The Career Center launched its new UNT Career Chats initiative this semester where employers and students were able to discuss career-related topics via live twitter chats in an effort to reach students through a platform they constantly use.

The first UNT Career Chat took place on Sept. 13 with the topic “How to Successfully Transition from Student to Career.” Sam, a social business intern on the Campus Reach Team at Southwest Airlines, was the participating employer. The Career Center used its @UNTCareerCenter twitter handle and unique hashtag #UNTCareerChats for viewers to follow the conversation. Five questions were posted to the employer, and he was asked for any other advice or tips he wanted to share as well.

A total of 27 tweets were made during the hour-long chat, and the total impressions for the conversation (views on one or more of the tweets in the conversation) was 6,845. The total number of engagements for the conversation (retweets, replies, likes, user profile clicks, url clicks, hashtag clicks, detail expands, media views and media engagements during the conversation) was 200, and the unique hashtag was used 60 times.

The second UNT Career Chat was held on Nov. 14 with the topic of “Salary Negotiation.” Sharla Jones, vice president of talent acquisition at Cinemark, and Erica Tyler, campus program manager of talent acquisition at Ryan, LLC, were the participating employers.

@UNTCareerCenter sent 22 tweets during the hour, and the total impressions for the conversation was 10,097. The total number of engagements was 313.

The Career Center ramped up its marketing efforts for the second UNT Career Chat by tweeting the event flier and tagging several departments and colleges across campus, who in turn retweeted it. As a result, word spread and participation increased greatly.

“We increased the number of impressions from the previous chat by 67% and the number of engagements by 64% as a result of increased marketing,” said Gena Kirkwood, senior career development specialist.

The Career Center also posted the two UNT Career Chats in their entirety on its website, which can be found here, for those who were not able to participate live.

“Putting the chats on our website allowed us to increase their potential viewership by enabling students to view the information at any time,” said Kirkwood.

Following the success of the UNT Career Chats, the Career Center plans to recruit more employers to participate and potentially host a chat on the first Tuesday of each month for the 2018 – 2019 academic year.

For more information on the Career Center, visit studentaffairs.unt.edu/career-center.

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Contact: Ray Willhoft, 940-565-2464, raymond.willhoft@unt.edu