Episode Summary

  • Nancy Cheek of Saint Leo University’s Career Services Office
  • Who Saint Leo University’s Career Services Office actually serves
  • What specific services and support the Career Services Office can provide
  • The hottest career fields today in terms of employment opportunities
  • The best job sites for candidates looking for any type of position
  • Interviewing tips for phone interviews, face-to-face interviews, and interviews conducted via video conferencing platforms like Skype

     

Links & Resources

Download Episode 9 Transcript

Speaker 1:

Saint Leo 360, a 360 degree overview of the Saint Leo University community.



Greg Lindberg:

Welcome to another episode of the Saint Leo 360 Podcast. My name is Greg Lindberg, and on this episode, I'm pleased to be joined by Nancy Cheek who is the associate director of career services here at Saint Leo University. Nancy, thanks so much for joining us.



Nancy Cheek:

And thanks so much for inviting me to be here, Greg. It's really exciting.



Greg Lindberg:

Absolutely. This'll be interesting and I think really informative. So we have a few areas that we'd like to cover today. First off, I'd like to ask you Nancy just a few things about your background, then I'd like to dive into career services and the career services office, and then we'll wrap up with some general career advice and I think some really informative topics and tricks and tips and that kind of thing.



Nancy Cheek:

Okay, sounds great.



Greg Lindberg:

Alrighty. So first off, Nancy, talk to me about your educational background.



Nancy Cheek:

Okay. Well, I am originally from Queens, New York, as you may hear as we're speaking today, started out my educational journey as a traditional college student. I went to New York Tech in Old Westbury right out of high school. I have a bachelor of science degree in architectural technology. I did move down to Florida eventually to the Tampa area and went back to school and obtained a bachelor of fine arts in fashion design from the International Academy of Design and Technology.



Nancy Cheek:

And then a little bit later, probably in the last 10 years or so, I went back to school again for grad school. I have a master of arts degree in career and technical education from the University of South Florida. So it's quite a combination of education and experience, which we'll probably talk about that leads to maybe me being a good person to advise on career paths and the way that our education and experience can evolve over time in many different ways and take different twists and turns.



Greg Lindberg:

Right, right. But definitely an interesting variety of degrees and interests it sounds like you've had. So as far as your professional career, talk to me about some of the things you've done prior to Saint Leo and then how you ended up coming to Saint Leo.



Nancy Cheek:

So my education led to a diverse career path. Some of the things I've done would be working for architects, overseeing product development for apparel companies, and then mixed in with my career path would be starting a family, which many people experience, and so that changed my career direction a little bit into higher education. I started teaching design classes in the evenings and on the weekends to be able to have a career and also take care of my children.



Nancy Cheek:

And then my teaching experience moved me into a career office at another school full-time, that was in about 2012. And I was assisting these designer types that I had been in school with and had been teaching with their job search, which that can be very interesting. And then I was offered a position at Saint Leo in January of 2015 in the career services office, and at that time that was serving only our online undergraduate students remotely and from the channel side support center.



Greg Lindberg:

I see, interesting. So then let's dive into the career services office and who would you say the career services office actually serves?



Nancy Cheek:

Well, I have to say that we serve everyone as it relates to students, that would be all of our student population, which is very varied. And the office has changed dramatically since 2015 when I started. That specific remote assistance to the undergraduate students now has been combined with the services that were provided on the main campus, formerly known as career planning to become one career services office in which we serve all students, whether they be on campus, online or attending from an education center.



Nancy Cheek:

And we are serving them through whatever platforms are most convenient for them, whether that be in person or remote and our resources, our events, our programming is designed to be a combination of all of these things. In addition, we have stakeholders outside of our students. We are here to serve faculty, staff, our employer, partners, anyone who needs assistance with anything related to career planning, professional development, we're here to help.



Greg Lindberg:

Got you. So it's definitely not just say current students, obviously you guys can help literally the whole Saint Leo community.



