Career Services Leadership

Jeremy Podany is Founder and CEO of The Career Leadership Collective, a consultancy that has done business with over 1,000 colleges and universities since 2017 on the systemic career development needs of higher education. Recently, Jeremy published The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education, a fascinating new book that captures the current zeitgeist happening in the field of career services and offers a roadmap to institutional transformation.In this episode we discuss:What motivated him to start The Career Leadership Collective, a first-of-its-kind consultancy and training firm for the field of career services.His leadership philosophy, which is "radically others-centered" and draws inspiration from people who strove for systemic change in the face of intense resistance to change.Why he wants to get rid of the question, "What can I do with this major?"... and so much more!Jeremy, thank you for a great conversation!

Dimitris Sampsonidis is a Career Counsellor at the University of Crete in Greece. He was recently ranked one of the most influential people on LinkedIn in Greece and he has been a strong advocate for advancing and promoting the field of career services in Greece. In his spare time, he's pursuing a Ph.D. from the University of Crete on the topic of polymathy and multipotentiality.In this episode we discuss:The similarities and differences between the Greek and U.S. systems of career services in higher education, and even the differences between Greece and the broader European Union (E.U.).The challenges of hosting employers for career fairs and recruiting events when your university is on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea!The quote from the very first episode of the Career Services Leadershipthat brought him to tears and continues to inspire and motivate him today.Why, as career services leaders, it's important for us to be in harmony with our own purpose so that we can better help students find their purpose.Dimitris, thank you for the thought-provoking conversation!

Andy Rabitoy is the Executive Director of Foster Career Services for the UW Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Andy’s 23 years in career services spans three campus environments. He is active in the industry and has held key committee positions in major associations including National Association of Colleges and Employers and MPACE (Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges & Employers), and recently served as MPACE President in 2022-2023. In this episode we discuss:The exciting once-in-a-career opportunity Andy had 13 years ago to build a new career center from scratch for the UW Foster School of Business, complete with moving into a new building and hiring a new team.His "alive right now" leadership style, guided by themes of building personal relationships, extending high levels of trust, and being adaptable and transparent.Why helping students get comfortable with being uncomfortable and exposing them to things and people outside their classroom and outside their peer group is so important to his team's strategy.How a moment of disagreement and vulnerability in front of his team helped him access a new level of a leadership... and so much more!Friends and colleagues mentioned in this episode: Craig Schmidt, Andy Ceperley, Neil Murray, and Susan Terry.

Amie Hammond, Ed.D. is the executive director of Career Services at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly). Amie has nearly three decades of experience in higher education and recently earned a doctorate in educational leadership from California State University, Fresno. She is also an active leader within the MPACE (Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges & Employers). In this episode we discuss:The moment early in her career when she decided she wanted to one day be a career services director.Her unique reporting to the AVP of Student Affairs and Equity and Transition and how being in the Equity and Transition unit influences her approach to the work.Her dissertation research which examines the values congruence of student affairs practitioners in a neoliberal context (and where I first learned the term "academic capitalism"!).Why she identifies strongly with an Authentic Leadership model and how she uses Bolman and Deal's Four Frames model... and so much more!Amie, thank you for a great conversation!P.S. If you are curious about Amie's dissertation, check it out here: https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/r207tw66g

The Career Services Leadership podcast is thrilled to welcome Andrew "Andy" Tracy Ceperley, PCC, author of the new teaching memoir, Tone Setters in the Academy: How to Build an Inspired Life as a University Administrator. With a career spanning the U.S. and abroad, Andy is a university leader, lecturer, facilitator, author, and coach (and he was once in my exact seat as the director of the Santa Clara University Career Center!). Andy is also a former President of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).In this episode, we discuss:What inspired him to write "Tone Setters" and the 60 individual tone setter mindsets he recommends for administrators.A new coaching certification he is helping to develop on "TQ - Transitional Intelligence" inspired by William Bridges' work in change management.Why he believes the number one skills that career services leaders need today is the ability to be "the ultimate connectors" and "community builders."His perspective on "administrative glass ceilings" and the two-system approach to career advancement in higher education... and so much more!Friends and colleagues mentioned in this episode: Skip Horne, Dr. Darleny Cepin, Dr. Neil MurrayAndy, thank you for a great conversation!

