Frequently Asked Questions
Q & A with the Director of MBA Career Connections

Sectors that are represented were particularly interesting. We have at least a third of our students working on finance-related projects or in financial services. Another third are working in business development roles across sectors. The last third are working in marketing/product management/market development roles. That’s a rough sketch of the situation, but fairly on-target.

We’re averaging $1,200 weekly, which is comparable to MBA programs of our level, as well as the region and functions being represented.

It’s been wonderful to see some immediate connection points. Some of our FlexMBA students are certainly in positions to help Full-Time students identify internships in their organizations—and all have been very willing to share their organizational knowledge. Only a couple of Full-Time internships came directly from Flex students— although those were interesting ones with great companies— but their knowledge and suggestions and visibility in their companies as "Rady students" have all been very valuable.

It depends on the sector, function and region that is of interest to you. You want to begin thinking about your passions and interests now. Once you arrive here, you’re ahead of the game if you have a well thought-out idea of your direction and competencies. If consulting and investment banking are your interests, you need to start applying online at the companies of your choice by September. They hire early. However, the biotechs and IT firms hire later, even into late spring. And Southern California is later than the rest of the U.S., if that is your region of choice.

It was interesting to see the hiring timing with this past group. We had companies hiring in the fall, but the vast majority of offers came in March, April and May. We even had some fabulous offers at the end of June!

It’s the only self assessment tool that has been created for business students. It focuses on your interests and strengths as opposed to strengths only. It’s really quite useful for you to see where your passions lie and how they can move you toward a career transition. It’s very helpful for us as well in knowing you better. We can then offer advice and coaching that is better targeted.

CareerLeader will be available to all Full-Time MBAs in August. We will give you access so that you will have the opportunity to take the assessment before arriving on campus. We will use the results of your tests as an integral part of our MBA Career Connections pre-term orientation.

We’ll also have CareerLeader available for the FlexMBA students on an as-needed basis. While it’s far from an answer to all of your self-assessment needs, it provides both you and our team with useful information.

The assessment has a variety of interesting tools. You’ll find that your interests won’t shift much if you take it again, but it’s very interesting to revisit the values section: this part of the assessment has an 18-24 month validity window, tracking shifting priorities, and your rankings of values are often in transition over the period you are in an MBA program.

One of the wonderful things about the developers of CareerLeader is that they have amassed an enormous amount of information on career areas of interest to MBAs and how those map against the career interest areas evaluated. The background information on all these career areas is available to you as a student once you’ve completed the assessment. I’ve found it to be the best MBA career information around—the broadest array of potential MBA career areas, with a lot of depth.

The answer is "all of the above." In some cases, it is a pre-hire. In some cases, the company is small and their hiring needs are limited at this stage in their growth. In that case, it becomes a great support to students’ skill sets being expanded. It is also a wonderful source of networking.

Typically, we find that almost 50 percent of the internships undertaken by MBAs become a full-time position post-graduation. A larger, more established company typically uses the internship as a pre-hire. This is becoming more common. It allows both the student and the company to see if there is a good potential fit.

Keep in mind that MBA Career Connections has a two-fold perspective. We help you prepare for the marketplace. That means preparing resumes, preparing for interviews, knowing how to negotiate, write a cover letter, applying online, etc. The other side of the equation is to facilitate interactions with the greatest number of companies possible.

Typically, there is a project that the MBA undertakes. The student becomes an associate of sorts. I have one woman doing research on commodities with an investment group this summer. Another student is working on streamlining processes in the marketing division of a large company. It’s incredibly varied in scope and responsibility, depending on the background of the student, as well as the needs of the company.

We have students working on human resources channeling. A large San Diego company wanted to find better ways of creating a talent pool and pipeline. We’ve had several cases where a company wants to put a new product or drug on the market and needed the student’s expertise in making that happen. We have a student who is working on sustainability issues and energy projects with a VC in London. We have another student working with Cisco on an environmentally sustainable issue along with an engineering student from the UCSD Jacobs School. His role is to be the "business expert" in making these ideas marketable. Some great stuff!

A wonderful resource that our students are exploiting is using clubs as a way of learning, networking and connecting with companies. Our corporate partners love that. The MBA Career Connections team stays abreast of the clubs’ activities so that we can support what they do and follow up on these great new contacts.

Several students did a lot of informational interviewing where they made appointments with companies/executives of interest with the intent of simply understanding more about the job, the company, the executive’s career path. This led to some great projects. We had a couple of students simply post their resume on the Web site of a company of interest. We had a couple of FlexMBA students who coordinated internship projects with their companies. I think that the moral of the story is to shake all bushes all of the time. There’s no doubt that this is the case of our students who were being offered six or more internships.

A: MBA internships can be really significant work. Students sometimes get nervous as spring approaches and they don’t have jobs lined up, but we do consistently find that internships that are offered late in the cycle are often among the most interesting and important. A project that’s offered up as an internship in May or early June is real work that the company really needs done right now. These aren’t "gee, wouldn’t it be nice if some day we could take a look at this" projects— they are often mission-critical.

A key part of the career building process is networking. I know that you’ve heard this, but I can’t emphasize this enough. Our current Flex and Full-Time students are amazing at attending professional associations, events, socials, etc. And the results from this cannot be over-emphasized. You’re beginning to build a rolodex for life. This is so important. The MBA program becomes a natural springboard for meeting the most amazing range of people. Take advantage of every opportunity to meet all kinds of business professionals.

I would say that one of the most challenging things in the Rady program is knowing how best to manage your time. You’ll find so many events at your fingertips. We’ll have career fairs and speakers and panel discussions and networking events. You’ll have to devise a strategy that allows you to connect with the greatest number of people while still pursuing academics.

In the core curriculum, most of them are not directly linked. You’ll have more opportunities for this in the elective curriculum, where you’ll often have choices about projects and can assemble a team and approach a company you’d like to learn more about from a career perspective as well. In Strategy this year, several teams did projects on companies in which one or more members had a career interest—and several students did independent studies this spring that had direct career connections. The more you have a sense of what you’re interested in, the more you’ll be able to shape your project choices to complement your career planning.

I would strongly urge you to begin thinking now about the kinds of projects you love doing. And the kinds of companies that interest you. Think in terms of what you do best and feel happiest doing. Then begin to think of sectors and companies in which those competencies could be used.

Varied. One was a case of impressive chutzpah. The student made elaborate lists of companies of interest in Europe and created a pretty amazing email blast. And he found the internship of his dreams. Another one was the result of informational phone calls and networking. Others were a combination of online applications and networking and great follow-up.

You must complete nine months of coursework to be eligible to apply to work in the U.S. MBA Career Connections will work with you to complete the necessary paperwork to apply for Curriculum Practical Training (CPT).