Nancy Cheek:

Correct. And I failed to mention alumni, very important. Part of our partnerships serve alumni in terms of job assistance they may need as well as giving them opportunities to mentor, give back to the Saint Leo community as well.



Greg Lindberg:

I see. And then let's talk about some of the specific services of the office and then I guess kind of the goals, what would you say the goals of career services actually are?



Nancy Cheek:

I guess the most important goal would be that we provide the resources, the employer connections and the assistance that will ensure that both students and alumni are what we call career ready. And that would be for their first job, their career change, or for advancement in the field if they are someone who is already on the path and in the industry that they want to be in.



Nancy Cheek:

And I guess the second thing, a goal would be to make sure that everyone finds out about these resources because that can be a challenge in terms of communication, not just enough to have great resources, programming, one-on-one assistance. We want to make sure that every student, graduate, every stakeholder who has an interest in Saint Leo career services actually finds us, that they also know that these resources are free for them to use and we hope they are using them from the very first day that they find us.



Greg Lindberg:

Right. I see. Let's talk about partnerships with employers, companies out there in the community. I don't know if you can talk about maybe some specific partnerships or connections that Saint Leo has that might be of interest to say current students, prospective students, even alumni.



Nancy Cheek:

Our goal is to have these connections both in the local area, regionally for all of those students who are out there in Virginia, in Georgia, in the different locations that we have education centers, but as well to have these connections nationally-



Greg Lindberg:

Right.



Nancy Cheek:

... for students who are attending online who may be in any city across the country, we want to be sure that we have them connected to employers. And I want to say that it's not just career services that has those employer connections, we really have great connections across the entire university. For example, our faculty members, our center directors, the alumni office, they all have great employer connections that can be utilized by our students and alumni.



Nancy Cheek:

And so career services, we do our best to partner with these other employees, as well as these other departments to be sure that we give everyone access to as many of these connections as we can. And I guess the way we do that is by driving them to our central career management platform, which is called Handshake. Handshake is the online career management platform that Saint Leo is currently using, and it's a great place to drive all kinds of employer related information to and send those looking for connections to and information about employment.



Nancy Cheek:

And it's very important to know about employers, what they stand for, what type of opportunities they have, very important to do the research these days. And then the employers have the ability to post jobs and internships that students can apply for and alumni on the Handshake platform. But it also allows them to reach out to students through Handshake. If a student or alum is active on Handshake, they have a profile set up, they're looking on a regular basis, employers can see that, and those are the candidates they will be targeting.



Nancy Cheek:

We also invite employers then to become involved in any kind of event, which will also get them in front of students. And so that could be inviting them to a career fair on the main campus, maybe an employer spotlight that we're hosting at an education center, or we do a lot of live webinar sessions that we invite employers to come share industry information, professional information, as well as network with students and alumni.



Greg Lindberg:

Interesting. So it sounds like there's quite a broad spectrum of services and connections and opportunities and just everything like that. Can you talk about any specific employers? I know there are some out there in terms of employers that seem to maybe hire Saint Leo more so than others, and then really recognize the quality of the Saint Leo alumni.



Nancy Cheek:

Yeah. Some of the local partners that we have that are very invested in Saint Leo, helping us out in any way as it relates to career readiness and connecting with our students would be enterprise holding a really valuable partner. We've got some new partnerships, ReliaQuest is one of those, MHK formerly MedHOK, all businesses that we are working with closely to get them in front of students, get them more involved. We've got many and I'll drop them in as we're speaking to and talk about maybe some of the stories of some of the things that they've helped with as well.



Greg Lindberg:

Sure.



Nancy Cheek:

We've got Eleven Financial, always a friend of Saint Leo to come out to help us with a resume blitz, send representatives over to spend two or three hours with Saint Leo students getting them prepared for a career fair. Northwestern Mutual is another one who is a great advocate of Saint Leo in helping our students.



