Iowa students soon will have a new tool for exploring career interests and enhancing their job prospects. 

Developed by the Pomerantz Career Center (PCC) and ITS’s Administrative Information Systems and Custom Solutions and Integrations teams, My Career Path will deliver personalized career-planning recommendations. 

It aims to streamline access to career services and address the fact the students from certain backgrounds and majors are less likely to seek PCC support. 

“Not everyone wants to come to the career center. They may not have time or may not feel comfortable stepping into an unfamiliar place,” says Matt Augeri, PCC senior associate director of academic and leadership programs and project lead. “We want to provide 24/7, bite-size tools that students can identify and pursue at their own pace.” 

Supporting self-guided exploration 

Students log into the My Career Path website with their HawkIDs. Using the site’s preferences page, they provide info about career interests, work-related experiences, prior career planning, and short-term goals. 

From there, the site suggests activities like meeting with a career coach, interviewing a working professional, or creating a LinkedIn profile. Students can save the activities that interest them, hide those that don’t, or mark activities as completed. 

Preference questions also ask where students turn for career advice and how they feel about their career preparation to date. Responses to these items help keep recommendations manageable. 

“We want to meet students where they’re at,” Augeri says. “We might not suggest some activities to students who say they have small career networks. For example, we might propose low-barrier steps like career assessments versus informational interviews.” 

Enlisting faculty and staff

The project, originally dubbed Pathways to Success, won P3 funding starting in fiscal year 2023. It’s currently in its pilot phase and is slated for campus-wide launch in fall 2024. 

“About 86% of students who’ve tested the site say they would use it,” says Susie Regan, PCC associate director of academic and leadership programs. Pilot users also have offered ideas for promoting the tool.  

“At first we were looking at gamification and incentives,” Regan says, “but students told us they’d be most likely to use the site as a result of conversations with faculty and staff.” With that in mind, project leads are looking to build awareness among colleagues and show how it might be used in teaching or advising. 

Preparing for fall launch

PCC staff hope My Career Path can make career planning more approachable and appealing for everyone. 

“We know that students in some majors are less likely to seek out an internship or project-based career experience," Augeri says. “Part of this project is looking at how we present information and opening different avenues to show the benefits of exploring options, making connections, and setting goals.” 

Post-launch, leads will assess utilization and continue to collect feedback. They also hope to enhance integration with ICON for career-preparation courses and utilize course and program-of-study data from MAUI/MyUI. 

“It’s been really rewarding to partner with ITS and see how systems like this can be built,” Regan says. “We’ve enjoyed every minute of the work and the relationships we’ve developed.”