Greetings,

On behalf of everyone that makes The Placement Exchange possible, let me welcome you to the career experience in higher education. TPE is placement conference, a helpful web resource, and a year-round jobs site. But more than that, we are a collection of fellow practitioners who are committed to making your career exploration the best it can be.

Put simply, The Placement Exchange connects great candidates to great positions. TPE continues to grow with more attendees and a wider range of positions while maintaining our amazing dedication to service -- and we have the assessment data to prove it. The numbers and quotes below are directly from the 2011 post-conference on-line assessment.

Over 94% of candidates recommend TPE and over 98% employers recommend TPE. The top two reasons that both groups cite for coming to TPE are (a) "the variety and amount of positions" and (b) "the positive reputation of the event."

The VARIETY and AMOUNT of positions:

• Over 11,000 interviews took place at TPE Philly
• Over 1,200 hiring employers in attendance
• Over 1,200 candidates dressed to the nines
• Over 500 job postings at TPE Philly, representing hundreds more actual positions
• More than housing, a solid 30% of candidates were looking for non-reslife jobs
• More than entry-level, over 25% of candidates had over 3 years professional experience

The POSITIVE REPUTATION of the event:

• The TPE personal touch shows in these actual comments from the anonymous online event assessment:
  From Candidates:
  
  • "The Candidates Resource room was very helpful and the staff were extremely friendly and made my experience wicked comfortable."
  • "I got a chance to sit with a Gallup Poll/Strengths Finder coach individually for an entire hour. He was so wonderful and interesting. I was very enlightened about my strengths. It was the situations like this that made me very impressed with the TPE resources offered."
  
  From Employers:
  
  • "TPE is the biggest bang for our buck every year."
  • "I found the all aspects of TPE to be excellent, well organized and customer friendly."
  • "This event fulfills the needs we have in seeing candidates, fits our budget and allows us to try and be speedy in our timeline. The days of going to several placement events are beyond us based on budgets."

In light of the political situation in Arizona, I understand that the location of Phoenix is a difficult choice for some (for background click here). I have personally found much insight in the comments by NASPA 2012 Conference Chair Larry Roper and NASPA President Patricia Telles-Irvin. If you like, I encourage you to join the conversation. This issue is an important one to all of us and it is with a renewed commitment to our profession's believes in engagement and the value of each individual that we look to fulfill our mission at providing the best placement experience possible.

Regardless of which side of the interview table you sit on, I hope you will find The Placement Exchange not only meets your needs but exceeds them. I invite you to utilize our amazing assortment of pre-conference services to help you prepare for your search (webinars, StrengthsQuest, free resume reviews, and TPE informational videos) and then to take advantage in Phoenix of our lauded conference services (an amazing candidate and employer support team, senior career coaches, on-site educational sessions, receptions, and more). Not to mention the beautiful weather, gorgeous facility, versatile on-line search features, and greater affordability that make TPE 2012 stand out.

We are here to help. Please contact any of the TPE Committee with questions or comments.

Wishing You Much Success,

Matthew Trainum
Chair, The Placement Exchange 2012