Greg Lindberg:

Wow. Yeah, definitely some big names. And then just to wrap up as far as the career services office specifically, how can prospective students, current students, alumni, really anyone, how can they contact and reach the career services team?



Nancy Cheek:

The easiest way would be our email address, careerservices@saintleo.edu. It can't get any easier than that. And then we can direct them to getting signed up on Handshake. I'll also include our direct phone number, which is (352) 588-8346 will get you to the main career services line. And for anyone who is on campus or in the Tampa area, you certainly are welcome to stop in. Our offices are in Kirk Hall rooms 108 to 112. And again, careerservices@saintleo.edu is the easiest way. Just reach out with an email, we will direct you to the person or the resources that you need.



Greg Lindberg:

Very nice. So now let's dive into kind of some general career advice and then tips and tricks and whatnot. Let's first talk about job websites. Obviously in this day and age, there's so many jobs sites out there, not only do employers oftentimes list jobs on their own company websites, but you have all kinds of jobs sites that call together a bunch of jobs and job postings. Are there certain websites that you would recommend students or alumni or anyone looking for a job really utilize more so than others?



Nancy Cheek:

I have several. And it's a good point that you said that Greg, that there's so many that are out there because it really can become very overwhelming, which one is the best one? It really depends on your job search. And I think industry is part of it, depending on the industry, some of these resources may be better than others. Are there any that you're familiar with, Greg? What do you think are some of the most popular ones or ones that people are thinking about that they should be using?



Greg Lindberg:

Yeah, I would say sites like Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder. I think those are probably some of the top ones. And then I know even LinkedIn, they say is a good one to be on just to make those connections. Would you kind of agree with those?



Nancy Cheek:

Yes, very good, you are well-informed. And I wanted to just comment on a few of those. First I want to say from the inside, be sure that you are using Handshake. It's a valuable tool I've already mentioned. Once you are within the Saint Leo community, you definitely want to be using Handshake because employers there are looking specifically for college students and graduates. It's not a site that's open to the public, they are recruiting from universities. So that's the most important one.



Nancy Cheek:

Now you mentioned Indeed, Monster, those would be what we call the general job search aggregators. They work well for a general job search. There are some industry specific ones as well for example, Hcareers if you're someone who's in hospitality or tourism, you can use one like that. If you're in IT or in other fields, there will be specific ones for your industry, specific job search boards.



Nancy Cheek:

Now, you mentioned LinkedIn. LinkedIn, I think is very good because its access to current jobs and one key feature is that you are typically provided with a recruiter contact on LinkedIn, which you don't usually have access to if you're applying to something on Indeed or Monster. So I would say about 70 or 80% of jobs that are posted on LinkedIn also include their recruiters' contact information, the person who posted that job. So that's a really great advantage.



Nancy Cheek:

It's somebody that you can reach out to for feedback, follow up with. You don't usually have that luxury when you're applying to something on Indeed or Monster. Many times your application goes into the black hole of applications and you're not always sure about who to follow up with, or if you will ever hear from anyone again. But you mentioned employer job boards.



Nancy Cheek:

And so I like to say that is the best advice that I can give in terms of conducting a job search, would be to really conduct that search in reverse, I like to call it, which would be create a list of employers that you think are appropriate for your job search, who are in your geographic area and you want to find where they post their jobs. Usually it's a page on their website, so you can get the URL link to that page. It may be an outside source like Workday or others where companies post their jobs.



Nancy Cheek:

But then you want to look through every job they're posting on a regular basis, that I would recommend be weekly. Go onto those job boards for your employer targets and scour them. Because job titles now are changing on a daily basis to where you don't want to pick one job title and only search for that because there are so many other job names out there, some really creative ones too, that I think, "Wow, they're calling that that now?"



Greg Lindberg:

Right.



