Philip Meade, Director of Career Services

In an increasingly digital industry, Philip Meade still believes in bringing a personal touch to career services.

"You never want to get so high-tech that you lose the high touch," Meade says. "You always want students' immediate concerns to be directly addressed."

Meade joined Vaughn College in 2009 as director of career services. His resume includes stops at several universities and several more years in the corporate sector. His most recent position was at the financial services giant American International Group (AIG) as a recruitment strategist.

Now at Vaughn, he focuses on preparing students and alumni for what they might encounter in the job-search process. His best advice? Control the things that are yours to control.

"Dress appropriately for an interview. Make sure there are no errors on your resume," he says. "Don't have your first interview with a professional recruiter. Have it with me or [assistant] Jess Caron."

To Meade, collegiate career services is all about match-making. The better relationships he can establish with students, the better his chances of pairing them with successful opportunities.

That hasn't changed even in the digital age. Among Meade's first priorities at Vaughn was the debut of a career services interface, linked to the College's website, that better connects students and alumni to opportunities.

While a significant upgrade, he says it's not a substitute for the direct counseling his office provides.

"Students come to career services and they say, ‘get me a job'," Meade says. "But that's just a part of what we do here. Career services is a lifelong process, and even if you decide one day to do something totally opposite of what your degree is in, you're part of the family here."

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