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Welcome to September.
I hope that the beginning of your semester has been energizing and that you enjoyed the Labor Day weekend. Lots to cover in this edition:
Upcoming Career & Professional Development Event
Please RSVP to the events you plan to attend.
- Tuesday, September 3 (TODAY)
- Tuesday, September 10 and Wednesday, September 11
- Engineering Career Fair (12 noon – 6 p.m. at ARC Gym 1) — please carefully review companies attending each day (they are different each day) and roles they are hiring for before attending; I am happy to work with you on determining whether the campus career fair is right for you
- Friday, September 13
- Management Consulted – Case Interview Beginner’s Session (9 a.m.-12 noon at ARC Auditorium) – RSVP required due to limited capacity
- iConverge Lunch & Networking (11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at Illini Union Rooms A-C) – RSVP required due to limited capacity [DEADLINE: 5 p.m., September 3]
- Management Consulted – Case Interview Advanced Session (1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. at ARC Auditorium) – RSVP required due to limited capacity
- iConverge Concurrent Session: Negotiation Strategies at Work (2 sessions; pick one) – RSVP required due to limited capacity [DEADLINE: 5 p.m., September 3]
- iConverge Concurrent Session: Understanding Today’s Recruiting Landscape (2 sessions; pick one) – RSVP required due to limited capacity [DEADLINE: 5 p.m., September 3]
- iConverge Concurrent Session: So, You Want to Start a Business (2 sessions; pick one) – RSVP required due to limited capacity [DEADLINE: 5 p.m., September 3]
- iConverge Concurrent Session: Disruptive Innovation and Emerging Technologies (2 sessions; pick one) – RSVP required due to limited capacity [DEADLINE: 5 p.m., September 3]
- iConverge Professional Development Workshop: Presentation with Impact (4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., location TBD) – RSVP required due to limited capacity [DEADLINE: 5 p.m., September 3]
- iConverge Networking Reception (5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at Big Grove Tavern) – RSVP required due to limited capacity [DEADLINE: 5 p.m., September 3]
- Wednesday, September 18 and Thursday, September 19
- Illinois Gies Business Career Fair (2:00-7:00 p.m. at ARC Gym 1) – please carefully review companies attending each day (they are different each day) and roles they are hiring for before attending; I am happy to work with you on determining whether the campus career fair is right for you
- Thursday, September 26 and Friday, September 27
- Wednesday, October 9
- SAVE THE DATE – Coffee Chats and Info Session with Gartner Consulting – sign-ups forthcoming
Scheduling Career Coaching Sessions
To schedule career coaching sessions with me, click here. Please bookmark the URL for easier access in the future. Services offered:
- Career exploration and assessment
- Career strategies
- Resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile reviews
- Interview practice
- Offer negotiation discussion
Advising sessions can be done in-person (1033 BIF) or via Zoom. If you would like to meet via Zoom, please send me an e-mail after you’ve scheduled a time. I will set up a Zoom session for us.
“Advancing Your Career as a Working Professional” on Coursera
Some of you might have seen that you’ve been added to a brand new career management “course” on Coursera. The course was designed with mid-career professionals in mind. Each week is intended to build onto the next. Week 1-3 are the assessments that are intended to help you define your career focus and subsequently your personal brand, which is the focus of Week 4. Weeks 5-8 are the nuts and bolts of the job search process, including the 2-Hour Job Search framework, networking, informational meetings, LinkedIn, resumes and cover letters.
In Week 1, one of the things you are asked to evaluate is your strengths. Feel free to use the exercise files in the instructions as well as your CliftonStrengths report. Although we do not specify the Career Leader assessment, you, as a PMBA student, have access to that assessment for free. See the next section on getting access to the Career Leader assessment.
Although the “course” has been organized by weeks, you are at liberty to dive into the material as quickly or as slowly as you want. This “course” will not be printed on your transcript and is not for credit. This “course” is a resource to guide you through your career planning.
Explore Career Options with Career Leader
As a PMBA student, you have free access to the Career Leader assessment. The assessment examines three areas: Interests, Motivations, and Skills. Based on your responses, recommendations are made on Career Matches and Culture Matches. Within the Skills section is the option for a 360 Review. I strongly encourage you to complete the 360 Feedback so that you understand how peers view your skills in comparison to how you evaluate your own skills. The results can help with your personal branding as well as identify areas where there is a mismatch of perceptions.
To receive access to the assessment, please send me an e-mail requesting a Career Leader account.
National MBA Career Fairs
I sent an e-mail on June 24 regarding national MBA career fairs. I’ve included the e-mail below with updated. I’ve also included the e-mail which the MBA Administration distributed on July 1 regarding stipends to support students’ participation in one of the national career fairs.
Overview of National MBA Conferences and Career Expos
Whether you are seeking a new role, wishing to expand your professional network, or wanting to connect with like-minded industry professionals, the national MBA conferences and career fairs are good events to consider attending.
* Career fairs at NBMBAA and Prospanica are open to all; they are not limited to professionals who identify with that particular affinity group. (MBA Veterans and ROMBA are limited to individuals who identify with the target affinity group.)
These conferences and fairs take place in the Fall only; there are no national MBA career fairs in the Spring. If you are looking to begin a new role within the academic year (e.g. Summer 2020), you may wish to consider attending one of the above conferences.
