Conference Check-in

Please check in to the conference at the Solarium.

Opening Reception

Help us kick off the conference! Hire Big10+ Chair Catarina Caulfield will speak, followed by conference sponsor, Handshake. We'll spend the rest of the evening battling for trivia prizes and enjoying refreshments and hors d'oeuvres.

Explore Bloomington Nightlife

For the night owls, the designated after-hours meetup location is The Vault Pub, accessed from the IMU patio or inside from the main level. It's unstructured and on your own, so those who attend can decide whether to stick around campus or stray downtown to one of Bloomington’s best.

Welcome Breakfast and Opening Remarks

While you enjoy breakfast, Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, the inaugural vice president for student success for Indiana University and a professor of practice in higher education and student affairs, will give remarks.

As the Big 10 has expanded, so too has our organization. What does expansion mean for our organization? How should we continue to deliver Allerton? Is there an opportunity for growth in committees or another subset of our organization? What do we want to gain from the consortium and how can it continue to benefit its members? In this session, you’ll have the chance to provide your input on what you want to get out of Hire Big 10+.

How can we best support historically marginalized students on our campuses? Discuss strategies on effectively reaching these students, addressing hidden curriculum barriers, supporting intersectional identities, and leveraging campus partnerships for comprehensive success.

Explore the transformative role of data and analytics in forging employer connections. From first destination data to employer feedback, we'll share how we're getting the data and what we're doing with it. No matter your experience level, this session will offer valuable perspectives to enhance your employer relations efforts.

How can you effectively utilize social media, email campaigns, and other platforms to connect with students, alumni, and employers? Share how you use marketing to drive the success of your career services programs, including unique ways you grab the attention of your students.

Explore effective strategies to build impactful collaborations and partnerships across campus — such as teaming up with academic departments, collaborating with student organizations, and partnering with alumni networks, just to name a few. Learn practical tips for leveraging these connections and gain strategies to elevate your impact and drive positive outcomes for your institution's diverse student body.

We all find creative ways to serve the demands of our students, especially when resources are limited and student populations are growing. We'll discuss unique ways to serve large populations, including 24-hour service demands, using AI to supplement career coaching, and how to best utilize alumni and student or part-time employees.

Between all the acronyms — CPT, OPT, H1B — international students can quickly become overwhelmed. This session seeks to build knowledge about, elevate, and share practices and opportunities on how best to support our international students. Bring your ideas, your questions, your thoughts, and your best practices to the table.

Outside of the traditional methods, how are you connecting employers and students in a meaningful way? Discuss what lies beyond career fairs, information sessions, and online career services platforms and how to narrow the gap between talent and opportunity.

How do you drive FDS collection? Swag, prizes, and bragging rights — what else? Once you have the data, what do you do with it? Do you use this data to plan your organization or individual team strategy? What are some creative ways you've used FDS data to serve and inform your organization's practices?

As career services professionals, it's essential we tend to and develop our own careers. We'll discuss helpful certifications, methods to elevate skillsets, as well as what trends and experiences within our industry can help us at the beginner, intermediate, and experienced career coach levels.

It's always great to hear from your peers about what’s being done in our space. Let's talk all things programming and student services. What topics are you hitting and how are you delivering these? What are some successes in programming you’ve had? How are you determining success? What resources are you excited about? Are you partnering with any key providers?

Laying the foundation for students who are undecided can be one of the most difficult aspects of career coaching. Layer on the increase in anxiety we’ve seen in students post Covid and it can feel like we’re not having an impact. This session will be a conversation on how to help students move from indecision to action.  

• Bring your best practices for working with indecisive students 
• Share success stories where you’ve moved a student to action
• Share resources you enjoy using with exploratory students 
• Best practices for engaging and working with 1st year students.
  

Together, we'll explore experiences, insights, and best practices for navigating workplace dynamics in employer relations roles. This session offers a platform to exchange ideas, discuss communication techniques, and explore ethical considerations when working with employers who may not be warmly welcomed on our campuses.

As many universities transition to new leadership, support for career services, along with funding and expectations can change, in turn accelerating the need for and recognition of career services as a fundamental part of student success. As higher education grapples with the incoming enrollment cliff, the current hiring market, and changing market needs for early career talent, this session discusses elevating the story of career services and its vital part of the student experience. What are best practices, tried and true narratives, and support we have garnered?

