About 3,000 BYU students graduate and enter the job market every year, including hundreds of business majors who need to find jobs. There are many resources to connect graduates to potential employers, but Business Career Center employees said careerlaunch.byu.edu is one of the best options for Marriott School students.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, business and management are the second most popular college majors, just behind health professions and related sciences; but in 2014, 85.1 percent of business students across the country found themselves graduating without a job lined up.
CareerLaunch is a website developed last year by the Marriott School to provide resources for business and pre-management students. It also lists all Marriott School events that may interest the same group of students.
The goal of the website is to help pre-management students make informed decisions about choosing a major. It also offers guidance about companies and career paths to students already admitted to the Marriott School.
“We’re using it as the communication platform for professional development,” said Melinda Maughan, recruiting coordinator of the Business Career Center. “So anything that will help pre-management students and Marriott School students prepare for a career.”
CareerLaunch keeps personal student information organized and offers a free subscription service. More than 8,000 students are currently subscribed to the website, Maughan said, and the open rate of emails sent to subscribing students is four times the industry average.
“I think part of the reason that those e-mails have such a high open rate is because the content in the emails is tailored to the individual,” Maughan said.
When they subscribe, students can choose the type of content they would like in their emails and the frequency with which they want to receive emails.
Business Career Center marketing coordinator Brandon Christensen said the website’s content is put together well to help students out.
“It really becomes a one-stop shop,” Christensen said. “It’s almost as useful as Learning Suite as far as having all your information in one place.”
All information about upcoming internships or jobs is pulled from BYU Bridge, another platform that provides information specifically about jobs and internships. The two websites sync information every night.
CareerLaunch currently offers information about 491 internships and jobs, as well as ways to get in touch with 14 companies interviewing on campus.
The newest addition to the website is a recruiting trip option, which helps students make trips through the Business Career Center to visit companies they may be interested in.
“We take trips to the Bay area, we take trips to Dallas, New York, Washington, locations that are really big hubs for placement,” Maughan said.
Other BYU career resources include the University Career Services, the Career and Academic Success Center, and BYU Alumni Career Help. All programs have an advisement center offering help more specific to a student’s career path.
The Business Career Center offers various information sessions with well-known companies throughout the semester. For specific times and dates, refer to the event page.