Nancy Cheek:

But you don't want to miss those. You don't want to go to Indeed and just be searching for one title when you could go to the company you know is an appropriate fit for you and look at everything they post because there may be job names out there that you haven't even thought to research. It may be that there is a job title that you don't realize is an entry-level role that may be appropriate for you, or it's an advanced role that may be appropriate for you. And if you're going to the source, which would be the employer job board, you're not going to miss anything.



Greg Lindberg:

And that is a really interesting point you made about kind of in reverse, doing the search in reverse. So I think a lot of people just... they want to see what's currently available, what's listed and they're not necessarily targeting certain companies that maybe they would like to work for.



Nancy Cheek:

Right. If you are someone who's studying psychology, you know that the employers you're going to be working for are not engineering firms, they're not the major league baseball franchises, they're certain organization. They may be mental health facilities, hospitals, non-profits. So you do have an idea of who your target should be and you will conduct a much better job search if you focus on those employers and the jobs that they're posting from the inside.



Greg Lindberg:

Right. Very well stated. Let's talk about some tips and tricks on how a job candidate can actually separate him or herself from the rest of the pack. Obviously there's so many people always looking for jobs out there and everyone's up against at least some other individuals. So what would you recommend that someone do to be able to help with that?



Nancy Cheek:

Oh, for sure. There are many jobs out there to be had, but the competition is tough these days. There are a lot of people competing for the same roles and it is very true, you have to separate yourself, you have to stand out from the others. So two things that I think may sound pretty simple, but I want to offer first that I do suggest to job search candidates all the time, first would be to send thank you notes.



Nancy Cheek:

So after every interview you've been on, whether that be an in-person interview or even a phone interview, you want to follow up with a thank you. You want to do that within 24 hours of that interview. Most people choose to do it by email because that's the easiest and that's okay, but if you are someone who's really on top of it, you've got some note cards, so you've got stamps and you can get that in to the post office or dropped in the mailbox within the 24 hours.



Nancy Cheek:

A handwritten note is even better because the thank you shows your appreciation for the person's time, it shows your attention to detail. And although we all may have heard that that's something that we should do, it's estimated that only about 20 or 25% of people actually do it. So if you are the one who is doing that, it will make you stand out. Also a simple one, but include a cover letter wherever you can. Many times in an application, it will say that a cover letter is optional. But if there is a place that you can upload a cover letter or include a cover letter, do it because that's another thing that will separate you from someone else who says, "Ah, no, I'm not going to take the time to do that."



Greg Lindberg:

Interesting points.



Nancy Cheek:

And one last thing as it relates to maybe standing out, separating yourself, doing something a little different relates to that target list that I just mentioned, and that would be those employers that are on your target list, if you could also find them and follow them on social media, that's going to make you stand out. If you are reading about them in any kind of news or blogs, you're going to start to know what they're saying and doing from the inside by following them. And this is going to make you a really good candidate once you do have the chance to interview with them. You're going to know what's important to them, what their challenges are and it's going to make you stand out because you have done that research.



Greg Lindberg:

Right, right. Interesting. Now, as far as resumes go, obviously a resume is kind of the main document that represents a job candidate. And in this day and age, this digital world we're living in, I know they used to say a resume should just be one page, but now since it's oftentimes a Word document or a PDF or something on your LinkedIn profile, it may not have to be set to a certain length or whatnot. So talk about resumes.



Nancy Cheek:

Right. And that always is a question as it relates to resume one page, two pages, either one is okay for a general answer to that question. Three or four pages now is really not acceptable. There's not enough time with all the candidates out there for recruiters and hiring managers to be going through three or four or more pages. I guess the words that come to mind as I think about most important for a resume would be concise, precise.



Nancy Cheek:

You want to be sure that you use any keywords that are relevant to the job and to that industry and you want to be sure you're putting that up as high on the resume as possible, if that makes any sense. So if you are maybe new to the workforce or new to a particular industry, if you have unrelated experience, that should go further down on the resume. Anything that is related to what you're trying to change into or advance in should be up high in the resume. And career services can help you do that.



