The Purposeful Work Podcast

For our sixth and final episode in this season of the podcast, we welcome Dr. Lynn Hunicutt. Lynn is professor of economics at Pacific Lutheran University and NetVUE’s assistant director. She shares with us what vocation looks like from an economist’s point of view, and a little about what she’s learned as the grant guru at NetVUE. Support the Show.

We’re five episodes deep into our look at NetVUE (the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education) in this season of the Purposeful Work Podcast, and this episode is a treat. In it, we hear from two NetVUE leaders about some incredible resources the network generates and maintains—one focused on producing scholarly resources and the other on connecting like-minded educators and scholars interested in issues related to calling, vocation, and purpose. Dr. Erin VanLaningham is a professor of English at Loras College and Director of NetVUE’s Scholarly Resources Project. Erin has won teaching awards at Loras College and directed the honors program there; her own research explores the intersection between art and literature, and she is co-editor with Stephanie Johnson of the new book Cultivating Vocation in Literary Studies, published by Edinburgh University Press. Hannah Schell is the NetVUE’s online community coordinator. She previously served as professor of philosophy and religious studies at Monmouth College in Monmouth, IL, where she won the Hatch Award for Distinguished Scholarship. Hannah is author of the essay “Commitment and Community: The Virtue of Loyalty and Vocational Discernment,” which appeared in the NetVUE volume At this Time and In this Place. These days, she also edits the Vocation Matters blog which you can find at vocationmatters.org. Support the Show.

Dr. Jason Mahn, a PhD scholar, religion professor, and a Chair of the Humanities Department at Augustana College joins us for a discussion on Lutheran understandings of vocation and how that impacts and is applied to today’s world of work. Discover his findings from his latest book Neighbor Love through Fearful Days: Finding Purpose and Meaning in a Time of Crisis in our most recent podcast. Support the Show.

In this episode, our third in a series on NetVUE, our guest is Dr. Tim Clydesdale, sociologist and Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies at The College of New Jersey. NetVUE grew out of an 8-year project in which 88 colleges and universities across the United States developed programs designed to foster a sense of purpose, calling, and vocation in the lives of their students. Tim led a massive, multi-year, mixed-method study of 26 of those campuses. His team interviewed hundreds of students, alumni, faculty, and staff, and surveyed thousands more. Their results were summarized in the book The Purposeful Graduate. We’ll dig into those results in today’s episode, and explore what they mean for educators and institutions interested in promoting purposeful work and a sense of calling and vocation within higher education. Learn more about NetVUE (https://www.cic.edu/programs/netvue) Support the Show.

This episode of the Purposeful Work Podcast is our second in a series on NetVUE, the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education, an initiative supported the Council for Independent Colleges with financial support from the Lilly Endowment. This episode features Dr. Shirley Roels, the inaugural director of NetVUE and leader of the network for its first 8 years. We’ll learn a little about NetVUE’s history and growth, its challenges and opportunities, and about Dr. Roel’s own vocational journey. Currently, Dr. Roels leads the International Network for Christian Higher Education, serving as its executive director. Learn more about NetVUE (https://www.cic.edu/programs/netvue) Support the Show.

The Purposeful Work Podcast is back with a brand new season! Are you interested in building a deeper understanding of concepts like calling, vocation, purpose, and meaning as they apply to your learning and your work? Of course, you are. We’re going to build that deeper understanding in this season of the podcast by spending time with experts from NetVUE—that is, the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education. NetVUE is a nationwide network of 272 colleges and universities formed “to enrich the intellectual and theological exploration of vocation among undergraduate students.” The initiative is administered by the Council of Independent Colleges with funding support from the Lilly Endowment, and from dues collected from member institutions. We are privileged to kick off this season with a very special guest, the director of NetVUE, Dr. David Cunningham. Learn more about NetVUE (https://www.cic.edu/programs/netvue) Support the Show.

Helping people discover their personal sense of calling and mission is incredibly rewarding. So is using applied research strategies to identify student drivers of engagement. These are some of Dr. Sam Jones’ primary callings within his career, and he accomplishes them in a variety of ways. What does it look like to promote a sense of purpose for MBA students at the prestigious Wharton School? What tools and strategies have proven most effective at achieving this goal? Sam is a director at the Wharton School who leads the technology vertical at MBA career services. He has placed more MBAs at big tech companies like Google and Amazon than any other career advisor in the country. Sam is also a consultant, a research fellow in the famed Positive Psychology Center at UPenn, and serves as a lecturer at Penn’s Graduate School of Education, of which he is also an alum. Sam’s graduate work focused on the psychology of work identity. He’s also a champion of work as a calling, which makes him a perfect guest for our podcast. Support the Show.

Imagine the career center at your university was called the Career Center for Life Calling. At Ashland University, this is the reality. What activity led to the rebranding in 2020 from “Career Services Center” to the “Career Center for Life Calling”? How have career services at Ashland changed? Karen Hagans has been instrumental in rethinking career services at Ashland. She is the director of the Career Center for Life Calling, a career coach in Ashland’s Dauch College of Business and Economics, and the developer and instructor of three Occupational Life Calling courses. In this episode, we’ll learn how career services have evolved at Ashland, what is involved in discerning and living a calling, and where career services are headed in the future within higher education. Support the Show.

Career services have evolved over time to stay ahead of cultural and economic changes we’ve endured. How? And in what ways do the concerns of emerging adults, in terms of their career development, generalize to the challenges faced by people later in life, even into retirement? Today we welcome Dale Austin, Associate Dean in the Boerigter Center for Calling and Career at Hope College in Holland, MI. We’ll learn a little about Dale’s four decades in career services, get his perspective on managing pandemic fatigue, on the possible current-day impact of the future of work, and on building toward a purposeful retirement. Support the Show.

