During fall term, the Bastian Family Center for Career Success launched a series of virtual sessions for current students to connect with Knox alumni as part of a new program called Live@Knox.

Knox alumni have fascinating career paths and are eager to share their expertise. In informal question-and-answer sessions with students, alumni speak about their experiences in the professional world after Knox and share advice for students preparing for their lives post-graduation. 

“We’re limiting [sessions] in general to about 15 students to make sure that we can have a decent conversation. Everybody can get involved,” said Scott Crawford, executive director of career development. “And the students get to ask questions about whatever topics that they want, and so a lot of it is preparation advice, things that [students] can do now to be more prepared for a career in a particular area.”

During the winter term, the career center hosted Live@Knox sessions with user experience expert Christina Colman '13, project manager Erica Jessen Skog '06, and technical product manager Rohail Khan '16. These alumni wore many hats at Knox, majoring respectively in anthropology & sociology and German; international relations; and physics and mathematics, and are great examples of the versatility of a liberal arts degree.

The format of the sessions—conversations with people who relate to students’ current educational experiences—is invaluable to students from any discipline at Knox. Crawford said that sessions provide students with “a greater insight into that career field, into things that they can potentially do with their major, more information on the career process, the job search and internship search process, and networking.”

Live@Knox sessions are ideal for students who are entering the job market. “We do provide contact information after the sessions so students can follow up with the alums, and a lot of them are doing that, which is nice,” said Crawford. The informal aspect of sessions makes connecting with alumni easy.

The career center encourages a dialogue with students who have specific requests about Live@Knox sessions, such as hearing from alumni who have specific majors or careers so that each session is tailored to the needs of Knox students. “It's not my job to tell students what they want. Students tell us what they want and we'll do that,” he said. 

The career center is pursuing hosting fully online Live@Knox sessions for spring term 2020, and Crawford said that sessions will resume in the fall term in their previously conducted form. He added, “with regard to our other services, the vast majority are online-based, and we can easily work with students via email, etc, so with the exception of events, our services and resources for students are still the same.”

“We’re partnering with students to help them,” Crawford said. “It's important for students to know that we are a very responsive office.”

Students must R.S.V.P. to each Live@Knox session via Handshake, a job search platform that is newly available to Knox students and alumni.