The UCCS College of Business Career Development Center serves as a connection between students and the community, a foundation to help students build successful careers and a platform that helps businesses satisfy their workforce needs.
The Career Development Center and the ROAR program, which helps students build career plans and develop the skills they need when they enter the workforce, “are two ways that we demonstrate our commitment to our students and to the community to ensure we’ve got a successful pipeline of talent,” says Todd Endres, assistant teaching professor of Management and Human Resources and faculty director of the ROAR program.
School of Business Dean Thomas Aicher works with a community board of directors, and School of Business faculty stays connected with and relevant to their industries, Endres says.
“We have fantastic academic programs; we’ve got fantastic faculty who care about and are committed to our students,” he says. “The Career Development Center and the ROAR program are the link that says, ‘How do we now take that and help our students do something with it?’ So, it’s the success beyond the classroom that we’re really focused on.”
Career Development Center
The Career Development Center hosts events and workshops to help students transition from college to career and enable employers to recruit top talent.
Through the Center, students have access to career resource webinars focusing on networking, career opportunities in various fields and understanding the application process. Students can learn how to fine-tune their resumes, how to make a good impression on interviewers and what to do to follow up after an interview.
The Center also sponsors events that help build skills and connect students with prospective employers. Semi-annual Career Networking Nights are attended by 50 to 60 employers, Endres says. Career Networking Night is a byproduct of the broader relationships they establish with employers, Endres says.
“They are critical for both our students and the employers,” he says. “I’ve had three students who either got internships or are in the interview process for real jobs as a function of the last Career Networking Night,” which was held March 5 in the UCCS Berger Hall.
A job board called Handshake connects employers with students looking to launch their careers. Students and alumni can log onto the platform to access a nationwide database of employers who are looking to fill jobs and internships.
A separate internship program helps College of Business students gain real-world experience with local employers while they complete their degrees. Internships give students an opportunity to test-drive their chosen careers, learn about teamwork and in some cases, earn college credit, Endres says. During the internships, students complete weekly discussion boards, provide work samples and write a final report, and they are evaluated at the end of their time. Some internships are paid.
The College of Business offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and certification programs in specialization areas ranging from accounting to social impact, but it also reaches out into the community through the Office of Executive Education. Executive Education offerings include individual and custom corporate organizational programs as well as specialized courses, such as Women in Leadership and Strategic Artificial Intelligence. These programs help individuals improve leadership skills and take their careers to the next level by assisting organizations in meeting business priorities.
ROAR Program
All College of Business students are required to complete a sequence of courses and activities that compose the ROAR program. ROAR, which stands for Relationships, Opportunities, Acumen and Readiness, consists of three phases: career exploration, preparation and transition.
During the first phase, “we try to capture students early in their academic careers and help them go through self-assessment and awareness as well as the opportunity to test-drive some of those careers,” Endres says. For example, a student who enters UCCS as an accounting major “may find out they’re better wired to be in marketing. It’s all about helping them explore different options and what might be the best fit.”
The second phase, preparation, “is where students start to develop their professional portfolio,” he says. “We look at things like identifying and communicating your personal brand as a professional. We also start getting them involved in the interviewing process and interviewing readiness.”
What’s unique about the readiness course is that “our preparation and portfolio building is designed not just to look pretty but to use technology that matches what employers are using as they’re searching for candidates.” Students participate in virtual interviews with an AI-generated interviewer that provides feedback in areas, such as the clarity of their answers, how well they maintained eye contact and mannerisms the interviewer noticed.
The final phase of ROAR zeroes in on finding a job and what happens after hiring.
“We’ve added some modules to help students understand what they are looking at when they get a job offer,” Endres says. “It may be their first big job, their first time having to select benefits. We’ve added a module on understanding benefits and how you can manage those in your best interests. We’re also adding a section on personal finance” that includes skills like money management. Exploration of soft skills such as emotional intelligence, communication and building rapport with peers is threaded throughout all three phases.
ROAR currently is offered only to College of Business students, but discussions are underway to expand it across the UCCS campus.
ROAR’s board of directors meets every semester to review the curriculum in light of workforce needs and what employers are looking for in good employees, Endres says.
“We feel that by getting students pointed in the right directly early through exploration, giving them the tools and resources they need to find and secure a job, build a professional network and transition into their career, we can help students with their success throughout the course of their careers,” he says.
He invites employers who would like to know more or get involved with one of the College of Business’s programs to contact him at [email protected] or Megan Mueller, Career Development Center program director, at [email protected] when she returns from maternity leave later this spring.
