A longtime human resources leader and corporate recruitment officer became the new director of the Stanley R. Becker Career Center this week.
Bob Soules helped lead the career services office at Bryant University during the last year and, before that, provided career counseling at Quinnipiac University and the University of Hartford. In 2005, he shifted into college career education after more than two decades in corporate human resources positions.
From 1996 to 2005, Soules was with the CIGNA Corporation, a Connecticut-based insurance and health care company with more than 30,000 employees. That experience will help him give students and alumni insight and advice from an employer’s perspective.
Soules, who earned a master’s degree in education from Springfield College in 2006, also brings to Union fresh energy and a new perspective on career education.
“We want students to end up with a job they are genuinely interested in and passionate about, so that it drives their natural curiosity. If that happens, they will work longer hours without realizing it, they will be much more productive, and the rewards will take care of themselves,” Soules said.
The Becker Career Center provides distinctive educational programs like internships and other services to help students and alumni with their professional development. The Center’s Web site – www.union.edu/BeckerCareerCenter — features a host useful links for students, alumni and parents.
But the center’s efforts go beyond Web services.
“What we hope happens is that alumni provide connections for the students, as well as providing a realistic understanding of what’s going on in the marketplace,” Soules said. “Alumni are a valuable resource, and many want to assist students in their job search. When students can network and do an informational interview with an alum, they are already ahead of the game.”
Soules, 48, relocated from Providence, R.I. with his wife, Patty. The couple has two sons, Mike and Brad, both graduates of Trinity College, and a daughter, Chelsea, a junior at Drexel University.