How Human Resources And Higher Education Cross Over: A One-on-One Interview with Caroline O’Shea from Brandeis University

In this week’s highlight on professionals in the field, I talked to Caroline O’Shea, the Senior Assistant Director of Employer Relations at the Hiatt Career Center at Brandeis University. 

Now, I might be a little biased towards Caroline, since she has been my mentor since last year. I was going through a total identity crisis my junior year (what do I do with a Sociology degree??) and the person who finally pulled me out of a personal meltdown did so by trying to get me a job. 

Spoken like a true career counselor.

Caroline has made her way through her career by going after opportunities to carve out her own path. From working at an inn at a National Park for a year and working in HR for YWCA Boston, to becoming a health education counselor at a women’s center, Caroline eventually found her role in Higher Education, settling in Career Services at Brandeis (with an emphasis on recruiting employers) after brief stints in Admissions and Professional Studies. 

Talk about a journey! As I listened to Caroline speak about her past roles, both in Human Resources and Higher Education career services, I was struck by the sheer similarities between the fields. As Caroline spoke more about her current role, I couldn’t help but put the pieces together: What gravitates people like Caroline (and Dan Newman, I might add) to both industries, even through all of their differences? 

Caroline had a few words of wisdom to share about the two industries.

First, Caroline said, both groups all want to help candidates get to the next phase of their careers. Whether that be helping students look for jobs after graduation, guiding professionals who are looking for a career change, or filling meaningful roles at your organization, HR and Higher Ed professionals want people to succeed at work and have fun doing it. 

“HR is uniquely positioned to connect people—and therefore knowledge, expertise, and mentorship possibilities—across an organization.”

Breitfelder and Dowling, Why Did We Ever Go Into HR?

It is no wonder why people who are looking to go into this interpersonally-focused work find the interest and passion for both of these roles. After all, the overall mission is pretty similar. In this article from the Harvard Business Review, Harvard MBA students also understand the importance of HR work: finding workforce talent, reducing employee turnover rates, and developing a company’s strategic business model that focuses on people is what differentiates business mediocrity from business success, “HR is uniquely positioned to connect people—and therefore knowledge, expertise, and mentorship possibilities—across an organization.”

While higher education professionals, especially those in career services like Caroline, help candidates strengthen their skills and experiences to get the job, HR -  and more specifically, Talent Acquisition professionals - are sourcing and filling roles for the business. 

It’s two sides of the same coin: Higher Ed is working to develop the person while Talent Acquisition is working to develop the organization, but both do so through the same human.

In her current role in Employer Relations, Caroline is always seeking out new industries, companies, and organizations to engage with Brandeis students. Her work includes building lasting relationships with employers and companies who want to build their brands on campus to hire students, as well as reviewing the Best Of lists (Best Places to Work, etc.),  and looking at data of where Brandeis students want to work to guide her outreach to new organizations. 

Caroline recruits the companies and organizations to Brandeis’ campus, sourcing the organizations- the “candidates”- to see who’ll be a fit for Brandeis.

She’s doing HR for Higher Education.

What does Caroline’s work say about how HR Recruitment?

Caroline emphasized that the skills to make it in Higher Education transfers over to HR and Employee Engagement seamlessly. She pointed at relationship-building as the key marker for success, just as Alycia Angle confirmed in my last blog post on the 5 things I needed to hear from a Talent Development professional. Strengthening and building relationships with employers will only increase their chances of getting strong candidates for their companies, in turn increasing Brandeis students’ chances of getting hired after graduation.

The need for networking, as well as adapting to new ideas, industries, and technologies is also crucial for successful work in HR. Caroline said, “If you’re working in these [HR and Higher Education recruitment] fields, you are probably a people person; you’re probably good at people! You should always find a common ground with people who you connect with, confidently.” Both HR and Higher Education professionals directly engage in helping others find confidence and opportunities at work.

In order to be successful at empowering others, you must continue to grow your network and learn from the people who you connect with. Effective HR and Higher Education recruitment is contingent on being open to new ideas and new networks (or people), either to non-traditional candidates who seek to enter your organization or as a candidate seeking employment, to be adaptable to new industries when entering in the workforce. 

As we have all seen with the pandemic (and the rise of social media apps such as Tik Tok), the way organizations hire college students have changed. Career fairs are now completely online (at least for the time being)...and Caroline mentioned a company that is doing all of their recruiting on Tik Tok: 

“I think things are going to continue to evolve and change and I'm really excited to see how that happens. We have employers who are just doing everything on Tik Tok, you know? Last year, I wouldn't have known what that was.”

Higher Education Recruitment, from Caroline’s experience, has thrived through learning about new industries and careers to support students’ life pivots and work changes. HR is successful when recruiters also remain open and flexible, as well as make an effort to recruit as diverse a candidate pool as possible and leverage new technologies.

Caroline is currently creating her own podcast all about navigating the pivots in our lives during this unique time with some pop culture references mixed in. She wants to build shared humanity in her podcast by bringing joyful conversations into her episodes, especially when speaking about career and life changes.

Caroline inspires me to find my joy and I can’t wait to listen to her new endeavor.

If you want to learn more about Caroline or want to sign up for a consultation with her, she has her own career consulting business, O’Shea Career Consulting (Brandeis students excluded). You can find her on LinkedIn or reach out to her by email.