Episode 4: Learn for Life — When is it Time to Go Back to School?

Back-to-school time used to mean August/September... is that accurate anymore? 

Probably not, say our hosts Rovy Branon, Vice Provost for Continuum College at the University of Washington, and Hanson Hosein, co-founder of a UW graduate program in Communication Leadership. Given increasing life spans and the acceleration of technology and its impacts on our work lives, well, institutions of learning may need faster revolving doors.  

As you listen to this series, you may be considering your options for your own and your family's future. Is your profession likely to change radically during your career? How do you prepare your kids for a work life that will probably look very different from your own? In this part 1 of episode 4, we discuss, Why we should consider going back to school?  

Guest Anne Szeto, Amazon Director of Strategic Recruiting and Academic Relations, spends a lot of time thinking about how to help Amazon prepare for a future that may not exist today.   

Transitioning into an ambiguous future—whether your own or your organization's—is tricky. What are recruiters looking for? And how can education prepare future leaders with so many unknown variables in terms of skills, education, and needs? When does an employer such as Amazon want its employees to go “back to school?” And why is it so important to the company? 

In part 2 of episode 4, guest, colleague, and UW Continuum College Director of Enrollment Services Danial Powers details how continuing learners can get the education and tools to be successful in that next great role. 

Going back to school can seem daunting, from the obvious question of How do I know what classes to take? to the less obvious but equally unsettling, What if I'm the oldest person in the room — including the Prof? 

Fortunately, institutions like UW Continuum College are aware of the needs and concerns of older students. Conversations with enrollment coaches can help potential students understand their learning styles, consider the realities of adding schoolwork on top of everything else, and evaluate the full range of options they have to make learning work for them.  

About our guests:

Anne Szeto leads a 125-person Strategic Recruiting and Academic Partnerships team at Amazon where she is focused on building and cultivating specialized talent communities, particularly in applied research and design.

The team is embedded in Recruiting Engine, which builds next-generation technology to improve and enhance recruiting processes and the experience of job seekers.

She joined Amazon in 2008 as the company’s first executive recruiter and has recruited and coached senior leaders across multiple businesses globally. Since joining Amazon, Anne has experienced the company’s employee population grow by 100,000X.

Anne also sits on Amazon’s Science Leadership team, dedicated to accelerating customer-obsessed science. Anne previously worked at an organizational design and executive search consultancy in New York. She conducted graduate studies in economics and Slavic cultures and languages. Her undergraduate studies was in biochemistry and history.

As director of Enrollment Services, Danial Powers is one of the foremost experts on advising prospective students on their return to school. She’s responsible for the management of student recruitment, admissions, and enrollment for Professional and Continuing Education certificate programs and select degrees offered by UW Continuum College.

Danial is also responsible for developing and implementing an enrollment management strategy for certificate programs and for defining the goals, staffing, policies, budget, and processes according to industry best practices. Learn more about Danial on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpowers/. Learn more about Enrollment Coaching on the UW website: https://www.pce.uw.edu/about-us/enrollment-coaching.