When Boise State began talking about the skills needed to help students with their “Bridge to Career,” the Department of Organization Performance and Workplace Learning paused and wondered if some of their students might benefit from additional resources to improve their professional presentation. Bridge to Career is a certificate program that students can layer onto their degrees to demonstrate organizational and managerial skills.
In one instance, OPWL reached out to Carlyn Blake, a 2005 graduate of the program previously known as Instructional and Performance Technology who currently is the executive director of Usful Glassworks. They asked her if she would take on an intern — a recent graduate — to work on instructional design projects. Sai Singh interned with Blake for a little over a month and completed three projects for Usful Glassworks. Each time, Blake provided feedback and encouragement. By the end of the month, Blake and Singh concluded that he was indeed ready to do instructional design in the workplace. But he wasn’t getting any calls.
So the department contacted 2002 IPT graduate Lesa Becker, who for years served as director of learning at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and is an adjunct instructor in the program and an international certified coach. Becker and Singh met to explore his career goals and review the jobs he was applying for, as well as his resume and cover letter. She helped him fine-tune which jobs to apply for, helped him focus his resume on skills that directly aligned with those the jobs required, and collaborated with him to polish his cover letter.
Once he received a call for an interview, Becker conducted a mock interview with Singh and identified ways to improve his presentation to better communicate his match to the job and the value he could bring to the position. When Singh got a call for a follow-up interview in which he was required to improve an existing course offering, she helped him practice his presentation. She also provided feedback to help him better articulate how he could assist the department with their learning and development goals.
After working with Becker for a month, Singh received and accepted a learning and development position job offer in the Treasure Valley.
The OPWL department is working to formalize these resources and, because it is an online program, will touch base with alumni to identify job coaches and career mentors throughout the United States and Canada.