How UM is Redefining Career Readiness

When you walk into a classroom at the University of Montana, you aren’t just preparing for a final exam—you’re preparing for your first day on the job.

For many students, “career readiness” feels like an extra item on a long to-do list, something to tackle senior year. But at UM, we believe your career shouldn’t be a side project. That’s why we’ve created ElevateU, a campus-wide ecosystem that weaves career preparation directly into the classes you’re already taking. 

Through our Career Champions Initiative, faculty and staff are working behind the scenes to ensure that every lecture, lab, and assignment helps you bridge the gap between "learning" and "doing."

More Than Just a Degree

Whether you are a student exploring a new major or a parent wanting to ensure a strong return on investment, the goal is the same: graduate with a plan. By embedding career-connected learning into the curriculum, we ensure that every student benefits.

This transformation is happening across every department—from business to the hard sciences. For example, in the UM College of Business, Dr. David Firth uses the ELCS career chatbot to ensure MBA assignments aren’t just academic exercises. 

By using AI to align coursework with specific UM Career Competencies, Dr. Firth provides students with focused, relevant challenges that mirror the modern consulting world. "It’s about making sure these assignments have the correct context and address the specific things students will face in their careers," he explains.

Finding Value in Every Course

We know that students—especially those balancing work or family—don't always have time to opt into extra workshops. That’s why we bring the "why" to you. Even in challenging General Education courses that might seem far removed from your major, the focus is shifting toward "cross-training" your brain.

Dr. Brooke Martin from the Chemistry Department has seen this shift firsthand. Since integrating career readiness into Gen Ed Natural Science courses, the feedback from students has been transformative. Rather than feeling like a hurdle to jump, these classes are now seen as opportunities to build high-level skills.

 “Student responses overwhelmingly reflect an appreciation for career-forward thinking,” says Dr. Martin. “Focusing on widely applied skills reveals a student body that is serious about their future plans.”

From a Bullet Point to a Narrative

The ultimate goal of ElevateU is to help you find your voice. It’s one thing to have a skill; it’s another to be able to tell a recruiter exactly how you used it to solve a problem.

In the "You at UM" program, career competencies act as a throughline for the entire first-year experience. As Shannon Janssen, Director of First Year Experience, puts it: "We help students move from a bullet line on a resume to a narrative that clearly demonstrates what they can do and how they’ve grown."

By mapping these competencies to every assignment and syllabus, UM ensures that you graduate with more than just a diploma—you graduate with the confidence, the network, and the story you need to thrive.

At the University of Montana, we don’t just help you find a job. We help you build a career, one classroom at a time, because that’s the Montana Way.

To learn more about the specific skills that Montana employers value most, and that UM faculty are integrating into their classrooms, visit the Experiential Learning and Career Success website, where you can explore UM’s Career Readiness Competencies. These core pillars serve as a roadmap for personal and professional growth throughout a student’s time at the University of Montana.

Full Testimonials

“The ELCS career chatbot has transformed the assignments that I have for my MBA Fundamentals of Consulting class.  I give the chatbot my current assignment, tell it to act as a professor of Management Information Systems, teaching an MBA-level class on consulting, and then ask for improvements aligned with the UM Career Competencies.  The chatbot has given me really good, in-depth, focused, relevant suggestions on how to improve my assignments, and these are tied directly to specific UM Career Competencies.  I am a firm believer in AI-First --> Humanize the output --> Human in the loop, so I then make sure that these suggestions read well and are written the way I'd write them.  Critically, I then put myself in the loop to ensure that the suggested assignment improvements have the correct context and are addressing the specific things I want to address, which generative AI can, and does, get wrong.”
- Dr. David Firth, Poe Distinguished Faculty Fellow, University of Montana College of Business

“Once Career Readiness was mandated to be added to the Gen Ed courses it seemed logical to also allow students to give feedback about and to evaluate that aspect of the course.   As a Gen Ed course for non-majors, this would probably not be a course most students would otherwise do.  Therefore, it is not surprising that given a generic “any-course” style evaluation, students would often express frustration and sometimes even resentment that they had to take a challenging Natural Sciences course outside their major and interests.  Without any changes to the course, the students are instead asked to evaluate with a career-minded and skills cross-training viewpoint.  Student responses overwhelmingly reflected an appreciation for career-forward thinking and cross training in sometimes challenging skills that they can and will be using in diverse areas of their lives. When students chose to give feedback, it was informed, thoughtful, insightful and useful for course development.   Focusing on the widely applied skills and training that students acquire through this Gen Ed course, revealed a student body that is forward thinking and serious about themselves, their education and their future plans for careers after college. “
- Dr. Brooke Martin, Research Associate Professor, Chemistry Department

“Career Competencies are integrated into the You at UM program as a throughline. They are intentionally taught, practiced, and reflected on throughout the course, with students engaging them directly through assignments and structured reflection. Our commitment is visible in the syllabus and reinforced by mapping competencies to each assignment and carrying them through course materials, Canvas, and class instruction. Each course is supported by a curriculum map aligned to the competencies, and we assess perceived student growth through course evaluations. Prioritizing and articulating career competencies within our Life Design curriculum framework helps students connect who they are, what they’re learning, and where they’re going—and ultimately move from a bullet line on a resume to a narrative or example that clearly demonstrates what they can do and how they’ve grown.”
- Shannon Janssen, M.Ed, Dir. First Year Experience, Associate Dir, Office of Student Success

 To learn more about the specific skills that Montana employers value most, and that UM faculty are integrating into their classrooms, visit the Experiential Learning and Career Success website, where you can explore UM’s Career Readiness Competencies. These core pillars serve as a roadmap for personal and professional growth throughout a student’s time at the University of Montana.