What is your calling? How did you figure this out? For students, what experiences or tools or skills are most helpful in fostering wise discernment? Denise Terry joins us for this episode. Denise is the Director of the Center for Career Connections at Grace College, on the shores of Winona Lake in northern Indiana. In the interview, we learn a little about Denise’s own career journey, get her take on what makes work purposeful, and explore why learning to pivot in your career is so important during a pandemic. Support the Show.

Put yourself in the position of a college student right now. You’ve been investing a ton of your time, energy, and money into an education that you assumed would lead you to gainful employment. But then a pandemic hits, and everything you assumed about the job market is being tested - big time. How worried should you be? What should you be doing right now to prepare yourself for entry into this crazy world of work? In this episode, we welcome Dr. Briana Randall, Executive Director of the Career and Internship Center at the University of Washington, in Seattle. We discuss how the pandemic has changed and how career development services are provided. We dive into the question of what students need to be doing right now, during this pandemic, and in light of all the barriers and challenges they face, to prepare to launch their careers. And, we get Briana’s take on what makes her work purposeful and what any of us can do to experience meaning in what we do all day. Support the Show.

2020 is a uniquely challenging year on so many levels. The impact of the pandemic on how colleges can best provide career development support to students is the focus of this episode of the podcast, and we are delighted to welcome Jeremy Podany, CEO of the Career Leadership Collective (www.careerleadershipcollective.com), to discuss this. We also discuss results from the Career Leadership Collective’s newly published report on results from the National Alumni Career Mobility (NACM) survey. Jeremy shares about these matters, as well as his own career journey, and the opportunities we have to support students, career changers, and job seekers in their quest to find or create purposeful work in a world that has changed dramatically in 2020. Support the Show.

The protests spurred on by the deaths of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others, have turned everyone’s attention to the serious racism pandemic in the U.S. and beyond. In the career development world, we’ve known for a long time about systemic biases and oppression that harm racial and ethnic minorities in general and Black Americans in particular, but change has been slow and profound problems seem entrenched. What are some things that those of us working in career development can do differently (or better) to support students or clients who are people of color? How can we work on a broader structural level to ensure that purposeful work is not only for the privileged few, but can be experienced by everyone? And how can people of faith, specifically, contribute? In this episode we welcome TaRita Johnson, MSW, director of the Career Center at Calvin University, to discuss racism, structural oppression, justice, and hope for a renewed world. Support the Show.

Studio Artist Christy Nelson (christynelsonart.com) joins us in this episode. Christy is featured in Chapter 8 of Bryan’s new book, “Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God’s Calling for Your Career.” Christy shares her powerful story of redemption and renewal in this episode, offering details on how her art expresses themes of healing and transformation. Christy and Bryan also discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the arts community and ways that Christy integrates her faith within her creative work. Support the Show.

We have a bonus episode! In this episode, Bryan is interviewed by Currey Blandford, host of the A Theology of Hustle podcast. In a far-ranging discussion, Bryan shares his own story of finding purpose in work, offers some details about jobZology and PathwayU, tells some of the backstories behind his new book Redeeming Work, and lays out some general principles for finding purpose and meaning in your career. Support the Show.

This episode features Nick Dale, who is featured in Chapter 6 of Bryan’s new book, “Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God’s Calling for Your Career.” Nick is living his calling as an HR Tech professional right now, but a few years back, he endured a challenging job search that taught him the power of proactivity. In this interview, Nick and Bryan discuss how Nick’s job search experience conforms to what we know works in a job search. Nick also describes how he lives out his faith today within the world of human resources technology. Support the Show.

In this episode we hear from Nate Lake, who is featured in Chapter 2 of Bryan’s new book, “Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God’s Calling for Your Career.” When Bryan and Nate first met, Nate was a senior in college who was passionate about sports, communication studies, and his faith—and torn over whether a career in sports or a career in ministry, was the path for him. In this interview, Nate talks about his process of discerning his calling into sports communications and describes how he lives out his faith within that field today. Support the Show.

This episode introduces listeners to a series of episodes that focus on the intersection of faith and work. Specifically, they explore Bryan’s new book, “Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God’s Calling for Your Career.” Bryan discusses his purpose in writing this book, and why a book for Christians should be of interest to listeners who want more purpose in their work regardless of their faith perspective. He then reads the book’s introduction and teases the episode to follow. Support the Show.

Guests in this episode are longtime friends, collaborators, and eminent scholars on calling research. Stuart Bunderson, PhD, is the Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics and Governance, and Director of the Bauer Leadership Center, at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Jeffery Thompson, PhD, is a professor at the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. Stuart and Jeff discuss their famous study of callings among zookeepers, the double-edged sword of pursuing a calling, a recent global conference they sponsored on calling research, and tips to make your work more meaningful. To learn more about Stuart and Jeff, check out https://olin.wustl.edu/EN-US/Faculty-Research/Faculty/Pages/FacultyDetail.aspx?username=bunderson and https://marriottschool.byu.edu/directory/details?id=5275. Support the Show.

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Evgenia Lysova, Director of the VU Center for Meaningful Work and Assistant Professor of Careers and Organizational Behavior at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Evgenia discusses international research on work as a calling, the process of editing a special issue on calling in vocational psychology’s top journal, her research on callings within the Dutch video game industry, and experiencing meaningful work while balancing work and family. Learn more about Dr. Lysova’s research here: https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/evgenia-lysova/publications/ Support the Show.