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You may have plenty of Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter friends -- but are you connected with professionals within your career field of interest? Networking and developing relationships with professionals are some the most effective ways to learn how to navigate your career path. Who knows --- someone in your professional network may provide an opportunity for you to take your first or next career step!
Below are a few tips on how to go beyond your social network and make professional connections!
Tip 1: Ask everyone for advice, ideas, leads and referrals
You may gain a lot of insight just by listening to the fascinating and inspiring career stories from professionals in your field. Many professionals (new and seasoned) are happy to talk about their career pathways with aspiring professionals just like you! Politely asking them if they could share a little time with you in person (preferably); or via email –could open up the opportunity for you to discover key facts and details about someone who is “actually doing” the things you are considering doing in the future. Furthermore, they also might help you find “insider” opportunities for internships, part-time jobs or high-profile volunteering assignments.
Tip 2: Create a professional email and/or professional networking profile
LinkedIn is a social network created primarily for building professional connections. Your profile serves as an interactive resume, where you can list your professional experience and educational credentials. You can join professional groups and search and apply for jobs. There are more than 58,100 UMBC alumni currently on LinkedIn!
Tip 3: Start Connecting at UMBC!
The Career Center hosts networking events and job fairs on a regular basis. Participate in informational interviews, Networking 101, LinkedIn 101 or join the UMBC-Alumni Student Networking Group on LinkedIn!
Now is the time to focus on your “Future Selfie”! In addition to building your personal brand, you can attend events/presentations, grab badges along the way, get connected to the rest of the world and explore professional options!
There are many career networking and professional mentorship opportunities which are available through the range of services, programs and initiatives sponsored by the Shriver Center – especially with respect to civic engagement and community based service delivery.
And Remember…
Follow up, follow up, and follow up (you get the point) – with your professional contacts! Whether it’s sending them an email every few months, or a message through Linked In, or placing a call to check in – it’s important to maintain all of the connections you make. They’ll be sure to come in handy when you are ready to make your next step!
Earlier this week the Provost and Deans agreed to a DoIT proposal to go forward with a broad investment in instructional technology support staff, software tools and training stipends for faculty. As part of this effort, DoIT will also be delaying the date for moving all courses to Blackboard Ultra, originally announced and planned for the start of Fall 2019, and extending to Fall 2021.
Specifically, DoIT and the Division of Professional Studies (DPS) are investing in four instructional technology positions to be on board by the start of summer, and recently purchased Blackboard’s Ally software for improving accessibility. Also, DoIT will increase the number of Blackboard Ultra ambassadors from 15 to 32, and provide more opportunities for on-site and online training workshops, including “lessons learned” from colleagues who’ve already switched. Finally, DoIT and the Provost’s Office are partnering to offer one-time, $100 stipends to all faculty who 1) attend or participate in any Ultra training, and 2) complete the process of migrating their existing course(s) by the new phased rollout summarized below, based on the “Blackboard Use by College” report (requires myUMBC login with ad\ before username):
Term Start |
College/School/Division |
SP19 Bb Courses * |
Fall 2019 |
DPS, Erickson, SOWK, UAA |
37, 22, 31, 28, respectively |
Spring 2020 |
CNMS |
150 |
Fall 2020 |
CoEIT |
275 |
Spring 2021 |
CAHSS |
831 |
To be clear, any faculty member from any college, school, department or division can switch to Ultra now -- as 145 courses have done this term already and since we piloted Ultra in Spring 2018. But within each organization above, DoIT will also focus on supporting each instructor based on a course’s “archetype” of prior Blackboard usage at UMBC, which we’ve seen is different from most institutions Blackboard hosts on its “cloud” or Software as a Service (SaaS) system. Note: UMBC moved to the Blackboard cloud in 2017.
“The move to Blackboard Ultra presents a real opportunity for DoIT to work with faculty to improve overall course design, accessibility and effective practice,” says Jack Suess, Vice President for IT and Chief Information Officer. “In some departments, this is working with faculty to provide training to develop online or hybrid courses, especially in collaboration with applied graduate programs. In other departments, faculty may be interested in deepening student engagement or outcomes.”
As part of the broader e-Learning strategy, DoIT will continue or expand support for the following:
Course Design: DoIT first introduced Quality Matters and online/blended teaching workshops to the campus through the DPS-supported Alternate Delivery Program (ADP) for summer & winter programs. Drawing on more than a dozen years of experience working with over 75 faculty, DoIT refined the ADP model in 2015 to include skill builder, course designer and quality booster workshops (and stipends) to participating faculty teaching in Fall and Spring courses, too.
Accessibility: DoIT is now supporting Ally, a new tool by Blackboard designed to identify and help address inaccessible course content. Currently, it is only available for Ultra courses.
Assessment & Academic Integrity: We’ll continue to offer training and support in effective practices with Adaptive Release, which DoIT has found is associated with higher use of course content by students, as well as SafeAssign and Respondus Lockdown Browser.
Learning Analytics & Student Success: We’ll continue to leverage analytics to help identify historically high-enrollment courses that have also reduced high DFW rates, to perhaps reverse-engineer effective practices that could be used in other courses.
Academic Continuity: We’ll encourage all faculty to become familiar with and use core Bb functions (e.g., announcements, gradebook, discussions, Collaborate video conferencing) that can support academic continuity in the event campus is closed for an extended period of time.
While there have been delays in some functionality not yet available in Blackboard Ultra (e.g., group management, specific publisher integrations, some gradebook calculation options, etc.), recent reviews by UMBC faculty also suggest Blackboard is heading in the right direction overall. For many reasons, including a more streamlined user interface, responsive design to support mobile device usage, and enhancements to improve content accessibility, Ultra is an improvement over the core 9.1 version release of Blackboard we’ve been using since 2012.
DoIT appreciates all of the good will and effort by faculty who have switched to Ultra as well as the feedback we’ve received over the last year. In addition to contacting anyone on the DoIT Instructional Technology staff, if there are questions, concerns or suggestions, we encourage people to also contact UMBC’s Bb Ultra Ambassadors, the Bb Faculty Advisory Group or Faculty Senate Computer Policy Committee (CPC).
For more information, visit umbc.edu/go/ultra.