You've gotten into the MBA program of your dreams, and now you're ready to switch your focus from work to school. Don't switch completely. The career development office at your business school is now your greatest resource for finding the best possible job upon graduation. John Worth, director of career consulting for the University of Virginia's
Darden School of Business Administration, helps students negotiate the business world from the ivory tower.
What changes have occurred in career development at MBA programs?
"The typical career services team…going back before 1990 or even in the early '90s, were oftentimes people with higher-ed backgrounds....[When things changed], what you saw was a 'professionalizing'…of the knowledge and backgrounds of people being brought into career services," Worth says. He adds that MBA schools then began staffing their career development centers with people possessing business experience. Prior to Darden, Worth worked for 10 years as an MBA recruiter at
Deloitte Consulting.
According to Worth, another significant change has been additional staffing. In the past, "a lot of schools with 300 or 400 students in a graduating class [had] a couple of career counselors," he says. Worth is assigned to about 60 students from each entering class.
Why have career services changed so dramatically in the past decade?
"One of the main drivers [is] the rankings from
BusinessWeek,
US News and so on." These rankings typically measure students' satisfaction with career services, Worth explains, as well as other related criteria, such as average compensation for new graduates and percentage of students with jobs upon graduation. Business school deans have taken notice and begun improving their programs.
Also, according to Worth, students have demanded more active career services, in part due to the need to land a summer internship in their area of interest. "Lots of companies look at the summer internship program as a way…to hire a lion's share of their full-time employment needs," he says. Many students now leave their internships with job offers.
How can MBA students maximize their career through a career development center?
Most MBA career development centers aren't as structured or integrated as Darden's. Still, students who know what they need to compete in the job market, and who are diligent about making time for consultations and workshops, can use a school's career development center to fullest advantage.
First of all, Worth suggests, feel free to contact your career development office with any questions before you arrive on campus. Darden students, like those at many other schools, meet their assigned career consultant during orientation. Throughout the first fall, students at Darden meet with their career consultants several times to discuss job search strategy, review resumes, conduct mock interviews and perform progress checks.
Along with individual consultations, Darden also presents a series of workshops that teach career-building skills. Most MBA schools, explains Worth, offer similar information. But at Darden, workshops are built into the curriculum so students don't have to make time for them. Workshop subjects include:
- Job search strategy
- Networking
- Communicating with employers
- Developing a resume
- Writing cover letters
- Interviewing skills
- Maximizing internship experiences
Worth continues to work with the same students in their second year, but their needs are much different. Many of them have received job offers, and their search shifts to asking, "Is there anything out there better than what I have?" There are also students whose focus has shifted, those who are interested in industries that don't hire blocks of MBAs from internships, and those who haven't yet received an offer. The career development office helps these students arrange further consultations and meetings with recruiters.
It's in your school's best interest to work toward your success, but it's also important to understand that all they can do is teach you to use the tools. "There's no such thing as a placement service," Worth explains. "The mission of career development…is to guide students to take ownership for their job search while [on campus] and throughout their careers."
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