Tuck Launches Online Networking Hub

Called the Tuck Networking Hub, it’s an online platform created by PeopleGrove software that allows alumni to opt-in to offer career mentorship to students and fellow alumni, according to their industry and experience.

The Tuck Networking Hub builds on the connectivity of the myTUCK alumni site, which provides a directory of all alumni and their career profiles. Using that site, students and alumni can reach out to one another, but the first attempt is essentially a cold-call. “By having the Tuck Networking Hub, students will now have access to a population of alumni who have said, Yes, I want to help you with your career,” says Renee Hirschberg, the director of alumni engagement and advancement operations. “While Tuck alumni are always willing to help each other, this method really provides a warm outreach.”

A collaboration between Tuck Advancement and the Career Services Office, the Tuck Networking Hub will be another opportunity for alumni to engage with Tuck, and for students and fellow alumni to benefit from the strong Tuck network.

To access the site, users will first enter their NetID and password. After that, they can elect to log in through LinkedIn or Facebook. When users register, they complete a questionnaire about their educational background, industry experience, location, and areas of interest. The site then matches users based on commonalities in the data. Users can also search for others and filter results by a host of criteria, to zero-in on the people most likely to be helpful. The system, which is mobile-enabled, keeps track of all correspondence initiated through the site, and provides email notifications and reminders to respond.

The hub will also be a place for Tuck centers to coordinate alumni and students interested in center content. To begin, the Center for Business, Government and Society, and the Center for Entrepreneurship, will pilot groups within the hub. Other centers and groups will join the hub later this year.

For the first two weeks of the hub’s launch, all alumni will be invited to join the system. After that, first-year students will be allowed to join during orientation. Second years will join during their re-orientation, in September.

Hirschberg is excited about the flexibility and openness of the platform. It will allow alumni to have as big or small a commitment to mentoring as they want, and they can easily opt-in or opt-out whenever they choose. “We haven’t put a lot of confines around how people should use it,” Hirschberg says, “because we want to see how people will use it. We want to see what naturally happens.”

Tuck Networking Hub