Career services practitioners at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ (¶¶Òõ̽̽) – and many institutions across the country – are no longer acting as gatekeepers (filtering access to opportunities/employers) but rather serving as professional networkers (facilitating access to opportunities/employers/alums). Working from the premise that universities need to do better at helping their graduates successfully navigate today’s complex and rapidly changing world of work, the ¶¶Òõ̽̽ Career Center advanced its service delivery model in the fall of 2019 with the launch of Career Interest Groups. Four years later, it was time to assess if Interest Group members were benefiting from the new model. Specifically, as the Director of the Career Center, I wanted to know how much members were engaging in the networking activities of their IGs (e.g., connecting with people, opportunities, and resources), how confident they felt networking (e.g., their level of networking self-efficacy), and what short-term (proximal) benefits they were realizing. As the IG model was specifically designed to promote equitable access to connections and experiences for all students, regardless of background or social capital (through bridging networks rooted in shared interests), I also wanted to know if their engagement, self-efficacy, or benefits were moderated by their social identities (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, first-generation status), or if any relationship existed between identity, engagement, and self-efficacy on benefits. Lastly, I asked members how they would describe the purpose of an IG to a classmate to understand what sense they were making of the IGs. Backed by Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, I hypothesized that those who reported higher levels of confidence and engagement would also report greater benefits. I further hypothesized that social identities would moderate these benefits and that members whose understanding of the IG purpose aligned with the intended design would engage more.
This study thus provides a thorough program evaluation of the Interest Group (IG) model. In the spring of 2024, I surveyed 307 Interest Group (IG) members (undergraduates and 2023 graduates). I found, in short, that 1) IG members have a fairly solid understanding of the purpose of these networks, 2) IG members were neither highly engaged nor very confident, 3) IGs members with higher engagement levels did report greater benefits, 4) gender had a moderate effect on networking self-efficacy, 5) race had a medium effect on networking benefits, and 6) that there was indeed a relationship between social identity, IG engagement, and networking self-efficacy that accounted for 41% of the variance in proximal networking benefits.
This research provides foundational information to help the university understand how IG members are making sense of the IGs, how confident they feel, and how they are (or are not) engaging with their groups and benefiting from the IG model. This empowers Career Center staff – and colleagues across campus – to make data-informed decisions regarding how to adjust and evolve the IG model (and career offerings more generally) to realize increasing success.