How Adobe is Involved in SJSU Careers

The Career Center at San José State is working at its full capacity to offer students opportunities and career paths that will push them towards success. One of the ways that SJSU ensures excellence is through its partnership with Adobe. Adobe is an industry leader in digital media and business management, with its software being the gold standard for industry professionals. The company supports Spartans' experiences through workshops, resources and other mediums.

One specific area where Adobe has made a great contribution is in the Career Center. SJSU staff, such as Adobe Trainer and Instructional Designer Raymond Lam , '21 BFA Digital Media Art, and Adobe Career Hub Coordinator Vinson Vũ, '23 Information System Management, are working to bridge the gap between SJSU's population and the resources Adobe offers to students. They are planning to offer a myriad of workshops and events where students can learn about Adobe, gain insights from professionals' experiences and understand which tools are available to them. To the Career Center, it's incredibly important to make sure students know what services are at their disposal and how to use them.

According to Lam, in today's job market, being able to tell stories is essential to ensuring progression in your career. This means telling the story about yourself, your ideas and your connection to your work. Lam says Adobe curates some of the best tools in the industry to tell stories through the digital medium, and the Career Center works to ensure students are aware of their access to the variety of Adobe software and how to use it to achieve their goals. As jobs require more knowledge about how to showcase an image online, skills such as digital media and experience with professional software become more of a necessity, rather than a plus. One project that's rooted in this pedagogy is the Elevate Career Hub, sponsored by Adobe.

Adobe and SJSU's partnership has resulted in the Elevate Career Hub, a space dedicated to offering students resources and support to develop their digital literacy and storytelling skills. The Elevate Career Hub opened on March 25, creating an enclave of Adobe and storytelling resources on campus where students will be able to get feedback, learn about available tools, and attend a variety of workshops planned by the combined efforts of the Career Center and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. The grand opening will feature an open house at noon, and those interested in attending are encouraged to visit. Students can also get help with their portfolios and access job opportunities or networking events with people involved in Adobe and related work.

People visiting the Elevate Career Hub will also learn about tracking analytics and understanding internet audiences. Achieving digital literacy is about knowing how to use digital mediums to enhance efficiency when working on your projects. Lam helps students and faculty learn to take advantage of tools like Acrobat AI assistant to streamline work with PDF files. Skills like this will be an important aspect of what students and faculty can learn during their visit.

The Career Hub is not only a space for students. It's also a hub useful to faculty members interested in learning about using these toolkits to improve their classes, and share information on how to be effective with Adobe software. Staff like Lam have already assisted faculty in their adoption of these programs by giving guest lectures in classes about digital literacy. The Career Hub invites faculty to get more involved by attending workshops or getting frequent direct feedback from Career Hub staff.

The Career Hub is a marker of an established connection between SJSU and Adobe. As technologies and required skills evolve, San José State evolves, making sure to remain on the cutting edge of the tools and resources Spartans can take advantage of to ensure their career preparedness.

Ultimately, the goal of the Career Center's efforts with Adobe is not simply to teach students and faculty about the software. It's to embed the idea in them about the importance of storytelling. In order to achieve this, they are offering support to help you stand out and showcase what unique qualities you can bring to the table.