Hillsdale College Career Services has recently gained approval to publish its podcast, “Beyond the Bubble,” on Apple Podcasts. The podcast features alumni, parents, and friends of the college to discuss their careers. The podcast is one of a recent shift from Career Services to create more resources for recent alumni.
“We wanted to turn from students and more towards recent alumni,” Student Activities Mentor and sophomore Sam Swayze said. “Not abandoning students once they leave but making those two to three year graduates our primary target audience. We see our role as continuing support even once you’ve graduated.”
Assistant Director of Career Services Rebecca Galvan ’13 took over the podcast with Swayze after Executive Director of Career Services Ken Koopmans and Jonathan Moy ’18 started it last year. The podcast happens weekly and features senior Ben Dietderich as the host. Each podcast is about 15 minutes long. The show used to be a Facebook live video, but switched over to Podcast in order to reach their targeted audience.
Dietderich said the move to Apple Podcasts is a great way to increase the podcast’s exposure.
“Apple Podcasts is a great way to reach people,” he said. “I don’t think as many people have SoundCloud as they do Apple. Now when you google Hillsdale College, ‘Beyond the Bubble’ will be one of the first things to show up.”
Swayze, who is responsible for searching for guests, vetting them, and doing other behind the scenes work for the podcast, first had the idea to move to Apple podcasts. The process only took about two weeks. Swayze submitted the podcast to iTunes for review, and if the podcast has a logo, more than one episode, contributes to the store, and does not contain any offense content, it is typically approved, according to Swayze.
Swayze said putting the podcast on Apple will improve exposure and the aesthetic.
“Hopefully we get greater exposure. ITunes does a really great job pestering people with notifications once they subscribed,” Swayze said. “There’s more credibility associated with iTunes than SoundCloud. It’s got more of a sophisticated look.”
Swayze said he generally looks for people who are in senior level management since someone who’s been in an industry for a few years has a “level of credibility to a peer.”
Galvan said one of her favorite guests was Anna Schroeder ’00, whose interview demonstrated one of the purposes of the podcast, Galvan said.
“A lot of times they have specific insight about how to take your Hillsdale education and use it out there, beyond the bubble. That’s why it’s called that,” Galvan said. “Hopefully it will create career conversations.”
Dietderich said the podcast provides recent alumni with useful advice for their time right after college.
“A lot of the alumni I’ve talked to say that they wish there was something like this around when they were in school,” he said.
The podcast is also a way to reach those alumni who may feel less connected after graduating, he said.
“You don’t have the resources when you leave campus that you do when you’re here,” Dietderich said. “‘Beyond the Bubble’ offers an opportunity to students who have just recently left to feel connected to campus.”
Dietderich also said he hopes that the podcast will be uploaded to the Hillsdale College website with a transcript of the interview. This will make the podcast more searchable for people looking for a specific kind of professional. There are currently a few available on the website.
“We want to make sure the podcast is available on all platforms,” he said. “If it’s in text format it’s much more searchable.”
