Helping College Graduates Find Employment through Relationship Marketing: A Case Report

Many college graduates emerge from university wishing to pursue employment. Often, however, they lack a systematic approach for finding work. One published method calls for job-seekers to launch a relationship marketing campaign in advance of needing employment. This process, known by its acronym CARD, involves: identifying the job-seeker’s area of desired Contribution; enlisting the support of existing Allies or Advocates; identifying Role models to interview; and then Demonstrating value. A previous case report illustrated an undergraduate student’s use of CARD to find an internship opportunity while in college. The present case report contributes new knowledge to the literature in that it features the first account of a recent college graduate using CARD to seek full time employment. Also novel is the way this report includes the perspectives of the academic developer of CARD; the career counselor who guided the job-seeker; the job-seeker; and the eventual employer. We found that the career counselor was able to teach the CARD process to the job-seeker, who implemented it starting in January 2024. The process produced an offer of employment in June 2025. In the course of implementing the CARD process, the job seeker approached 33 potential role models already in her network, and nine potential role models identified through online searches. Five of these contacts provided a referral, resulting in a total of 47 people to approach. The job-seeker requested interviews with 33, and actually interviewed 24. We summarize the campaign, and describe the specific interviews and interactions with the role model who made an offer of employment first. This case report illustrates a systematic intervention, the CARD process, to implement relationship marketing when seeking full-time employment. CARD extends theory and evidence from the fields of relationship marketing and career counseling.