Chicago: Networking and Industry Immersion

The career services staff of 21 at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business juggles building employer relationships with student coaching and career management for 1,100 full-time MBA students.

In the next six to nine months, the career services department hopes to roll out a new technological platform that will make it much easier for companies to access tools like interview schedules and students' résumés. It will also support students' more holistic approach to the job search -- to go beyond on-campus recruiting. Career services helped 88% of the Class of 2005 gain employment by graduation, with a median starting salary of $95,000. Ninety-six percent found jobs just three months after graduating.

Julie Morton has been the associate dean of MBA Career Services for almost four years. Morton has worked in various industries, from consulting to advertising. After earning her MBA from Dartmouth's, Tuck School of Business, she worked on Wall Street for what is now Deutsche Bank (DB ). She also did consulting on emerging markets in Central Europe and Indonesia. She worked for the CFO of ad agency Young & Rubicam and in executive search before coming to the University of Chicago.

Morton recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online project assistant Janie Ho. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

What are some of the distinctive programs you offer Chicago MBA students?
Last year, we had some exciting twists on our Industry Immersion program, which is a daylong conference where students immerse themselves in panel discussions about functions and industries they may not have considered before. For example, we've had internal and external consultants present moderated discussions to show the differences between the two environments.

Another program called Mocktail, a mock cocktail party, helps students practice their networking skills, which is not something many of them handle naturally. We also have Winter View, which is a unique all-day interview training program that has quite a buzz around it this year. This includes interview demos with alumni, critiquing circles, and panel discussions on the recruiting process.

How do you market Chicago Graduate School business students to recruiters?
We talk about students' critical-thinking skills. Chicago students are good conceptual thinkers. They see the big picture and understand how to structure those solutions. We often say that Chicago students are taught how to think, not what to think.

What are some of the top companies hiring Chicago grads?
The top five functions were consulting, investment banking, investment management, and finance within a company -- whether that was analysis or treasury work -- and marketing. The top hirers last year were major investment banks, consulting firms including McKinsey & Company, Lehman Brothers (LEH ), Citigroup (C ), Boston Consulting Group (BCGI ), and Goldman Sachs. William Blair, 3M (MMM ), Brunswick (BC ), and Kraft (KFT ) were also big hirers, along with several major manufacturing or consumer package goods companies (see BW Online, 5/4/06, "Who's Hiring").

Do you see any trends in hiring practices?
There's been an uptick in consulting and investment banking hiring. Investment management, CPG and tech firms, and pharmaceuticals have remained steady hirers. We've seen an increase of this just-in-time hiring -- companies that don't need a nine-month lead times in hiring students.

How have career services shifted to accommodate just-in-time hiring?
We've adjusted our outreach and programming to reflect that. We're having a spring career fair -- which we did last year for the first time -- for companies that realize, in April, that they'd love to hire a second-year student in June or July, as opposed to October or November.

How do you ensure that every student gets sufficient help?
If there's a student that I'm concerned about, my colleagues and the dean's office will help me touch base as well. The dean's office is very involved, so I don't feel like there are many students who get lost in the shuffle.

How do you service your 1,400 part-time MBA students?
Most of our part-time students work and take classes at our downtown campus, where they're supported by a completely separate Career Services office. That office works with these students -- whose needs are fairly different from the evening, weekend, and executive programs -- as well as with our alumni. We have about 150 evening and weekend students, who are sort of like full-time students in their career aspirations. Those students can go through the invitational, on-campus recruiting process with second-year full-time students.

Do you find any global trends in the job search at Chicago?
From 15% to 20% of our students go abroad every year. About one-third stay in Chicago, and another third heads to New York. London, for the past few years, has been the third most popular city. We're seeing a small increase in graduates going to Asia -- students who are from there originally as well as those who are seeking opportunities there.

Are there any factors, such as outsourcing, that might expedite these trends?
Long term, I'm sure. We're not seeing the immediate effects of that. Infosys (INFY ), however, whose CEO spoke here the other night, had two non-Indian students intern for them last summer in Bangalore. (see BW Online, 5/10/06, "Nurturing Success in India").

Is it more challenging to help students pursue global placements?
Not necessarily. Many multinationals hire students on campus for Europe, Asia, and Latin America. We've done great employer outreach, traveling to Hong Kong, China, Korea, Tokyo, and Latin America and throughout the European continent. We participate in an online global career fair with nine other U.S. and European schools. We also leverage our strong alumni relations in foreign countries.

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