Nancy Cheek:

As it relates to resumes in general, a resume is a marketing piece for you. Your resume is the written form of you marketing yourself for an opportunity. So you want to do whatever you can to speak to the role and the industry that you're looking to get into and as well, really important, that you are saying what you can do for an employer, not necessarily what they can do for you. So in the past, we've been able to say, "I would like to advance my career in the following fields, I'd like to have the opportunity to advance, to get training in this." Those days are long gone.



Nancy Cheek:

We are no longer speaking in terms of the employer finding us an opportunity. We really do have to market ourselves for what we can do for the employer because we have that, there's so much competition. And even someone who's at entry level, someone who's changing into a career that they have not gotten any experience in before, they can still say those things if they were involved in a related club, the fact that they have education, they were working on projects related. Those kinds of things on a resume need to be up towards the top to show the employer that you have some skills, that you have an interest and a motivation to become a professional in that field if you're not already.



Greg Lindberg:

I see. And then talk a little bit about how much information, for example, how far back should you go? Let's say you do have a fair amount of professional experience, should you list pretty much everything you've done, should you tailor it to that prospective employer? Talk a little bit about that.



Nancy Cheek:

10 years is my standard answer for that. You should, you're expected to go back about 10 years, but sometimes you have to change that a little bit. Let's say you were working... you've been working in an industry for the last 15 to 20 years, but prior to that, you did something related to the new program you're studying at Saint Leo. What I would say is you can go back that far. You may skip some of the time in between, but that type of experience can be listed.



Nancy Cheek:

I like to add a heading called additional related experience, and you put that below the most current 10 years of experience that you have had to show that there has been some employment in that area, some transferrable type of experience that you want to include. But I always say you want to leave the date off of that section. Once we get into listing things that are more than 10 years old, even when it comes to our education and our degrees, we begin to date ourselves.



Nancy Cheek:

And unfortunately we can be discriminated against in the workforce for being too old. Sometimes it may be that we are not experienced enough. So it's probably the general information for 10 years, both education and experience are most relevant on a resume, and then there are other ways that we can strategically place transferable experience in other ways on the resume.



Greg Lindberg:

I see. Now let's talk about an online profile. How important would you say it is to have a LinkedIn profile that's up to date, that has a decent headshot of yourself and then even for instance, say like a portfolio, if you have a job maybe that lends itself to showcasing work that you've done?



Nancy Cheek:

Right. And I'll touch on both of those. How important do you think it is Greg to have a LinkedIn profile?



Greg Lindberg:

Very important.



Nancy Cheek:

Okay. How many... what percentage of recruiters do you think are looking at people's LinkedIn profiles if you had a guess?



Greg Lindberg:

It's hard to say. I would say a fair amount.



Nancy Cheek:

So the amount is approximately 92% are looking at your LinkedIn profile. So it's very important that you have, if you are someone who is studying something in higher ed, if you are... even if you're not working at this point, if you are someone who is looking to pursue or begin a career, a professional career, you need to have a LinkedIn profile. Headshot is very important for it to be up to date and professional because 92% of companies we estimate are using social media to scan candidates beginning with LinkedIn.



Nancy Cheek:

Now, they are looking at other social media sites as well. So we do, I think everyone would understand that having an unprofessional presence is not good. For example, if we're using Facebook or Twitter as our personal accounts, you want to be sure that you don't have anything on those that is going to be held against you professionally so that's really important to know that.



Nancy Cheek:

But also having no online presence in the form of your professional LinkedIn account is also not a good thing. It can send red flags to an employer, it can show them that you're not really embracing contemporary networking tools that are expected in the professional arena. I'll talk about portfolio sites. I'm not finding them standard across the board or not as common a requirement yet.



