Welcome to Career Services Insights, our weekly newsletter, where we explain how an upskilling company can take its placement ratio to the next level. We will dive deep into how career services are evolving and adapting to meet the needs of the post-recession dynamic job market so that your placement department is achieving the desired outcome.
This week we’re covering the following topics:
1.? Types of services offered by Career Services teams
2.? Challenges faced by Career services Teams
3.? How AI is helping career services teams
1. Types of Services Offered by Career Services
From helping learners explore their career options to making sure they have the required skills, subject expertise, and confidence, career services teams help learners throughout their journey. This much-needed guidance helps learners become strong candidates and their skills to stand out in a crowd of thousands of applicants for potential employers. So, let’s see how career services teams do that:
- Resume and Cover Letter Guidance: They assist learners in ensuring their resumes are properly drafted to have good ATS scores which help them get shortlisted at the screening stage by ensuring their learners’ profiles stand out with modernized templates.
- Interview Preparation: They help learners in interview preparation by equipping them with the role and job-specific questions, practice sessions, communication skills, and not just technical but also behavioral competency where learners are taught interview etiquette including dress code and even the smallest details such as the speech and tone of the responses by conducting mock interviews, assessments, and 1:1 guidance sessions.
- Job Search Assistance: They don’t just source jobs manually through various career sites but also personally connect with potential employers, track learners' applications, and encourage learners to apply for as many jobs as they can to increase their chances of getting placed.
- Workshops and Networking Opportunities: Facilitates skill-building workshops and networking events for better understanding of the industry to learners with the help of professionals and experts in that specific field so that their learners can explore which domain/field is best for their career.
- Offer Negotiation: Career services teams of all the upskilling companies also prepare their learners to offer negotiation skills by training them on the communication skills required for HR Rounds so that they are landing their desired package with their job role.
Each of these services is tailored to help learners gain the skills, confidence, and assistance needed to succeed in a competitive job market.
2. Challenges Faced by Career Services Teams
Despite the value they bring, career services teams often encounter several hurdles. The high volume of learners can make it difficult to provide personalized support. Limited budgets and resources can restrict their ability to offer personalized training/assistance frequently.
Here are some common challenges faced by career services:
- High learner-to-counselor Ratio: With large volumes of learners or job seekers, career services teams face challenges in offering individuals personalized guidance and frequent one-on-one sessions.
- Limited Budget and Resources: Limited funding often restricts access to important training programs, workshops, and other resources necessary for comprehensive career preparation for learners.
- Limited time for Personalized Assistance: A lack of time and required manpower makes it challenging to provide necessary personalized support such as mock interviews, assessments, etc. for grooming individuals, as every learner differs, impacting preparedness and self-growth.
3. How AI Can Boost Career Services?
- Increased Efficiency and Scalability with personalized guidance: AI makes career services teams more efficient, by providing continuous personalized support to learners, saving time by 5-6 hours daily, and focusing on other necessary guidance such as interview preparation, ATS-friendly resume building, job application process, etc.?
- Industry Trend and Market Demand Analysis: By analyzing large data sets, AI identifies current industry trends, helping learners stay updated on in-demand skills and improving their job market readiness.
- Bridging Resource Gaps: With the help of AI-driven tools, it becomes cost-effective for career service teams to provide learners with mock interview sessions, build ATS-friendly resumes, sourcing suitable job roles tailored as per individual candidate’s requirements.
- Expanding Reach and Support: Career services can leverage AI to scale their service offerings, providing personalized guidance to more learners without additional staff strain which reduces manpower and cost-saving.
By incorporating AI tools, career services can ensure that learners stay well-prepared, confident, and ready to succeed in an evolving job landscape. This approach also allows career services to work more efficiently and have a greater positive impact on learners.
Faiz Sirkhot, the CEO and founder of LineupX, brings over 20 years of deep experience in talent acquisition and workforce strategy to his company. As a former leader at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Faiz played a pivotal role in campus recruitment, overseeing the hiring of over 50,000 professionals across 17 diverse verticals for 15 years.
His firsthand expertise in managing large-scale hiring initiatives gives him a profound understanding of the talent landscape and the evolving needs of both employers and job seekers. With a focus on leveraging AI to bridge gaps in the hiring process, Faiz is uniquely equipped to deliver insightful, data-driven content that helps career services and recruitment teams stay ahead in a rapidly changing market.
