Faculty and Staff
Brandeis faculty and staff are valuable partners, see more below on how we can support your work with students.
Our Mission
The Hiatt Career Center supports Brandeis undergraduate students and alumni in developing the skills to transform their unique backgrounds, liberal arts education and experiential learning into meaningful professional futures and relationships. We help students identify who they are, what they want and how to get there.
Our Approach
- Modern services for modern careers: The world of work is ever-evolving, and our award-winning practices are grounded in teaching flexibility around career planning and decision-making for today and tomorrow's workforce.
- Life-long skills: Students are at the center of our mission, and our goal is to enhance their experience by helping them create and develop career-ready skills for a lifetime of meaningful work.
- Career everywhere: With career success at the core of the Brandeis mission, we collaborate and create partnerships through the Hiatt ecosystem model across campus to better support students in their career education and development.
- Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion: Hiatt is committed to building a space that is all-inclusive, welcoming, and free from bias and discrimination. We support students in considering how intersecting identities impact their work and professional development.
Brandeis faculty and staff are valuable partners, see more below on how we can support your work with students.
Modern Career Services
Learn more about Hiatt's philosophy and approach informed by scholarship, research and practice in the field of career development.
Career & Affinity Hubs
Career and Affinity Hubs provide detailed career, internship, and job search resources across different industries and interests for students. These are great tools for students and good starting points for student questions.
Career Heroes
A Brandeis Career Hero is a faculty or staff member selected by students who made a significant contribution to students' professional or career objectives. Career happens everywhere across the Brandeis campus and faculty and staff are an important part of the career ecosystem. Learn more about the Brandeis Career Heroes.
Request a Classroom Presentation
Hiatt actively encourages cross campus partnership and we are happy to come speak with your class on a variety of career related topics. Complete our Presentation Request Form at least two weeks before your preferred date and we'll contact you with more information.
Commitment to Diversity
We work and collaborate with all students and alumni of all affiliations, backgrounds, identities and preferences. Learn more about our commitment to diversity.
National Recognition
Hiatt's work is nationally recognized by the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE) and the The National Career Development Association (NCDA).
We continually engage in quantitative and qualitative assessment of learning outcomes and satisfaction of our programs, see the most recent Hiatt Student Survey Results. We also conduct scholarly research, published in academic journals.
Career Collaboration Opportunities
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It's often helpful to speak with an independent resource to think about options in a new way. Students can meet with a staff member once, for several weeks or check-in every few months to keep focused. Our job is to help students plan effectively and to find the information necessary to make informed decisions as they relate to their job search and career planning.
Our career team meets with students and alumni for 30 or 60-minute on topics ranging from exploring majors and career interests, reviews of application materials, internships and job search, networking, interview, mock interviewing, graduate school and law school planning and applications. All counselors see all students and alumni, but staff have areas of specialty and interest. Learn more about career appointments.
Handshake, the online recruiting database shared by Hiatt, Heller, GSAS and Brandeis IBS houses career events, resources and thousands of job and internship postings for both undergraduate and graduate students. Our external relations team expands employment opportunities for Brandeis students by building relationships with alumni, employers and other key members of the Brandeis community.
If you receive postings that are relevant for Brandeis students or alumni submit to Hiatt. You can also share relevant opportunities with your students by adding a tailored job/internship feed to your department or program website, contact Jon Schlesinger to request one for your website.
Employer Recruiting and Hiring at Brandeis
As the job market continues to evolve and change, so does the recruiting and hiring process. Learn more about employers recruiting at Brandeis.
Hiatt sponsors career events for students throughout the year, including industry networking nights, career fairs, skill-building workshops, alumni panels and more. We encourage you to attend, co-sponsor, and help promote relevant events to your students. View the full event calendar.
If your students have a specific need or interest that is not already covered, we offer custom events and workshops. We also partner with student leaders like UDRs and club presidents on career programs and coach them through the process.
Hiatt has worked with faculty in HSSP, Computer Science, Business, Politics, and Legal Studies to bring alumni into the classroom (in person and virtually) for panel discussions or experiential projects. These are great programs engaging students and helping them connect their classroom work in new ways.
As you plan your classes please let us know how we can help. We can provide a 5-minute introduction to Hiatt, information on internships/jobs related to your course content, or we can assist in bringing in alumni, employers, or other staff in a way that will fit with your syllabus.
Hiatt cultivates relationships with alumni, employers and parents in all industries who are willing to speak with specific majors and student groups about their career paths, companies or other career-related topics. Contact us to get started.
We can help you infuse career content into your website to help your students learn more about careers, internships and jobs. See English Department as an example, we can also help you create an dynamic RSS feed of internships and jobs.
Contact us to learn more.
Faculty Career Resources
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We have expanded access to our career management system, Handshake. Undergraduate faculty can now access this platform using their Brandeis UNet to view job and internship postings, events, and career resources. Click here to get started with Handshake!