Dr. Audra Verrier is the Associate Vice Provost of Career and Professional Development at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. She has been a leader in higher education for the past 20 years and is a sought-after facilitator and educator on topics as such as strategic planning and organizational development in the non-profit sector, the psychology of leadership, ecopsychology and systems thinking, professional development, and entrepreneurial skills for leaders in education. She earned a doctorate in psychology and her research focuses on women and BIPOC communities overcoming bias and adversity, career and leadership development, and first generation students. In this episode we discuss how her study of East-West psychology, and eco-psychology specifically, informs her leadership style, the way in which her reporting line into enrollment management (an emerging but still unique reporting line for career services) influences her approach to the work, why she focuses on systemic issues over people issues, her own ambitions beyond career services, and so much more! Dr. Verrier was recently recognized with the MPACE Rising Star Award, and it's clear why: she is a bright light and thought leader in our field, and I'm honored to share this insightful and inspiring conversation with our listeners.

James Tarbox, Ph.D is the Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director of Stanford Career Education in Stanford, California, a position he assumed after a storied 15-year career at San Diego State University. James' leadership embodies active commitments to student development, to aligning career development with meaning and purpose, and to strengthening individuals and communities by actively engaging diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. In this episode, we discuss how his career has been shaped by "taps on the shoulder", why he developed and launched the new Stanford Purpose Summit, his unique reporting line to the Office of Inclusion, Community and Integrative Learning and how that shapes his work, why he encourages himself and his team to use professional development funds to "explore tangents", and so, so much more! James shares some wonderful, inspiring thoughts on why career services offices need to continually tie what we do to the educational mission of the university. I personally love this metaphor that James shared: "If I were to pull a thread and there was no connection to the fabric, then it comes out. But if I'm connected to the fabric, and I try to pull the thread, then the fabric resists." James, thank you for a great conversation!

Tony Botelho is the Managing Director of the Career Centre at The University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. In our field, Tony is well know for his humor and he had me laughing from the very first moment we met at the Global Career Services Summit! After 22 years at Simon Fraser University, Tony's now at the helm at UBC. Throughout this transition, and throughout his entire career, Tony has remained authentically true to himself and committed to the development of those he leads. In this episode, we discuss the rocky early start to his career during the dot-com bust, why he was an early adopter of the "chaos theory of careers" and his ideas on the the differences and similarities between being an educator and a leader. We also compared and contrasted the U.S. and Canadian contexts. Like Tony, I like to be a little silly too, and we talked about how it's okay to bring that side of you — all sides of you! — into your leadership. After all, the students and staff we serve are all different, and it's okay for us leaders to be, too! Tony is a unique and needed voice in our field of career services.

Hilary Flanagan is the Director of the Center for Advising, Career and Life Design at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. Hilary is a leader's leader, with several previous guests of the podcast recommending her as someone to look up to. I first had the opportunity to meet Hilary at the Global Career Services Summit in Washington, D.C. In this episode, we discuss how her unique background as a Coast Guard veteran influences her leadership, why she prioritizes the development and wellness of her team, her experience launching a brand new center at Salve Regina over the past year, the best piece of advice she ever received, and so much more!

Aranee Manoharan, Ph.D. is the Senior Associate Director for Careers and Employability at King's College London. In addition, she serves in leadership roles for AGCAS, Advance HE, and others. Aranee is only the second guest of the Career Services Leadership podcast from outside the United States and the first from Europe! I first had the opportunity to meet Aranee at the Global Career Services Summit in Washington, D.C. when we were matched together for the gift exchange. Later, I had the opportunity to hear her present on inclusive approaches to employability during one of the interactive sessions, which was amazing and is one of her areas of expertise. In this episode, we discuss pragmatic approach to leadership, how she relates her Ph.D. research on ethnic conflict to her work in career services, the U.K.'s approach to assessing "value for money" of a college degree, what she learned going from leading a small team to a nearly 50-person team, and so much more! Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanhoule/