A. UpMo, a different kind of career management service, gives professionals career control – unusual in a day when career path direction seems to rest solely on the mood of the economy, a company or, even worse, chance. To provide this control, UpMo helps professionals view and manage their careers as discrete “projects,” complete with daily actions and expert advice to light and map the way.

UpMo helps professionals:

• Explore, in detail, the career steps and practices of real-world professionals who’ve been there, done that.
• Follow proven paths to career success gleaned from extensive research into the advancement practices, skills and daily habits of high-earning professionals.
• Better understand and articulate their unique career wants and requirements.
• Build step-by-step career strategies and detailed plans for skills acquisition proven to lead to advancement.
• Develop, manage and nurture professional networks to prepare for future opportunities – and to find current openings within existing networks.
• Find relevant, non-network job openings that match students’ interests, abilities and career goals.

MINT is a program designed to complement MBA career services offerings and support MBA students and alumni seeking to advance their careers.  MINT, which stands for MBAs in Transition, delivers the support, assurance and daily, actionable guidance your graduate students and alumni need to make the most beneficial short- and long-term career decisions. This long-term focus not only protects students’ graduate school investments; it also keeps students close and loyal to your university, your school, and your organization.

A: Because UpMo provides end-to-end career lifecycle support, we have no real competitors. Other services provide bits and pieces—resume critiques, career diagnostic tools, job databases, career articles. But no service other than UpMo provides a comprehensive, automated, step-by-step way for students and graduates to plan and move through their careers. UpMo allows your students and graduates to view and treat their careers as “projects,” complete with strategic and tactical action plans for getting all things done related to their careers.

A: First, UpMo is not a job board. We don’t ask students, grads and alumni to load their resumes and profiles into an online black hole. We don’t accept job listings from corporations either, but rather cull relevant, intelligent listings from your students’ networks and other online sources that match, spot-on, and that act as stepping stones to students’ career goals.

Second, UpMo is not appropriate for individuals seeking extremely senior or entry-level roles. The tools and guidance we provide is for mid-career professionals in high-velocity senior manager or director-level roles either getting ready for or in the thick of career transition. And, in today’s workplace, where the key to success is to always be ready for your next transition, that’s just about all of us!

A: Today’s job boards are like online black holes: job seekers enter their profiles, and enter and enter some more. But nothing ever comes out; seekers never receive a response, from anyone. UpMo also absorbs student input, but provides much output in return, including personalized career advice informed by science and relevant to each member. In addition, we combine input from student assessment tools and career profiles to immediately begin sending daily guidance based on indicated interests, skills, career paths and professional networks. The advice UpMo provides, beyond being personalized, is incredibly powerful: it's based on proven success techniques drawn from millions of career-related data points uncovered through our research.

A: Not at all. Instead, UpMo, a high-tech, high-touch service, complements the tools offered by your career-coaching program and lessens student demands on career coaches. In fact, because UpMo’s automated system guides students through much of the career-coaching “pre-work,” including self discovery, reflection and the creation of a professional profile, your career coaches are free to do what they do best: provide value-add services and meaningful coaching.

Also, because UpMo is available online, students and alumni access the guidance and tools they need to build and implement job searches, career plans and network strategies from the comfort of their own homes. UpMo’s unique methodology also encourages and enables students to manage their careers in a series of automated, project-like steps aligned with their overarching career goals. Whether setting goals, building a professional network, or exploring and searching for jobs that serve as stepping stones to their next and next-next roles, your students will gain an edge through UpMo. Unlike any other career service, UpMo supports your coaches in their efforts to give students an advantage in the job hunt and a strong sense of career direction and career confidence.

A: Your investment in students’ careers accomplishes several wins at once. It:

• Ensures high and premium placements for recent graduates and alumni.
• Accelerates preparation for students’ next—and next-next—job hunts.
• Results in more satisfied, more engaged and more active alumni.
• Improves the transition from student to engaged alumni.
• Enables a greater yield from existing career coaching resources.
• Reduces the cost and administrative burden of the career services office.

A: UpMo complements your existing suite of career tools and regularly drives students to those tools as well as to UpMo members-only and external resources when and where needed. Where it makes sense, UpMo uses university-specific e-mail communications, which boast twice the standard open rate, to drive students to the right resources—yours, theirs, and ours.

UpMo also boosts the value of your existing tools with its personalization, adding a new level of “touch” to impersonal collections of resumes and other concrete versions of the online black holes job seekers typically encounter online.

A: If you’re an administrator, you’ll want to know about UpMo’s low administrative burden—all you have to do is roll out the program and identify participants. We do the rest. If you’re a career counselor, you’ll want to know that UpMo gives you more leverage; it automates the process of self discovery and reflection, which better prepares both you and students for career conversations. There’s no extra work on your end—just more resources and personalized guidance for students and a greater affinity for the services you offer now.

A: The fundamental rules of job search and career management have changed: we’re now in a referral economy. This means that the old ways of finding work no longer apply—posting resumes on job boards, applying for listed positions along with hundreds of other applicants. Today, 80 percent of professionals report finding work through the people they know—and that’s where UpMo brings your students and alumni the edge.

We’ve modularized and automated the proven networking and job-hunting strategies of high-earning, successful professionals to help your students save time while building meaningful, powerful professional networks designed to support job search efforts in the 2010s and beyond.

First, students add their LinkedIn and Facebook connections to UpMo with just one click. UpMo then analyzes their networks and guides students through the critical network segmentation process, which illuminates critical relationships and network members best-positioned and most able to help. Next, students review all the open, relevant jobs that link to individuals within their networks—jobs where they already have an inside edge. Finally, students gain access to members-only tools to enabling them to graciously serve their network members, effectively ask for help, and nurture their most important relationships.

A: UpMo best fits mid-career professionals who are somewhat selective about career opportunities. Independent, contrarian and skeptical, these students lead high-pressure lives and struggle to balance school and/or work and personal responsibilities. While highly networked, they may be fairly inept at leveraging their networks for career momentum and success. They also seek a high degree of upward and lateral career velocity.

A: We are always delighted to add universities as MINT partners, and we would welcome the opportunity to determine whether there is a fit between our offering and your needs. Please email mint@upmo.com to schedule an immediate consultation.

A: Depending on your plan, UpMo costs approximately $5 per month per student/alumnus. While experience shows that UpMo will deliver the greatest bang for your university’s buck with 500 MINT-enrolled students/alumni, we also support programs with as few as 50 MINT-enrolled students/alumni. Contact us at mint@upmo.com to discuss a MINT program suitable to your university’s particular requirements.

A: UpMo measures the impact of MINT in terms of numbers of jobs secured, the job-hunt readiness of participants, student program utilization, and corporate partner feedback. We also deploy user satisfaction surveys that uncover UpMo’s effectiveness in “softer” career-critical activities such as reflection, self-exploration, and personal development.

A: We at UpMo are very excited to be supporting Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and USC Marshall School of Business. We also plan to announce partnerships with at least two other schools in the next quarter—stay tuned!

A: At this writing, UpMo is only available in the U.S. We will be rolling out globally as we expand our product offerings and partnerships.

A: We welcome your input and comments! Please e-mail us at mint@upmo.com to submit your ideas for immediate consideration.