Even if you are not looking for a new role, these conferences are great ways to meet new professional contacts and participate in professional development sessions, such as leading in a multi-generational workplace, project management, and understanding non-verbal communication. Review the agendas of each conference to learn about their professional development sessions to determine if a particular conference is right for you.
Things to Consider Before Signing Up for One of the Career Fairs
These national career fairs could be relevant and beneficial to you IF:
- You have at least 3 years of professional working experience;
- You are looking at a national career search, i.e. a new role beyond your current geographic location;
- Your target companies are attending the conference and career fair;
- The employers attending are recruiting for roles you are interested in.
To find out which companies are attending each career fair, go to each conference’s career fair page.
NBMBAA is the largest of the national MBA career expos and can be tricky to navigate. To find the list of companies registered for the NBMBAA Career Expo:
- Go to https://nbmbaa19.mapyourshow.com/7_0/exhview/index.cfm
- From the search bar on the top right, click on the drop down menu. Make sure that the search option is set to Exhibitor. (Universities listed in the drop down menu are there to support their students; they are not there to hire new personnel.)
While you may search by Product Categories, I have found that some employers do not always match the category one would assume that company should be in. As a result, you might overlook a company that is actually attending.
Companies attending the other career fairs:
To find the roles that employers might be recruiting for at NBMBAA, you will need to search in two places.
The first place is https://careersuccess.nbmbaa.org/. Over the next few weeks leading up to the career fair, employers will start posting job positions on https://careersuccess.nbmbaa.org/. Positions that companies will be recruiting for at the NBMBAA Annual Conference and Expo will be tagged with the conference logo.
The second place you will need to search are the career pages of the companies attending the career fair. Some employers will post specific positions targeting each career fair. They will title specific roles with the name of the national career fair that they will be attending. If you plan on attending one of the career fairs, you will want to submit your application to the appropriate job posting before the career fair. If you do not see a position with the name of the career fair, you could apply to 1-2 roles that you are interested in. In your cover letter, you could mention that you plan to attend one of the career fairs and that you look forward to connecting with them at that career fair. Of course, make sure that the company is attending your target career fair.
Finally, you will need to consider the cost of attending. The chart below lists the early bird registration fees (based on student member rates) and deadlines for each conference. NOTE: Please refer to each individual conference’s web page for the most accurate and complete list of fees and deadlines.
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NBMBAA
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MBA Vets
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ROMBA**
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Prospanica
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Early Bird – Full Conference
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$450 (Career Expo and Sessions only)
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$349
(Oct. 9)
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$125
(Sep. 2)
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$100
(Jul. 29)
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Early Bird – Career Fair Only
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$199
(Jun. 28)
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n/a
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n/a
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$50
(Jul. 29)
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Membership Fee
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$45
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n/a
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n/a
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$30
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** To obtain the registration code, please contact Jerome Ng for an introduction to the President of Out in Business at Illinois.
Additional costs to consider:
- Transportation
- Accommodation
- Meals
Preparing for the National Career Fairs
- Have your resume reviewed by a professional. Get this done in the next 30 days since you will want your resume to be uploaded to the job board, especially for NBMBAA and Prospanica. Employers screen candidates, especially for NBMBAA and Prospanica, and schedule on-site interviews ahead of the actual career fair; some will even schedule phone interviews before scheduling on-site interviews. You may e-mail your resume to me for review.
- Research your target companies, industries, and the employers that you are applying to. Understand the role that you are seeking.
- Practice your introduction and interview stories. Become comfortable with case interviewing, even if you are not applying to consulting or IB roles; we now see case interviews in marketing and corporate strategy/development roles. If you are applying for product management roles, practice product management interviews. All interviews require time and practice; do not wait until you have an interview to practice.
Career Fair Stipend
Illinois Gies MBA is focused on each of you achieving your career goals. When one of us succeeds, we all succeed.
This is why we are excited to announce that the Gies MBA will support you traveling to one of the national career fairs for the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year. We will support you up to $500 so that you have the opportunity to attend at least one of these national career fairs in order to network and make connections with a variety of companies interested in MBA candidates. Once applications have been reviewed, the career fair stipend will be applied directly to your university account. The following 5 career fairs will qualify for the travel stipend:
- National Black MBA
- Prospanica
- Reaching Out MBA
- Veterans MBA
If you are planning to attend one of these national career fairs, please keep an eye on your emails for the career fair stipend form to be released before the end of the week. We wanted to release this information and let you know about the program's financial support option because the early bird deadline for the National Black MBA Conference is coming up on Friday, July 5, 2019.
Illinois Gies MBA Administration
UPDATE: Stipend Request Form can be found here. DEADLINE TO SUBMIT: October 11, 2019
Career Resources
PMBA students have free access to the following resources:
Career Opportunities
I am happy to review your resume and cover letters before you submit them for any of these roles below. Please give me at least 48 hours before the application deadline to review your materials.
National roles:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign roles:
Professional Development Tip
To close, here are some personal favorites from Vault’s 15 productivity tips from successful founders:
- Do the most difficult task first.
- Get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter.
- Set a deadline to make a decision.
- Set aside time for yourself.
- Don’t spend your day managing to inbox zero. Pick one to two problems every day that are important for you to dig into strategically and allot real time to them by cutting off your access to e-mail.
You can read the full 15 tips and the sources of their inspiration here.
I hope you found this edition useful.
Jerome Ng
Career Strategist and Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach
jeromeng@illinois.edu
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