How (and Why) to Join Cardinals Connect
So you’ve polished up your LinkedIn and are ready to connect with other Ball State students and alums. Cardinals Connect is essentially a Ball State-only LinkedIn, but with a more focused approach to mentoring. This can be an excellent resource in your career development, and it only takes a few minutes to sign up!
You can follow the directions below and/or download this instructional pdf, How to Join a Compass Group.
You already have a LinkedIn. Use it!
If you followed our guide to shaping up your professional online presence, you should go ahead and sign up with LinkedIn. It’ll carry over your professional experience, your bio, your profile picture, and more! Sign in with LinkedIn and hit the ground running. Don’t have one? That’s okay, there are plenty of other ways to register—but you should consider making one.
From there, it’s pretty straightforward.
Fill in whatever information the form is missing. Don’t use your Ball State email to register—you lose access to it once you graduate! From here, you’ll be asked to provide some career information and whether you’re looking to be a mentor and/or a mentee. If you have knowledge of a certain topic that you would like to share with your peers, don’t be shy. If you’d like someone to review your resumé, please request it! Cardinals Connect is here to help.
Joining groups. (This is where the Compass part comes in).
What can you do with a humanities degree? Anything.
We understand that this can be an overwhelming concept. In order to help you narrow down their career options from “anything” to something more manageable, we’re introducing the concept of “pathways,” five broad career categories that humanities students often pursue.
We’ve created five groups within Cardinals Connect for the five pathways. And you don’t have to pick just one.
Join the Business and Technology group if you work in/want to work in: Information Technology, Management, Human Resources, Sales, Administrative Support, or any other job or field in which this group feels appropriate.
Join the Creative Arts and Communications group if you work in/want to work in: Advertising, Journalism, Publishing, Public Relations, Marketing, or any other other job or field in which this group feels appropriate.
Join the Education and Training group if you work in/want to work in: Public History, Library Science, Museums and Archives, Teaching in Higher Education, or any other job or field in which this group feels appropriate.
Join the Human Services group if you work in/want to work in: Hospitality and Tourism, Nonprofits, Family and Community Services, or any other job or field in which this group feels appropriate.
Join the Government and Law group if you work in/want to work in: Legal Services, Foreign Service, Public Management, Paralegal, or any other job in which this group feels appropriate.
Once you join a group, keep an eye out on what the members are up to. Make connections, keep in touch, and learn from one another. These groups are a reminder of everything you can be—get inspired!
Mentoring Resources