Brandeis graduates are sent a survey within six months of graduation to identify their first destinations, including graduate school, full-time employment and more. When students communicate with you about their postgraduate plans, have them complete the survey. The post-graduation data that has been collected from class years since 2008 is placed into an interactive tool called Beyond Brandeis. Browse by major, class year, industry and more to see where recent Brandeis graduates are employed and/or attending graduate school and encourage your students to do the same.
Forage provides students bite-sized 5-6 hour virtual work experiences. Virtual work programs replicate work at top companies and help students connect classroom experiences to workplaces.
Think of this for your next capstone project, it's already built out by top employers, and we can easily help you integrate this into classes for tracking and completion.
The Rise Together Mentor is an online platform that joins Brandeis students and alumni from all over the world to make connections, exchange career advice, expand their network and learn more about industries, careers and the world of work.
Hosted on the Brandeis community platform, B Connect, Rise Together is similar to LinkedIn, but its users are solely made up of Brandeisians who have opted in to participate. So, no more sending cold emails to connections you do not know. Our alumni have indicated they want to help Brandeis students.
Big Interview is an interactive tool designed to help students
prepare for any type of interview with
multiple classroom applications.
How Does It Work?
Big Interview offers virtual mock interviews with AI-driven feedback and next-step action plans to enhance students' skills. Students can share recorded responses for additional feedback and access lessons and a workspace to refine their interview techniques. Check out
Getting Started with Big Interview.Students reported that Big Interview helped them learn more, was easy to use, accurate in its results, and helpful in preparing them for interviews in the future!
Classroom Applications
In addition to interview help, you can create assignments using pre-recorded lessons and send them directly to your students with detailed instructions. Big Interview provides AI-powered feedback, and you can add individualized feedback to students. Learn more about
Creating & Reviewing Assignments.
The professional networking site LinkedIn is the resource for finding students and alumni, as well as building your own online brand. We encourage you to join LinkedIn to connect and reconnect with current and former students.
Interacting with Students & Alumni on LinkedIn
As a faculty or staff member, you may receive requests to connect with students and alumni on LinkedIn. Consider clarifying your communication preferences directly in your profile. For example: A note to Brandeis students: In an effort to keep a manageable LinkedIn network, I only accept invitations from students who I work with directly.
Check with your administrator to see if your academic program or campus department has a policy about accepting social media requests from students and alumni.
Students and alumni may ask you to be a reference or to write a recommendation on their behalf. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) provides guidelines for reference providers. You might also consider using the online credential service Interfolio to store letters of recommendation.
Academic Reference Letter Outline:
I am writing in support of [name of student]’s application for the [degree program] at [name of institution]. I have known [name of student] for the past [number of months, semesters, years]. During this time [she/he/they] displayed [2-3 key qualities of note].
As [his/her/their] professor, I have had an opportunity to observe the [name of student]’s participation and interaction in class and to evaluate [his/her/their] knowledge of the [subject matter]. I would rate [name of student]’ overall performance in these subjects as [below average, average, above average]. This is evidenced by [grades, projects, exams, etc.].
Provide specific examples of the 2-3 key qualities you noted earlier, for example:
As part of her grade in [name of course], the student was required to prepare a paper. The paper was designed to measure the student's ability to research, to analyze the results of the research, and to write. [Discuss how the paper submitted by the student indicated to you the student's skills in these areas.]
Based upon our conversations, [name of student] is a [exceptional, good, fair] candidate for the [degree program] at [name of institution].
Share other examples how this program connects with your experiences with the student.
See the Academic Reference Letter Sample and Employer Reference Letter Sample for Word templates.
Employment Verification and Reference Check
Employment verification confirms the basics of a student’s work experience. If you directly worked with the student, you can answer these questions or refer the employer to Brandeis Human Resources.
The reference check is more involved and a way for a future employer to assess professional details about a student’s job responsibilities and performance. Employers may be interested in items such as productivity, communication, successes, failures, attendance, culture fit, strengths, and weaknesses.
As faculty members you can play an important role in helping students by providing these reference checks, consider the follow advice:
- Know when to say yes - Ask for a current resume and the job posting. Talk to the students about why they want this role and what they’d like you to talk about with the employer. Only agree to be a reference if you can comfortably speak about the student and their experience.
- What to say - Write down a specific example or two, stick to your own experiences with the candidate and be enthusiastic and share positive information.
- Don’t go negative - Better to say, “I can’t speak directly to that” if you are not able to be positive. State laws vary on what a former employer can and cannot share in a reference request. It’s better to be cautious and stick to the positives.
If you have any specific questions about what information to provide reach out to the Hiatt Career Center, Brandeis Human Resources, or the Brandeis General Counsel.
Quick Tips: Hiatt Faculty Resources