.
“Once you have that foundation it makes it a lot easier to do additional research,” Godfrey said.
LinkedIn and PwC began discussing ideas a year ago of how to use students’ social networking skills to help them in their careers by building their professional networks, Paul said.
Employers are recognizing that many potential employees are out there in the social media and they need to reach out to them.
“It’s definitely changing the face of recruiting and job searching,” Godfrey said.
Finance senior Sean Palanippan uses LinkedIn often to help members of his student organization find internships and jobs.
“It’ll motivate them (students) if anything, because when I see other people in higher positions in the same path as me it kind of does give me the incentive,” Palanippan said. “If you can see a roadmap, it definitely would help.”
Computer science freshman Aaron Angert said if the website lists out everything neatly and organized perhaps it would be useful to use.
However, some freshmen students don’t find it useful, because they aren’t interested in looking for jobs or internships until after they graduate.
The program was launched for 60 universities and colleges in order to track and observe traffic, but it will be released to all job seekers later this year.