Nancy Cheek:

Although if you are someone who is in a creative industry, if you're someone in marketing, communications, any of the design fields, visual, quite possibly performing arts, any of that, then yes, you definitely want to have some kind of a portfolio, an electronic portfolio or a website showing your work, anything that might be shared visually that's very graphic or creative in nature, yes. But for most opportunities, no, it's not something that's recommended, but it is something that career services can help you with or guide you in addition to maybe those faculty members who have expertise in those areas to coming up with a professional type of a portfolio presentation.



Greg Lindberg:

Right, right. I see. And then as far as interviews, let's talk about interviews. Do you have any tips, tricks, any just kind of handy things that a job candidate should know about phone interviews and face to face interviews?



Nancy Cheek:

Probably my tips for interviewing, three things would be a first prepare, that involves research, and then you want to practice. So if you can do those things, whether it be for a phone interview or a face to face interview, that's going to put you in a great position. Because as we all know, when we get into the interview situation, there's not a lot that we can control at that point. It can be very nerve-wracking to have to conduct an interview even when that's on the phone, it can be very uncomfortable. It's one of the greatest things that we dread. It could possibly top being in the dentist chair.



Greg Lindberg:

Right.



Nancy Cheek:

But the fact that you never know what questions they will ask, how you're going to be feeling that day, if you're going to be feeling a little nervous, a little confident, a little bit more outspoken maybe than another day, the fact that you never know how many people are going to show up at that interview, you might end up sitting at a table with six people looking at you across the table, very daunting.



Nancy Cheek:

The things that we can control would be the preparation, which research is definitely the key and then as well, practicing that so you do get to a comfort level for once the interview time comes, you show up knowing, "Okay, I got this. I prepared for this." For a phone interview, a few tips, make sure that you find a quiet space that will be a quiet space at the time of the interview.



Nancy Cheek:

For example, you may get yourself set up and say, "Okay, I'm going to be in this room." You prepared a certain time of day, but then you realize the time of the interview, there may be some dogs that are in the house or a baby's crying or something else that is really going to throw a wrench into the interview. So you want to be sure you're thinking about that for the space. You also want to be sure that you have a strong phone connection.



Nancy Cheek:

So it could be that your wireless company is really not very reliable if you're in a certain building or if you're at home, you want to make sure then you have a landline or a reliable source of phone connection. And a funny one for phone interviews, even if you never thought this, you really should get dressed for that interview, even though nobody is going to see you, you have to try to exude a certain level of professionalism, as well as enthusiasm, really over the phone that you don't necessarily have to do as much when you're in person because the person interviewing you gets a lot of visual cues as well.



Nancy Cheek:

So if you are dressed, that means you're awake, you took the time to look professional. It makes you feel professional, and it will definitely help you when you're doing a phone interview. But also for a phone interview, you can take advantage of a few things, not being in front of anyone means that you can still have your resume in front of you. You can have notes out, you can have any kind of questions that you may want to include, you don't want to forget those in a phone interview.



Nancy Cheek:

You can have all of that laid out in front of you so I highly suggest you do that. And then you asked for some tips for face to face interviews as well. So that would be taking advantage of the visual cues that you can send, the connection that you can have somebody, just the general make eye contact with them, shake hands, and try to smile as much as you can because part of an interview is being likable. So in person you can smile.



Nancy Cheek:

You can be happy and show that you are passionate, enthusiastic about the opportunity, as well as that moment of being there with the interviewer. And when you are showing up somewhere, you definitely have to dress professionally. You want to have suit, tie, for women, pantsuits or a dress with a blazer, close-toed shoes, always very appropriate. Even if you are going into a business casual workplace, that's my suggestion for a dress.



Greg Lindberg:

Interesting. All really great points.



Nancy Cheek:

Any other interview tips you might like to have Greg?



Greg Lindberg:

Yeah.



Nancy Cheek:

Anything that I didn't mention?



Greg Lindberg:

I guess I was also thinking about, obviously in this day and age of Skype, FaceTime, kind of the web cam, web conferencing, I would imagine those types of situations you'd have to account for kind of the face to face approach and the phone interview approach.



