Career Connections, a podcast from South Dakota State University

Cultivating Career Experts in the Classroom

This episode is for faculty and staff. It is the audio from a webinar I hosted in early April 2026 for the South Dakota Higher Education Association. In this webinar I discuss different ways to embed career development into courses and our work with students. See below where you will find links to platforms where you can watch the video version of the webinar. Resources: South Dakota Higher Education Association Webpage [https://www.mysdhea.org/] Webinar Video [https://youtu.be/UWlSwyXtnSI?si=6M35YUAMc7JpGiyV] Faculty and Staff Online Toolkit [https://careers.sdstate.edu/resources/career-champions-toolkit/]

What's Next? The Alumni Panel Discussion

This episode is the audio of the Professional Development Series Webinar I co host with my colleague Travis Jensen who is part of the South Dakota State University Alumni and Foundation. Every year we host 3-4 webinars on different topics with the intent of providing professional development for alumni and current students. A common question for graduating students centers on the theme of what’s next? How do I do this? The content of this episode focuses on a few recent alumni who have figured this out. Each panelist has different experiences post-graduation and work in different sectors. I’m confident you will find this informative and interesting. During the webinar portion, you will hear from Travis who hosted the event solo along with the alumni panel. Resources: South Dakota State University Alumni & Foundation YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@sdsualumnifoundation] SD State University Career Development [https://www.youtube.com/@southdakotastateuniversity6226] Office of Career Development [https://careers.sdstate.edu/] SD State Alumni & Foundation [https://www.sdstatealumnifoundation.org/]

The Job Market Story

There are countless stories we hear about the job market. From unemployment rates and a frozen job market to anecdotal scenarios of people getting jobs, losing jobs, starting their own businesses, we hear it all. At South Dakota State University, one of our challenges is sorting through the national story to try and understand what is happening in South Dakota and the Upper Midwest.   My guest on this episode will help navigate some of this story. Jessica Meyers is a proud alum of SDSTATE. She is also the founder of Porchlight, which is a recruiting firm with the mission of rural economic development. She will shed light on many of the challenges her clients face as well as some of the wins she witnesses through her work. For current students and alumni of SD State, I want you to remember that my office provides several services that will help you navigate and prepare for the job market. So when you hear Jessica mention preparation, different resume tips, etc., we can help you individually with those items. I encourage you to follow the links below for more information and resources.   Office of Career Development website [https://careers.sdstate.edu] Porchlight website [https://porchlight-services.com/]

The Career Fair Part 2

Many students continue to wonder- are career fairs important or even effective? The short answer is an emphatic YES. This episode is part 2 of “The Career Fair.”   In this episode I reconnect with Maddie Haen who now works for Hefty Seeds and attends many career fairs as their recruiter. She is an alumnus of South Dakota State University and was one of the students I interviewed for the episode titled “The Career Fair,” early in season 1 of this podcast. I encourage you to go back to that episode and listen to it because we define the career fair and highlight different ways to prepare for career fairs. In my conversation with Maddie on this episode we highlight a few key items students need to consider when preparing for a career fair such as how to answer the prompt, “so tell me a little bit about yourself.” We also highlight what is helpful from the recruiting perspective that build on what she shared in the original Career Fair episode. Please explore the links below for additional information about my office and the link to The Career Fair (Part 1) Link to the Office of Career Development [https://careers.sdstate.edu] Link to The Career Fair episode from Season 1 of Career Connections [https://sdstatecareerconnections.podbean.com/e/the-career-fair/]

Servant Leadership Defined

I collaborate with the South Dakota State Alumni Association to host a professional development webinar series, and we had a session in October on servant leadership. The presenter for that webinar was Toby Uecker who currently serves as the Dean of Students here at South Dakota State and this episode is the audio from that webinar. I am sharing it on this podcast because the content is relevant not only to career development, but also in my exploration of storytelling in this season of Career Connections. The story of servant leadership has many different themes. Servant leadership is a phrase we hear often but I feel we rarely actually dig in to learn what the label servant leadership actually means. Toby references a few resources that help us learn more about servant leadership and I have shared that information in the show notes. I hope you find this information helpful.   Resource links: South Dakota State Alumni Association YouTube Channel [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qntTr_YltUI] Focus on Leadership edited by Larry C. Spears [https://www.amazon.com/Focus-Leadership-Servant-Leadership-21st-Century/dp/0471411620] Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership by James W. Sipe [https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Pillars-Servant-Leadership-Practicing/dp/0809149265] Office of Career Development [https://careers.sdstate.edu/] SDSU Alumni Association [https://www.statealum.com/s/1108/21/home.aspx]