Tag: career management (page 1 of 2)

Texas MBA Career Treks

Each year, the Texas MBA Career Management team leads Treks to various cities to visit the main offices of different companies, giving Texas Full-Time MBA students a great opportunity to learn more about their industry of interest and allowing them to become more familiar with the culture at these companies. Visits typically consist of presentations, Q&A sessions, and numerous opportunities for networking with alumni and executive management.

One of the biggest trends our Employer Relations and Career Management teams have seen has been an enormous increase in student career interest in the West Coast.

In 2010, 9% of Texas MBA graduates landed jobs on the West Coast — that percentage has nearly doubled with the class of 2016! Interest in technology companies has exploded, making it a large area of focus for our annual Treks.

Complementing those two trends, West Coast tech companies have been opening offices and/or growing their corporate presence in Austin i.e., Facebook, Google, Apple, Cisco Systems, eBay, PayPal, VMware and Electronic Arts just to name a few. We continue to build our relationships with these firms, as well as seeking new opportunities.

We have also seen every facet of student interest in entrepreneurship increase, from coming into the program already running a firm, or founding a company in business school, to working at a startup or fast growing company post-graduation.

In response, the Texas MBA Program has created many unique opportunities for MBA students to network with and connect to the startup community. We now host a biannual McCombs Entrepreneurship Night, which showcases startups founded by McCombs MBA students and/or alumni.

That event is held in conjunction with Austin Startup Week in the fall and during SXSW Interactive in the spring. The contacts made during these events are invited to our Entrepreneur Society (ES) events during the school year, such as the Pitch Party in the Fall and ES Connex in the spring, a networking night for local startups looking to hire interns or full-time candidates.

2016-2017 Career Treks 

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Texas MBA students at the Boston Consulting Group offices in Dallas, TX

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Texas MBA students at the Chevron offices in Houston, TX

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Texas MBA students at the A.T. Kearney office in Dallas, TX

bain-co

Texas MBA students at the Bain & Company office in Dallas, TX

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Texas MBA students at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch office in New York City

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Texas MBA students at AT&T headquarters in Dallas, TX

 

McCombs Career Management: Texas MBAs are in Demand!

MBA Career Management at McCombs works with the most discerning employers seeking innovative talent to fill their emerging leadership roles. With a student-focused Employer Relations team, we are working to create unique recruiting opportunities at global organizations throughout the year for companies that range from multinational organizations to start-ups, across the technology, finance, consulting and consumer segments. From preparing you for a summer internship to watching you land your ideal post-MBA position, we provide career resources every step of the way.

Dow - Texas MBA Students

 

The Class of 2015 had 90% job placement after graduation! The Financial Times gave McCombs its highest Global Ranking in over a decade for 2015, calling out the strength of Job Placement Success with a rank that jumped 10 spots globally to #18, making McCombs #1 in the state of Texas. Check out our full Career Statistics Report.

Our career advisors are professionally trained to help you assess and refine your post-graduate career goals through one-on-one guidance with additional support from Peer Advisors and specialized coaching resources. We work with you throughout your McCombs experience to create a customized strategy and timeline for your recruiting journey. We work to ensure our coaching services are student-focused and relevant, providing:

  • Resources, coaching and events for students interested in entrepreneurship, startups, corporate social responsibility, and nonprofit sectors.
  • Assessment and one-on-one advising to clarify the interests, motivators, and skills to craft a career plan that combines passion with talent.
  • Recruiting and networking events that leverage our students, our brand, and our geography:
    – Major career fairs on campus in the fall and spring.
    – 1st year career treks from coast to coast (New York, Seattle, and San Francisco) and in our own backyard (Austin, Dallas and Houston).
  • McCombs Entrepreneurship Night is a bi-annual event which highlights successful McCombs entrepreneurs from the Texas MBA Program while giving students a chance to network with Texas MBAs, alumni, local entrepreneurs, and either Austin Startup Week attendees in the fall, or SXSWi attendees in the spring.

    daniel goldberg“With the broad alumni base at both Texas and the MBA program, it’s been incredibly easy to get warm introductions at firms that I previously would have had no access to. Furthermore, I find the skills I learned at school are giving me the credibility needed to jump into more senior management roles as well. Finally, with my summer internship at Adobe, I’m confident McCombs played an intricate role at helping me to achieve my future career goals.”

    Daniel Goldberg, MBA ’16

Airplanes, Austin, Classes, and People – My Texas MBA Allure

I’ve spent most of my life living in the eastern time zone, so moving to Texas was a wild departure from my past. As I chatted with prospective students who spent their whole lives in the Northeast, or maybe even outside of the US, it made me remember the questions and priorities I had when I was seeking out business schools. Did I find what I was looking for in Texas? (Spoiler: The answer to that question is “yes”)

Here are four main things I was looking for:

1. I want to go work for _______.

Inside, I’m still a small kid, fascinated by the prospect of two giant jet engines propelling a 300+ ton wide-body airplane up into the sky. I always wanted to work for the airline industry – yes, that pressurized metal tube, shoes off, delay-prone industry. Knowing this, I set out to find a school that gave me the best chance at fulfilling my ambitions. It was the active and well-connected alumni network, the well thought-out career support system, and Texas’ historic strength in the industry that made the school so attractive to me. In fact, it was one of the alumni that helped convince me that I would have the connection and resources at McCombs to get where I wanted to be.