Nancy Cheek:

Yeah, definitely a combination, you have to think about all of those things. I guess for a Skype interview, it could be that you're at least dressed business professional from the waist up. You could have your sweat pants and bunny slippers on underneath.



Greg Lindberg:

Good point.



Nancy Cheek:

But yeah, it is kind of a combination. And what I like to really recommend for that would be to practice in at least logging into the session prior to the interview. And if that's not possible, career services can certainly help with that. We have access to Zoom. I use all the time our video conferencing platform called Blackboard Collaborate. I do a host of webinars sessions in there. We can actually tune into one of those sessions as a test to make sure that your camera will turn on, that your audio will work.



Nancy Cheek:

And if you can't do that with the employer's technology that they have sent over to you, then certainly reach out to us because for the most part, if you can get your laptop or device working in one platform, it will work in another, many times it's the browser you use that will allow you to have a strong connection or to have any connection. And it's very important that you test that prior to logging into the session. So even if you say, "Okay, it's an interview, I'll get in there 10 or 15 minutes ahead of time just to make sure I'm on," that sometimes is not enough time for you to be able to be sure that you're going to be seen and heard.



Nancy Cheek:

So I recommend you try to do that a day in advance, or if you feel like that's not something that can work through the employer's platform that they're going to have you in, go ahead and reach out to career services, we'll practice on our platform. Because that would be the worst thing. Even if you get yourself up and running, you're completely frazzled and thrown off if it took you... if you're saying, "Oh my goodness, I'm not going to be able to make this work." So that's one big thing about video conferencing and video interviews. I'm glad you mentioned that.



Greg Lindberg:

Sure, yeah. And once again, those are all just wonderful points and handy tips. Let's end on a pretty important note here, let's talk about the top industries out there today as far as where there are a lot of opportunities when it comes to jobs and maybe specifically related to the majors and the types of degrees that Saint Leo offers and the kinds of jobs a graduate would look to attain upon completing one of those degrees.



Nancy Cheek:

That's an exciting one for us to finish with, I'm glad you asked about that because I'm always following the annual reports to see where the employment trends are, what are the most highly paying fields for a bachelor's degree, all of those kinds of things. And I have heard in the last couple of weeks on a radio show, or in an interview on the radio about what a few of those top industries and programs that we're in and actually Saint Leo has two of three of those which would be appropriate.



Nancy Cheek:

So I think many of us will realize for what I'm going to call the biggest bang for your bachelor's degree in terms of opportunities, pretty well paying salaries, secure lots of opportunities out there. First one on the list would be engineering. I think many people know that. Next one would be computer science and IT, anything related. And Saint Leo definitely has many programs related to computer science from the associate's degree, all the way through graduate programs with specialties in things like information systems, cybersecurity, all of those programs are going to get you ready for, equip you with the skills and the information and the background to get started in those careers, which are really hot.



Nancy Cheek:

One that you may not even be aware of, it's an up and coming area, not necessarily an industry, but it is the career area that we now call data analytics. So if you don't already know, all businesses from the government to private corporations are making business decisions now based on their data. So students in any of our business majors and any of our business specialties, definitely those who are in math, our math program, as well as any of our programs that relate to research and knowing how to do really good research like our sociology programs, even liberal arts, are going to be those who should consider careers in data analytics because that is where it's at, that is the hot career area now in terms of employment trends.



Greg Lindberg:

Interesting. Alrighty, well, I definitely appreciate your time, Nancy, and it's been a true pleasure having you on the podcast and you've given a lot of great detail and I think a lot of information that those out there listening will find useful. So thank you again.



Nancy Cheek:

Oh, thanks so much. I appreciate being here. I'd love to do it again. It's a pleasure working with you always, Greg.



Greg Lindberg:

Excellent, thank you.



Nancy Cheek:

Take care.



Speaker 1:

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