At the end of 2015, LER reworked our Assistant Director for Career and Student Services position to have a special focus on our international population. We hired Jason Boys for this position, who came to LER with a degree in Intercultural Communications from the University of New Mexico. Most recently he worked for Skillpoint Alliance in Austin, TX, but perhaps most interesting and relevant to his work at LER is that he worked on the line at Ford for several years after graduating from high school, giving him a unique perspective on preparing students for our degree and recruiting process.
This August, Jason traveled to Shanghai to meet with alumni and engage potential employers for returning graduates. This trip kicked off with a reception at the JW Marriott at Tomorrow Square in downtown Shanghai. LER hosted alumni, as well as returning and incoming students at the 40th floor “JW’s Lounge.” In total, there were 22 guests at the event, and the alumni covered a wide spectrum of roles in the Human Resources field.
In attendance were HR specialists and managers, recruiters, consultants, analysts, and account specialists from companies including BP, IBM, Mercer, Gallup, Johnson & Johnson, Education First (EF), and more. One alumna invited the Vice President of China Operations from her company who offered a brief information and Q & A session. The evening was filled with great conversation and served as a perfect opportunity to reconnect with some of our Shanghai-based alumni.
He also represented LER at a career fair organized by several U.S. Universities’ China Offices. The Illinois Shanghai Office is an active member in this coalition and played a major role in the coordination of the event. Illinois also had the largest number of alumni attendees, many of whom were from LER, at the event and had registered more of the companies in attendance than any other university involved.
In total, there were 1102 job seekers at the event connecting with more than 70 companies. The coalition held a similar career fair in Beijing the following week that brought in over 1600 job seekers. The University of Illinois Shanghai Office, under the guidance of the Director of Global Communications and Protocol, is working not only to strengthen relationships with employers for returning graduates, but also to connect with departments across the entire University of Illinois system to better understand their specific needs and those of their students.
Although the visit to Shanghai was quick, it was successful. In just a couple of days, LER was able to connect with several alumni, meet dozens of potential employers for graduates returning to China, strengthen our relationship with the China Office, and get a better understanding of what the job market looks like in a city where so many LER alumni are based.
In addition to this global outreach, LER is working on providing personalized service on campus to our international students. That includes a new site visit geared towards that student population and hosted by Caterpillar in September. The event highlighted CAT’s global hiring program, and afforded the students an opportunity to see one of their logistics centers.
