Universities try innovative ways to get grads jobs

In an amply provisioned event room in a downtown Boston hotel, well-heeled professionals from their early 20s to well into their 50s sat, chatted for six minutes and, at the ring of a small bell, rose to find the next partner on their agenda.

Their name tags attested to their academic bona fides: all were graduates of schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), athletic pipsqueaks but intellectual powerhouses like Amherst College, Bowdoin College, and Tufts University. With all the information swapping and animated gesturing, it certainly looked like speed dating for the brainy.

Instead, the roughly 100 NESCAC students and alumni were speed networking, one of several ways universities are attempting to serve their seniors, recent alumni and even long-gone graduates in the face of a crippled job market. By beefing up programs that connect students to alumni and gauging the effect of quirky events like speed networking, universities are testing new ways of helping graduates find success even after they’ve tossed their mortarboards.

By David Grant

Full Story: http://features.csmonitor.com/economyrebuild/2009/10/09/universities-try-innovative-ways-to-get-grads-jobs/