New Honors Celebrate Babson’s Culture of Career Preparedness
Late in the summer, 125 Babson faculty and staff members received an email in their inboxes.
“Thank you for being a career champion,” read the email’s subject line.
The message came from Babson’s Hoffman Family Undergraduate Center for Career Development (CCD). As part of its survey of graduating seniors, CCD asked them to share the names of faculty and staff who helped them prepare for and pursue their post-graduation plans. Graduates named 125 people on the survey, representing a wide swath of employees on campus, from the classrooms to the playing fields, and CCD sent the email to thank them all.
“That was a great morning sending all those out,” says Ann McAdam Griffin, CCD’s director. Those 125 people demonstrate just how single minded the Babson community is in supporting students’ futures. “It’s the whole ecosystem at Babson that is preparing students,” McAdam Griffin says. “Students are enveloped by people who care about their long-term goals.”
Babson’s strength in student career development has been recognized in recent rankings and awards. Last month, when The Wall Street Journal named Babson the second best college in America, the publication also ranked the institution No. 2 for Career Preparation.
Today, Babson received another honor, as Handshake, a popular career development platform utilized by students to search for jobs and internships, gave the College a Career Spark Award, which celebrates the top college and university career centers. Handshake evaluated more than 1,500 such centers, and only 35, or about 2%, received the honor.
That’s a distinguished recognition for McAdam Griffin and her CCD colleagues. “To do career services in the Babson community, where it is so valued, is such a privilege,” she says.
The Work of CCD
While McAdam Griffin calls out the support that Babson staff and faculty across campus give students, as well as the worldwide alumni network of more than 45,000 people who offer students advice and connections, the work of career development at the College begins at CCD.
The CCD team is made up of 14 people, a number that has doubled in the last 18 months, as open roles have been filled and new ones have been added. During the last academic year, the CCD team conducted more than 1,800 career advising appointments and met individually with almost one-third of the undergraduate student body. “I love my team,” McAdam Griffin says. “They are so committed to our students.”
For the Career Spark Award, CCD was recognized in the reporting and analytics category for its use of data. CCD employs data in a wide range of ways, using it to help determine what employers to invite to events, for instance, or to target students with opportunities that match their interests, or to guide employers in how to best build relationships with students. “For us, (the award) is a testament to how we look at the data and use that to inform our decision making,” McAdam Griffin says.
On the Journey
Beyond providing individual advising sessions and planning career fairs, CCD offers a variety of other career services. It collaborates with student clubs on events; provides workshops on topics such as resume writing; enables students in need to acquire appropriate business clothes through the Professional Attire Fund; holds pop-up sessions where advisors have quick, impromptu conversations with students; and organizes a New York City trip for students to visit finance and real estate firms.
In all, CCD held more than 100 programs and events last academic year. Add in the experiential nature of Babson’s education, with programs such as FME and MCFE that allow students to connect coursework to the real world, and McAdam Griffin says students should be well-prepared for their job searches.
“It’s the whole ecosystem at Babson that is preparing students. Students are enveloped by people who care about what their long-term goals are.”
Ann McAdam Griffin, director of the Hoffman Family Undergraduate Center for Career Development
That’s assuming, of course, that students are committed to the process. At Babson, they usually are. “Students still have to do the work. They will be the ones to make it happen,” McAdam Griffin says. “We have an amazing advising team We have so many resources for students. But they need to be engaged to be successful.”
The recent accolades from Handshake and The Wall Street Journal aren’t the first time that Babson has been recognized for career preparedness, and past graduate outcomes back up Babson’s strength in this area. For the Class of 2023, for example, 98.6% of graduates found employment, are continuing their education, or are involved in military or service programs six months after graduation. Students landed jobs in 26 states and 24 countries.
Students’ career journeys can take them to many different places, and McAdam Griffin enjoys working with them as they find their way. “I love our students,” she says. “They are ambitious, and they are going to change the world. To be a small part of their Babson story is so humbling.”
