MoJo Mondays help students gain workplace edge

This spring a total of 61 students took advantage of a new Skidmore program to develop skills valued in the workplace but not traditionally taught through coursework, experiential education, or co-curricular activities, 

Skidmore's Office of Communications and Career Development Center jointly sponsored "Modern Job Skills You Need to Know Mondays" (or "MoJo Mondays") - a four-workshop series designed to teach the fundamentals of web editing, best practices of social media marketing, business correspondence, and online professional networking.

Daniella Nordin, Skidmore's online community manager, and Megan Jackson, assistant director/information technology manager at the Career Development Center, led the sessions. Students attending represented all four classes at the College.

As a result of the sessions, Molly O'Brien '12 was hired as the community and content intern at Spreecast, a social video platform where Skidmore alum Greg Wacks '96 is director of content production. While promoting MoJo Monday via Twitter, Nordin was contacted by Wacks, who shared his pleasure in the programming, and an interest in recruiting an intern. Jackson and Nordin promoted the listing in the MoJo Monday workshops as an example of the changing workplace landscape.

"I really loved MoJo Mondays. Besides giving me skills like learning how to edit photos and use content management systems, each session left me feeling really motivated to find a job. As a senior, I think the sessions helped me focus and gave me a good attitude about the job-search process," said O'Brien.

Two circumstances led to the development of the series: alumni feedback from surveys conducted during fall 2011 and the increasing use of the term "social media" in job postings. Research conducted by US News & World Report indicates that jobs with the descriptor "social media" tripled from 2009 to 2010, reaching more than 14,000 in November 2010 compared to 4,300 during the same month in 2009. The workshops capitalized on students' comfort with technology and their willingness to strengthen their skill sets.

"MoJo Mondays have been great. They've helped to get me started on a lot of things I've been putting off. The environment was great and the hands-on format was super helpful," said Adam Becker '12.

"The MoJo Monday workshops are the most useful classes I have ever taken! No judgment, no grades, just knowledge and extremely helpful and useful insight into some of the things every student should know how to do before graduation. In the workshops I set up my LinkedIn, learned how to effectively network using Skidmore's resources, and learned the ins and outs of social media marketing! I'm glad I got to do it all just in time for graduation!" said Cheyenne Kinch '12.

Future MoJo Monday sessions will include webinars for Skidmore alumni to connect with students enrolled in the workshop. The program also is expected to be included in the new Sophomore Experience.

For more information about the workshops email Jacksonor Nordin.