Career & Professional Development brings faculty into the conversation as partners

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healthsouth lunch sized HealthSouth corporate recruiters and faculty with various UAB programs met recently to discuss recruiting needs and explore ways to promote teamwork, creative thinking and career success for UAB students. Three schools and nine programs were represented in a lunch roundtable discussion.

“HealthSouth is rolling out a new executive-in-residence program that will attract multiple programs across UAB,” said Suzanne Scott-Trammell, executive director of UAB Career & Professional Development. “We need to bring together the faculty and chairs of these departments to hear the skills and competencies being sought and to align them with students in those programs."

This is a new approach for Career & Professional Development, which traditionally had been viewed as a place to get your resume critiqued or to look at jobs posted online. 

“Our strategy is to connect hiring organizations with UAB students and departments to identify the workforce needs now and in the future," Scott-Trammell said. "Our vision is to ensure every UAB graduate is prepared with the technical and interpersonal skills needed for their first job and every job thereafter. Resumes are only one tactic; the strategy is to prepare our students for successful careers.” 

Recruiters discussed skill gaps among new hires and asked faculty to share the most challenging issues in training students. Together they explored ways UAB and HealthSouth could teach team-oriented approaches to problem-solving and entrepreneurial and innovative thinking. 

“This is right on track with where we want to go as an department — identifying opportunities in the community for students and bringing faculty into the conversation as partners,” Scott-Trammell said.

Career & Professional Development has liaisons in the schools of Engineering, Health Professions, Public Health and Education plus the Office of Postdoctoral Education. They provide consulting services on integrating professional development into the curriculum, exploring and choosing a major, gaining field experience, preparing for a job or graduate school search and achieving lifelong career success.