The BYU Connect Effect

As BYU students plan for their postcollege careers, many look to platforms like LinkedIn to make professional connections. Unfortunately, for students and new grads, LinkedIn often misses the mark. Heidi Clark, alumni relations manager from BYUs Liberal Arts Advisement and Careers (LAAC) office, says, LinkedIn was created as a catalog of rsums. It wasnt created for mentoring.

The BYU Connect platform, created specifically for mentoring, effectively bridges the gap between job searching and networking. In Fall 2025, the College of Humanities held an event called the Connect-a-Thon that introduced students to BYU Connect, showing them that mentors are approachable and ready to help.

BYU Connect launched in 2021 to promote collaboration between BYU students and alumni. Over 16,000 alumni mentors signed up to help students in a variety of ways, from reviewing rsums, finding career direction, or exploring jobs. But while alumni users stood ready to help, few students actually used the platform. This disconnect sparked the Connect-a-Thon.

The LAAC hosted the event from November 1014. The schedule included classroom presentations, an Instagram takeover, a pizza open house, a sweet-treat pit stop with rsum help, and a webinar with an alumnus who now works at Hersheys. Each activity emphasized the great opportunity to connect with available mentors on BYU Connect and assisted students in signing up.

The events success exceeded expectations. By the end of the Connect-a-Thon week, the College of Humanities saw a 41.6% increase in student users and even a 12.8% increase in alumni users. This is a big success story, Clark says. These results even inspired other colleges on campus to host their own events in collaboration with BYU Connect, spreading the College of Humanities Connect-a-Thon to university-wide initiatives.

BYU Connects emphasis on mentoring gives it a leg up compared to other networking platforms, which rely on cold contacting with little chance of a response. Clark explains that alumni who sign up as BYU Connect mentors have self-selected that they want to help and are inviting others to reach out to them. They predetermine what amount of time theyre available to mentor, offering as much as a monthly Zoom call or as little as quick comments on an online rsum. Clark explains that mentorship is a two-way streetwhile students receive insights, edits, and interviews, mentors find hard workers that may eventually contribute to their teams.

Students can contact any number of mentors on BYU Connect, searching by location, major, or industry, and the program suggests mentors whom students could contact in desired fields. Clark explains that mentorships found over BYU Connect dont need to be demanding or time intensive.

Students across the Church Educational System can visit BYU Connect as early as their first semester. After finding their footing on a career path, graduates can later choose to give back and become mentors themselves. Ultimately, Clark says, the platform is very low risk but high reward.

Many BYU students believe that job- and internship-hunting are tasks for senior year or post-graduation, putting networking and job-searching on the list far below daily homework and study sessions. Clark recommends that students join BYU Connect early, as soon as they begin college. Students who do this, she says, are learning skills, networking, and seeing different possibilities, and thats shaping the classes theyre taking.

Mentors, internships, and short conversations can offer students the stepping stones they need to graduate with a sense of direction as well as with a diploma. BYU Connect has alumni at the ready, assuring, as Clark says, that at every step of a students journey, mentors want to help, and they want to give back.

Learn more on the BYU Connect Homepage.