MBA career services trends: North America

The 2012/13 QS Global 200 Business Schools Report measures the employer reputation of the world’s top business schools, both at home and abroad. Nicole Willson speaks to leading business schools in North America to find out what careers services are on offer to help MBA graduates maximize their employment prospects.

While no MBA career services department is the same, there are a few common features shared by several North American business schools.

Career Counselling Starts Early on in the MBA Program

First, most business schools emphasize the job hunt early on in the MBA program. Career services start working with MBA students as soon as they begin their MBA program, in order to help students assess their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their career plans.

Some schools work with students before they even start classes. At the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, for example, students begin working with their career coaches right after they are admitted in April. The Thunderbird School of Global Management is developing a new curriculum so that incoming MBA students can look at career purpose prior to starting their program.

One-on-one career coaching

One-on-one career coaching is another thing that most North American Global Elite schools have in common. This is true of both US and Canadian business schools, regardless of class size.

Sharon Irwin-Foulon is the executive director of career management and corporate recruiting at University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business.  She says that these one-on-one relationships allow Irwin-Foulon and her staff to know Ivey’s MBA students “on a deep level, and work with them very closely.”

But one-on-one career counselling isn’t the only way career services departments work with students.  Leigh Gauthier, director of the career centre at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, states: “In terms of preparation, we are working on a one-on-one basis, but we’re also augmenting that with different touch points, different career education methods as well.”

Career discovery weeks are one common way that schools augment their one-on-one career coaching. In October, Rotman hosts a weeklong Career Discovery Week. According to Gauthier, Career Discovery Week goes beyond job search basics and also “really helps the students understand in a deeper way what roles are available.”

At the Thunderbird School of Global Management, the school is closed down for one week in the fall so that students can spend the entire week focusing on their career. During that week, recruiters come to campus to participate in events like Thunderbird’s all-day career fair. MBAs are given the chance to meet with companies, and recruiters get to observe Thunderbird’s student culture first hand.

Career counselling is incorporated into the MBA curriculum

Another way business schools prepare students for the job search is by including career counselling in the MBA curriculum.

At Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, career and job search skill building is covered in the required Leadership Communications course for first-years.

At Ivey, Sharon Irwin-Foulon teaches five classes each April in order to help students understand what the market expects of MBAs. This allows students to begin one-on-one coaching and small group work to help them make decisions about industry, function, and career goals.

Thunderbird also has a career class that teaches career visioning, passion, and purpose, in order to help students make better career decisions. Like Ivey, Thunderbird uses MBA career education as a way to launch students into a more focused job search.

According to Guy Groff, associate vice president of career management and professional development, “When [the students] get to the point where they’re making the decision, we totally focus on making them competitive in their career field of choice” and connect the students with people who will start them on their post-MBA careers by making employment offers.