The purpose of the network is to equip faculty and staff with resources and tools to support students who approach them with common career concerns. During the initial launch, over 50 faculty and staff participants engaged in a 3-hour training in December 2021 and January 2022, which consisted of best practices for supporting students in their career development and facilitated discussions. The content covered during the training was informed by faculty and staff feedback collected in Fall 2021 through an online assessment and several listening sessions. 

“The goal of the program is to develop a network of faculty and staff coaches who will expand the campus community's ability to meet every student's career development needs in each major and college,” said Laura Garcia, Director of Career Education for the Career Center. “Faculty and staff play a critical role in a student’s career development, and often students will seek out trusted mentors for career advice before coming to the Career Center if they come at all.” 

The 3-hour training program is offered each semester and over the summer in a hybrid format. Food is provided for all in-person 3-hour training participants. In addition to the 3-hour training, 1-hour Career Conversations are scheduled throughout the year and topics change each semester. More information about upcoming 3-hour trainings and Career Conversations may be found here. 

"I think this training opportunity is a wonderful plan to help inform all student-facing campus partners on career resources available at GT," Kelley Broome, MBA Corporate Relations Manager for the Scheller College of Business, said. "I'm especially excited about that as the parent of a GT undergrad!"

Gallup studies report that having an engaging job is one of the most important factors in life because it occupies most of our time and plays heavily into self-identity1. In a 2014 Gallup-Purdue survey of 30,000 college graduates, they went beyond the traditional measures of college outcomes (placement rates, starting salaries, etc.) to create an index that measures the relationship between students' college experience and whether graduates go on to have great jobs, great lives, and become engaged workers2. According to this study, if graduates had a professor who made them excited about learning or encouraged them to pursue their dreams, their odds of being engaged at work more than doubled. In addition, three out of six factors linked to student confidence in jobs related to having a mentor or faculty member at their university who excited them about learning and encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams3.

"I'm very thankful I had the opportunity to connect with the Career Coaching Network at Georgia Tech," said Lisa Redding, Academic Program Coordinator for Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biosciences. "Although I worked in career counseling earlier in my professional life, I did not feel confident that I understood the newest job search resources and strategies. Working in an academic unit, we receive questions about available career opportunities, employers who hire our majors, and job search strategies, as well as questions about resumes and cover letters."

Need more information about the Career Coaching Network? Contact Laura Garcia, Director of Career Education in the Georgia Tech Career Center, at laura.garcia@gatech.edu.

1 Gallup (2013). State of the American Workplace: Employee Insights for U.S. Business Leaders. 
2 Gallup and Purdue University (2014). Great Jobs, Great Lives: The 2014 Gallup-Purdue Index Report: A study of more than 30,000 college graduates across the U.S. Gallup, Inc. 
3 Gallup (2019) Six College Experiences Linked to Student Confidence on Jobs. Available online at https://news.gallup.com/poll/246170/six-college-experiences-linked-student-confidence-jobs.aspx