Importantly, it’s not just the connection to a dream job or function that mattered. The relationship to my career aspirations, the career management staff and system strength, and diverse experiences of my classmates mattered just as much. I asked my self, “can I develop a connection with the career staff who will have my best interest in mind?” “Is the career support system proactive?” Thinking back, I made absolutely the right call.

(For brevity sake, I left out the next seven paragraphs about airlines. I have been known to talk people’s ear off about it…)

2. The Neat Outdoor-sy City Called Austin

First off, I spent most of my life in the frigid tundra of the Midwest. I loved the snow (and snow days!), and thought it had a bad reputation. When I descended on Texas, freezing weather was somewhat a foreign concept.

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Austin’s Freezing February

Seriously though, Austin’s an outstanding outdoors town. It’s actually a neat town in general. I like to spend a lot of time outdoors – playing tennis, ultimate Frisbee, jogging – and in the ten different cities I’ve lived in my life, Austin’s has by far the best trails, courts, and the weather to enjoy it all. If you’re not familiar with the area, definitely check out Barton Springs Pool the next time you’re here. It’s Austin’s natural river open for swimming nearly all year-round

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Hiking the Barton Creek Trail with Classmates

3. A Customizable Curriculum

By now, you’ve probably heard about our class structure – two years, four semesters, mandatory core classes to start. But it’s the brevity of the required core curriculum that was especially attractive. After all, the Full-Time Texas MBA Program is only two years / four semesters long.

When I was looking at the Texas MBA Program, I was concerned that the small class size meant less options for electives. Many case/discussion-based classes need critical mass to tap into the proverbial “wisdom of a crowd”. That said, I discovered a surprising number of interesting electives for a program that currently averages 270 students per year, because there’s so much time to take electives (nearly three-quarters of the program are reserved for electives).

A great example of a course that shows the diversity of our electives is “Corporate Governance” taught by Professor William Cunningham. To analyze a Board of Director’s important duties and responsibilities, the Professor invites several former and current senior executives from various companies to address the class. I’m taking this course this semester; it’s a rare opportunity to take a course where we can learn from today’s business leaders. And so far, it has been quite a treat.

4. The People

It’s a bit of a clichéd concept, but I believe that people can make the greatest difference. I always tell this anecdote about how I started to see UT as the place for me. Last year, I was making my decision on business schools, and visited Austin to check out the city and the university. Incidentally, it was the Austin Marathon weekend. There was something about the volume of energy and excitement around the city that surprised me, even if it housed a very large public university.

When I visited McCombs, it was much the same. The important thing to ask is – do I see myself with these people as my classmates? Would I enjoy their company, and be able to work with them? After talking to the current students, the faculty from the class I was able to shadow in, and even random people in the atrium, I think I saw myself fitting in just fine.

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Texas vs. Cal from the MBA Student Section! (I believe we were winning at this point…?)

Exploring Career Paths with Texas MBA Career Management

From Michelle Hardy, Director of MBA Employer & Alumni Engagement

Each year, Texas MBA Career Management leads Treks to various cities to visit the main offices of different companies, giving students a great opportunity to learn more about their industry of interest and allowing them to become more familiar with the culture at these companies. Visits typically consist of presentations, Q&A sessions, and numerous opportunities for networking with alumni and executive management.

Texas MBA students at the Google corporate office during the 2015 Bay Area Trek.

Texas MBA students at the Google corporate office during the 2015 Bay Area Trek

I have been on the Texas MBA Career Management team since 2007. My first role was as a Career Advisor for the  Texas Full-Time MBA program. On my second day of work, I found myself on a plane to San Jose, California with 30 students from the Class of 2009 for a Bay Area Trek. That was one of two treks planned in that school year–the other was a fall trek to New York City for Wall Street Investment Banking and Financial Services. Fast forward to Spring 2016: I am now on the MBA Employer Relations team (formed in 2010) and we have planned 15 student Career Treks for the 2015-2016 school year.

Clearly, we have seen a lot of change in the past eight years. One of the biggest trends has been an enormous increase in student career interest in the West Coast. When I started at McCombs, 9% of our graduates landed jobs on the West Coast–we’ve nearly doubled that percentage with the class of 2014! Interest in technology companies has exploded, making it a large area of focus for our Employer Relations team.