Despite its new popularity, career services professionals know AI has been around a lot longer through video recording interviews and screening resumes at point of application. We'll discuss how AI is being used in the interviewing process and new considerations when submitting application materials. Share your ideas, thoughts, and discoveries as we draw on the tactical aspect of how students are being recruited.

Big10+ Business Lunch

Join HireBig10+ Chair Caterina Caulfield to review progress the HB10+ has made over the past year and the vision the board has for the upcoming year.

Keynote Session – Beyond Resumes: Career Services for Institutional Impact

Is career services just a resume and internship shop, as admissions would describe us? No! The increasing pressures on higher education have created an opportunity for college and university leaders to reconsider career services and its value to the institution. This presentation will unpack current trends in higher education and their relationships to career services and leave you with ideas and inspiration for how you can seize these trends to advance your own career services office.

Get the Hoosier sports experience with a guided tour through Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and Memorial Stadium. You'll get access to restricted areas such as the team center, playing surfaces, premium seating, press room, and more! Signup is required for this tour due to limited capacity. We will provide transportation to and from Assembly Hall, please meet at the IMU circle drive, directly outside of the Biddle Lobby.

Take a guided walk through the beautiful IU Bloomington campus and see some of the most popular spots: dorms, academic buildings, art venues, culture centers, gyms, and of course, the Sample Gates. This walking tour will last around an hour. Meet your group leader on the first floor of Ernie Pyle Hall after the Keynote. Sign Up.

Lover of the arts? Tour IU's Lilly Library to see Lilly's main galleries, exhibitions, classrooms, and the Reading Room — which is home to intricate wall murals. Seating is available throughout the hour-long guided tour, and the building is wheelchair accessible. Signup is required for this tour due to limited capacity. Meet your group leader in the IMU lobby, directly outside of Alumni Hall, after the Keynote.

Explore some of IU’s career services centers. Whether it’s seeing where the coaching magic happens or taking a new profile pic in our free professional portrait booth, you’ll get to see it all! Meet your group leader on the 2nd floor of Ernie Pyle Hall. They'll walk you to each career services building where you'll get a guided tour from a staff member. Sign up.

The MAC is the largest collegiate opera house in the country with a stage almost identical to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Explore work spaces for set building and costumes, walk through the ballet department, and admire the unique 1970's architecture. Meet your group leader on the Solarium Patio to walk to the MAC together. Sign up.

Cocktail Reception and Big10+ Awards Dinner

Unwind and socialize with fellow conference-goers over drinks and appetizers in the Solarium while talented jazz musicians from the Jacobs School of Music play.

At 7 p.m., dinner is served in Alumni Hall, and the Hire Big10+ Career Services Awards are presented. This memorable night promises to be a highlight of the conference, filled with recognition, inspiration, and networking.

Doors open at 5:45 p.m.

Explore Bloomington Nightlife

For the night owls, the designated after-hours meetup location is The Vault Pub, accessed from the IMU patio or inside from the main level. It's unstructured and on your own, so those who attend can decide whether to stick around campus or stray downtown to one of Bloomington’s best.

Position-Based Discussions

Alumni Engagement

Share your learned experiences while gathering fresh perspectives and practical advice from your peers in the alumni engagement realm.

Assessment and Data

An open-ended conversation on the nuances of roles in (or adjacent to!) Assessment and Data. While conversation is led by what participants want to discuss, topics might include:

• Leveraging data and assessment tools to optimize career services
• Effective data collection from surveys
• Evaluation and integration of career assessment tools
• Collecting and measuring first-destination outcomes

Career Coaches

While career coaching can be personally rewarding, it's not without it's challenges. Bring whatever is on your mind to this conversation with your career coach peers.

Course Instructors

Join fellow instructors for a conversation about roles in teaching, which might touch on topics like curriculum, challenges in higher education, teaching strategies and more.

Directors and Leadership

Learn, connect and collaborate with your peers at the director and campus leader level.

Employer Relations and Internship Coordinators

Engage in dialogue with your peers in employer relations and internship coordinating. Topics derive from participants' interests, but could include effective employer engagement, recruitment trends, and fostering mutually beneficial partnerships.

Student Engagement and Programming

Gather with your peers in this branch of career services to share your personal experiences in getting students to engage through creating and facilitating programming, and other forms of engagement.

Grab & Go Lunch

Don't forget to stop by Alumni Hall and pick up a boxed lunch before you go!