Veteran Career Services Head Leaves for Duke

William Wright-Swadel, the director of Harvard's Office of Career Service (OCS), will leave his post as chief adviser to Harvard's undergraduate job-seekers, taking his decades of advising experience to Duke University this fall, Duke announced earlier this month. 

Wright-Swadel came to Cambridge in 1995, after three years at the helm of Dartmouth's office of career services. According to the Duke release, he has also worked in career services at the University of Rhode Island, the State University College of New Paltz in New York, and the University of Maine. 

During his time at OCS, Wright-Swadel has helped increase the "number and variety of employers that we work with on behalf of our students" and take steps "towards more global outreach" with respect to job offerings, Nancy Saunders,associate director of Career Services for employer relations and internships, wrote in an e-mail.

Wright-Swadel's popularity with students has been high during his tenure in the College. 

"There's something about the way Bill carries conversations that makes students feel really open and that they can come to him for advice," said Julie Choi, an OCS recruiting assistant. "It makes for the environment to be really warm and not intense." 

He has also been praised for his commitment to seeking variety and fit in students' career prospects, especially given the large fraction of students who participate in on-campus recruiting programs for finance and consulting jobs each year. (A Crimson survey last month revealed that 39 percent of those graduating from the Class of 2008 will be taking jobs in these sectors.) 

"Rather than minimizing the impact of recruiting, what we've tried to do is provide alternative approaches that are equally valuable in terms of what students are looking for as they transition into the work world," Wright-Swadel said, adding that OCS has been "broadening the conversation" with Harvard's other schools to open opportunities for students.

He said that his relocation is motivated by a principle he espouses to colleagues and students alike: "one should always be going to something rather than from something."

The University has yet to make an announcement about the future leadership of OCS or a search for Wright-Swadel's permanent successor.

--Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.