Affinity Circles’ Blog

Recently its been hard to read the news without coming across a story about layoffs.  Since November 1st, Fortune 500 companies have alone laid off more than 500,000.  Combine that with the number of layoffs at small and mid-sized companies and it’s easy to see why the job market is filled with individuals looking for work.  Unfortunately, finding a job has become very difficult in this economy forcing candidates to explore previously ignored services.

As a result, one recent trend is that alumni are turning to their former university for help in finding their next job.  The Chicago Tribune recently posted a great article (Link) on this exact topic, discussing how alumni associations are responding to these requests from their members.  In the recent months we’ve seen this trend first hand through a noticeable increase in both overall usage and interest in the career focused functionality of our inCircle communities.  While we definitely hope the economy turns around quickly, we’re glad that we can be part of the solution by helping alumni leverage their educational background to find their next job.

Our inCircle community administrators are always thinking of new and creative ways to get the word out about their inCircle communities to their members. inCircle has even made its way onto YouTube! Check out what the University of Washington has done on their alumni web site to promote the HuskyConnect community here.

Affinity Circles is continuing its webinar series this Friday with a webinar on inCircle Datasync: How to upload, download, and utilize data to better connect your members and keep your central database as up-to-date and current as possible. The webinar will be this Friday, February 27th, at 10 a.m. PST, and you can register for it here. We had over 75 people attend our first webinar on February 6th about the inCircle Connections Facebook application so we hope that this and future webinars will be informative for you as well. We look forward to seeing you there!

Affinity Circles is proud to announce the addition of UC Hastings College of Law to the inCircle team!

“University of California Hastings College of the Law is a public, coeducational, full-time law school in downtown San Francisco. We are one of the top-rated law schools in the United States.

Hastings was founded in 1878 as the first law department of the University of California and is one of the most exciting and vibrant legal education centers in the nation. Our faculty are nationally renowned as both teachers and scholars.”

The last couple weeks have been incredibly exciting here at ACI in preparation for the launch of the inCircle Connections Facebook application.

This week we opened our beta of the inCircle Connections Facebook application to all Facebook members.  inCircle Connections is the easiest way to learn about opportunities at top companies and connect directly with staffing teams who are looking to hire.  Getting the most out of the application is simple:  first tell us about yourself, then sit back and watch the opportunities come to you based on what you filled out in your profile.  If an opportunity sounds interesting, click on the “I’m Interested” button to let the company know you want to learn more.  It’s that easy.

For associations, we offer a co-branded version of the application that allows their members to gain access to career opportunities and connect with other members in their community, all on Facebook where most members already spend considerable time.  Members can easily import data from their Facebook profile into inCircle, giving associations access to current profile information for their members.

You can learn more about the application by viewing our webinar here:  inCircle Facebook Application Webinar

To date, we have launched 26 associations with a co-branded application and have 25+ planned to launch over the next two weeks.  The application is available to all association clients. To sign up, contact your account manager.

“The inCircle Connections Facebook application is a quantum leap in alumni online networking.“ – Rita Kroeber, University of South Florida

Affinity Circles is proud to announce the addition of two new associations to the inCircle Team!!

Oklahoma Bar Association

“The Oklahoma Bar Association, headquartered in Oklahoma City, is a nonprofit organization created by the Oklahoma Supreme Court to advance the administration of justice and to foster and maintain learning, integrity, competence, public service and high standards of conduct among Oklahoma’s legal community. The association has approximately 11,000 active attorneys in Oklahoma and a total membership of more than 15,000. The OBA provides education and development programs for the legal profession and the public. The bar and its members are committed to serving the public by making sure the voices of all people in Oklahoma are heard in our justice system.”

John F. Kennedy University

“JFK University is all about transformation. All about growth. All about change. We help you get from where you are to where you want to be. At JFKU, you can achieve your career goals while satisfying your heartfelt need for purpose and fulfillment.”

Inside Higher Ed posted an article today about top MBA programs launching new programs and building flashy facilities in an ongoing battle to compete with one another for top talent. Although the article suggests that this “arms race” may be showing signs of slowing, it struck me as interesting that there was no mention of career development and placement programs as an area of competition. Especially in the context of todays market, you might think that this would be low hanging fruit for programs to make a meaningful mark on prospective applicants.

I bet if you asked candidates what they are looking to achieve by going to business school, improving their job prospects, advancing their career, or building a network of colleagues to increase professional opportunities in the future, would be at the top of the list for nearly every candidate. (I’m sure if I looked a bit I could find some polls and surveys to support that so feel free to chip in if you can find any.) Given that the current state of the economy, especially in the financial sectors, has left MBA students wondering if their investment banking job offer is still good, (see recent Business Week article) it seems that the first thing a candidate might consider is not the shiny new dormitory or squash courts (although I’m sure that stuff doesn’t hurt) but their job prospects upon graduation, and their preparation for future advancement, which leads me to my next thought.

Clearly schools do tout their placement rates and career resources as competitive advantages. However they usually only show first year placements, probably because that’s all they really know. While that is important, an equally if not more telling statistic would track where alumni land 5, 10, 20 years down the road? If a school claims to have a strong entrepreneurial program yet only 2% of the graduating class goes on to entrepreneurial ventures, something seems off. But what if recent grads go work in finance for 3 years, pay off their loans, and then start their own companies? Now that would really support their competitive claims of preparing successful future entrepreneurs.