Students and Alumni Make Connections at Jump Start Your Career Networking Event

Katie Hein, a College of Education senior, wants to be prepared when she graduates in May and enters the job market.

In order to get ready for the job interview process, she attended COE’s Jump Start Your Career event on Feb. 9 at UMD’s Stamp Student Union, which brought together about several dozen current students and alumni in the teaching field for interviewing tips and career advice. 

“It’s good to have as much info as possible,” Hein said, on preparing for entering the workforce.

Drawing on more than four decades as an educator, Carole C. Goodman, ’73, ’78, former associate superintendent for human resources and development and acting consulting principal for Montgomery County Public Schools, gave attendees some do’s and don’ts for the interview process. Goodman was introduced by Linda Beck Pieplow, '72, '78, the COE programming committee chair.

Goodman acknowledged that being an educator comes with challenges, but she also praised the students for venturing into the field and investing in the future despite those challenges.

“I retired after 41 years,” she said. “I don’t regret one moment I spent in education.”

Goodman’s tips included following resume instructions, being professional and courteous on the phone and on voicemails, being mindful of one’s social media presence, and sending thank you notes to interviewers.

Before Goodman took the stage, COE Dean Donna Wiseman talked about the current makeup of the College of Education.

Currently, the College of Education has 673 undergraduate students and 981 graduate students, along with 91 tenured and tenure-track faculty and 69 additional faculty members and lecturers, Dean Wiseman said. In all, there are 39,175 COE alumni.

In contrast to today’s numbers, the College of Education had more undergraduate than graduate students when she took the helm 10 years ago, attributing the shift to an increase in master’s certification programs available, Dean Wiseman noted.

Almost all students in the College of Education are placed in schools before graduation, Dean Wiseman said. However, the field is facing “almost a crisis in our country,” according to Wiseman, as fewer people are entering the teaching field in the first place, and those who do enter it face stress brought on by the demands of the job and teacher attrition.

She did note that there are teacher shortages in all fields — and therefore opportunities— especially for those teaching in STEM fields, English language learners and in urban school districts.

After listening to Wiseman and Goodman, students had the opportunity to go over questions they might encounter during interviews, practical experience that Bobbi Walker, who is finishing her master’s degree in TESOL, was looking for in preparation for her job search as a teacher.