By Steve Seepersaud
Sixty to 90 minutes, relatively speaking, isn't a lot of time. But for a Binghamton University student sorting out career options, that time could be transformative.
This month, Binghamton University alumni have hosted current students at virtual workplace visits in Metro New York. The 20 Employer Treks are part of CONNECT, a series of events to help students build connections and develop professionally. CONNECT is offered at various times during the year in markets with larger numbers of Binghamton alumni.
NYC CONNECT takes up a full week each January, during the University's winter recess. The largest event of the week is Networking Night, typically held in person but offered online again this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Jan. 11, 88 alumni met with 219 students to provide career advice through one-on-one conversations.
Employer Treks, too, have traditionally been held in person. With a number of businesses still at reduced capacity, the visits were online as they were in 2021. Fields ranged from retail to technology to finance, and the treks were open to all students. Alumni hosts gave brief talks about their employers and career paths, then took questions from students looking for insights on corporate culture.
Ariane Lucchini '18 worked with Samantha Pezzello '15 and Soo Yun Kim '13, MS '14, to host a trek at IBM. Lucchini said it's important for her to give back because of a student experience she found impactful. A human-computer interaction seminar taught by an IBM employee sparked her interest in a user experience design career. Without a connection to someone in the field, Lucchini, a psychology major, said she wouldn't have been able to learn about creative jobs fitting her background.
"We believe in exposing current students to new opportunities in technology, and specifically in design," Lucchini said. "We offered two Employer Treks before this year, one in person and one virtual. We'd like for students to gain an understanding of the variety of design careers they can pursue at IBM, and we hope students get a sense of our inclusive and engaging work culture and how they may fit into it. Students have reached out to us after the treks for mentoring. We've conducted design portfolio reviews to help them prepare for applying to jobs in the field and we've taken part in numerous one-on-one discussions regarding our roles and what they can expect to find at IBM."
Google hosted students for the fourth consecutive year, and would've liked to have the students actually come into the office for the 2022 visit.
"We'd host Binghamton students each year regardless of format," said Brendan Collins, who works in campus outreach for Google. "They have exactly what [we] are looking for: proven experience and an insatiable hunger to learn. I hope Binghamton students came away with an idea of what a career in tech is like at Google, but I hope even more that they came away knowing that getting a job and being successful at Google takes hard work and a desire to do the right thing."
If you'd like to connect with a student, you can do so from anywhere and at any time of year. Join Mentor Match, an online platform where you can be available for students looking to obtain career advice. Students and alumni communicate through the MentorMatch system and, if they want, can take their conversation to email or in person.
