The Career Center plans to completely shift from Wisr to PeopleGrove by mid-December. According to Executive Director of Career Exploration and Development Anthony Pernell-McGee, Wisr will still be available to students during the shift but will be fully phased out by the mid-December deadline.

“PeopleGrove set out to build the most helpful network ever created because we believe career fulfillment is a right every single person should have,” the PeopleGrove website reads. “To date, we’ve helped millions of learners on their career journeys.”

Pernell-McGee describes both Wisr and PeopleGrove as “career access mentoring platforms.” He defines this type of platform as “a career mentoring networking platform for students and alumni for students to explore careers and to meet alumni on the platform.”

During the search to improve existing career platform structures, Career Exploration and Development was deciding between PeopleGrove and Graduway. However, Pernell-McGee had experience using PeopleGrove in his positions at both Williams College and Bates College and consequently advocated for its use on Oberlin’s campus.

Career Exploration and Development plans to take advantage of PeopleGrove’s expanded capabilities relative to Wisr.

“We are going to be expanding our use of the platform by creating an alumni-sourced job board that will have alumni-sourced internships and jobs,” Pernell-McGee said. Although PeopleGrove is active now as an OberLink, there will be several phases to its official rollout.

“We are [first] going to populate the platform with alumni and students,” Pernell-McGee said. “We have already established the career communities on the platform. So right now, Alumni Engagement is in the process of transferring the Wisr data onto the new platform once all the alumni are on the platform.”

The final phase of the rollout, which will occur later this month, starts with an invitation for all students to join the platform and make a profile.

“Once [students] are on the platform, they can join the career communities, they can explore the community and connect with alums, ask some questions about careers, things of that nature,” Pernell-McGee said. “We have already established the career communities on the platform. So right now, Alumni Engagement is in the process of transferring the Wisr data onto the new platform once all the alumni are on the platform.”

The final phase of the rollout, which will occur later this month, starts with an invitation for all students to join the platform and make a profile.

“Once [students] are on the platform, they can join the career communities, they can explore the community and connect with alums, ask some questions about careers, things of that nature,” Pernell-McGee said.

When new users join the platform via OberLink, they are first prompted to sign in via LinkedIn, Oberlin Single Sign-On, or email. Next, the user is prompted to identify their relationship to the Oberlin community. Finally, users are asked a series of questions surrounding how they spend free time, what drives them, and where they are in their career. At this point, users are also given the
option of uploading a profile picture.

For student users, answers to these questions are used to inform recommended career paths. “I was happy to get PeopleGrove that contract and OberLink on board — most of the schools on the East Coast are using it, and it’s a great platform,” Pernell-McGee said. “There’s also another job search engine on there as well. So the students will have Handshake, they will have the alumni job board, and the other job engine is called Wave Up, which is also embedded in OberLink. So there’s lots of opportunity for students to look for internships and jobs.”