Complementing those two trends, West Coast tech companies have been opening offices and/or growing their corporate presence in Austin i.e., Facebook, Google, Apple, Cisco Systems, eBay, PayPal, VMware and Electronic Arts just to name a few. We continue to build our relationships with these firms, as well as seeking new opportunities.

We have also seen every facet of student interest in entrepreneurship increase, from coming into the program already running a firm, or founding a company in business school, to working at a startup or fast growing company post-graduation.

Texas MBA Students at the Intel Corporate Office as part of the 2015 Bay Area Trek

Texas MBA students at the Intel corporate office during the 2015 Bay Area Trek

In response, we have created many unique opportunities for MBA students to network with and connect to the startup community. We now host a biannual McCombs Entrepreneurship Night, which showcases startups founded by McCombs MBA students and/or alumni.

That event is held in conjunction with Austin Startup Week in the fall and during SXSW Interactive in the spring. We capitalize on SXSW, hosting a student-run booth during the SXSW trade show, allowing those students access to the 400+ companies showcased during the week-long event. The contacts we make during these events are invited to our Entrepreneur Society (ES) events during the school year, such as the Pitch Party in the Fall and ES Connex in the spring, a networking night for local startups looking to hire interns or full-time candidates.

The one thing that holds true across my tenure with the Texas MBA is the importance of our alumni as the key to companies opening their doors to our students.

We created a new team last year under the MBA Employer Relations umbrella to focus on MBA alumni engagement with both current and prospective students. We have come a long way and are excited about the future employment opportunities that await our Texas MBAs!

The Texas MBA Career Treks scheduled for the 2016-2016 school year include:

Texas

Houston Energy Finance
Houston CleanTech
Houston Investment Banking (Twice!)
Houston Consulting

Dallas Marketing
Dallas Consulting
Dallas Asset Management

Austin Marketing
Austin Asset Management
Austin Startup
Austin Big Tech

New York

New York Investment Banking

California

Bay Area

Washington

Seattle

The Texas MBA: A Career Enhancer for Working Professionals

Whether you are looking to change careers, explore new opportunities, or start your own business venture, the Texas MBA has a part-time program to help you get there. The Texas Evening MBA, the Texas MBA at Dallas/Fort Worth, the Texas MBA at Houston, and the Texas Executive MBA are all flexible, part-time MBA programs that allow you to pursue your degree while continuing to work full-time. The FINAL application deadline for our Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Executive programs is May 12th! Apply Now.

For those seeking opportunities for advancement within their current profession, check out what some of our current students, graduating this spring, had to say about “Career Enhancement” in the Texas MBA:

Raven Honsaker, Dallas MBA ’15

Texas MBA student, RavenBackground: BS Mechanical Engineering , West Virginia University; BS Aerospace Engineering , West Virginia University 7 years; Engineering, Bell Helicopter

Employment:
Bell Helicopter 2013  Business Ventures Specialist (April 2014  Promoted to Manager, Business Optimization)
Coming from the engineering world and moving into strategy  development, I was looking for a more formal education in business.  The courses I have taken through the Texas MBA program have helped me immensely. I have yet to go through a semester without learning a concept in class that is directly applicable to a new project I’ve been assigned at work.”
 

Laura Handley, Houston MBA ’15

Background: Texas MBA student, LauraB.A. Political Science,  Texas A&M; 1.5 years – Maersk Line, Sales Support Specialist; 1 year – Foxconn, Business Analyst (supply chain); 3 years at M&H, HR Recruiter

Employment:
Started at Noble Energy (June 2014) in Talent Acquisition
Moved to new role at Noble Energy (Jan 2015) as a Global Mobility Advisor
My pursuit of an MBA brought a lot more credibility to my resume when I was trying to make a switch to a larger company. Thanks to both my experience in the MBA program, I was able to move into a top notch HR department and then make a change to a more analytical HR role reporting under the compensation group.”

Ben Kleckley, Houston MBA ’15

Texas MBA student, BenBackground: B.S. Agriculture Systems Management, Texas A&M; Undergrad Intern at HEB Distribution Center 4 years; IT consulting; Accenture
Employment:
KPMG, Senior Associate, Strategy Group (anticipated start date: July 2015)
Involvement at McCombs:
Graduate Business Council, President
Consulting Club, Member & Supporter

Sarah Matt, Evening MBA ’15 Texas MBA student, Sarah

Background: BS Biology, Cornell University; MD, SUNY Upstate Medical University; Surgery Training, Washington Hospital Center
Employment:
Started September 2012  Attending Physician Mobile Doctors; Started Nov 2013  NextGen Healthcare, Physician Director of Clinical Content; April 2014  NextGen Healthcare – Sr. Dir. of Clinical Product Management
“Going through the Texas MBA program gave me the confidence to move from medical practice to software.  It has been a big jump, but now I manage a large team and am doing more of the strategy work I enjoy.  I use my MD and my MBA every day.
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