Goizueta CMC Staff in the Career Management Center located in the Goizueta Foundation Center Building.
Goizueta Business School recently announced exceptionally strong employment statistics for the Full-Time MBA Class of 2012. “The vast majority of the class—91%—had job offers in hand by graduation, representing a 6% increase over last year,” says Wendy Tsung, associate dean and executive director of the MBA Career Management Center (CMC). “Three months post-graduation, 98% of the class had job offers. We couldn’t be more pleased with the numbers.”
View the 2012 Full-Time MBA Employment Report
Tsung credits Goizueta’s placement success to early career development efforts coupled with a rigorous immersion in core business courses during students’ first semester, providing them with a rock-solid foundation for summer internship interviews in the spring.
“Goizueta recognizes the critical role of the internship in gaining full-time job offers by graduation,” says Tsung. “And our students are highly successful at landing summer internships. As in previous years, 100% of students in the Class of 2013 received offers.”
“Timing has proven pivotal,” says Rob Kazanjian, vice dean of programs and professor of organization and management. “We begin with in-depth career management engagement the summer before the program begins, then follow with an innovative curriculum that is front-loaded with core business courses, freeing students to pursue electives in subsequent semesters and creating day-one readiness for both internships and the first post-graduation job.”
“Well before they arrive on campus, all incoming students complete an online self-assessment that links personality traits, skills, and motivators to specific career paths and cultures,” explains Tsung. The CMC also pairs each student with a rising second-year MBA peer coach and provides one-on-one coaching. “Getting this kind of jump on the career development process—far sooner than our competitors—means our students are extremely well-prepared for interview season, no matter how early it begins,” she says.
“Completing all the cores courses before launching into the interview season was critical for me,” says David Katzman 13MBA, who did his summer internship at The Boston Consulting Group and will be returning upon graduation. “Consulting interviews test a broad range of analytical skills as well as general business knowledge; without having worked through the core ahead of time, I would not have been prepared to tackle the challenging case interview process.”
First-semester students also enroll in a professional development course taught by CMC professionals, alumni, and recruiters. In subsequent semesters, students build both breadth and depth in elective courses, establishing an exceptionally strong business foundation that, paired with expertise in their areas of academic concentration, make them extremely competitive on the summer internship and full-time job markets. And the average starting salaries for the school’s 2012 grads testify to that competitiveness, hitting $103,453, plus an average bonus of over $25,500.
These strong results have roots in Goizueta’s curriculum revision several years ago, which was the first in a series of strategic, bold moves to put more emphasis on employment outcomes for students. “Those changes included starting the academic year a month earlier than most of our competitors, front-loading core courses, and making experiential learning a pillar of our curriculum” offers Douglas Bowman, senior associate dean of external relations and professor of marketing
Many of these innovations came about as a result of listening to others—faculty, the marketplace, recruiters, alumni, and students. For example, Goizueta moved the core finance course earlier in the curriculum in response to recommendations by recruiters to give students even greater exposure in advance of rigorous finance interviews in the fall for internships, and has brought more alumni and business leaders into the classroom to provide industry input and individual student feedback.
Brian Mitchell, associate dean of the Full-Time MBA program, says that this kind of responsiveness is reflected in collaborations between the CMC and the Full-Time MBA program office as well. “Goizueta does not relegate career development to one office or staff member,” he says. “We all—faculty, CMC staff, program administrators, and alumni—come together to serve as advocates for our students’ academic excellence and professional success.”
Though the collective approach is paying off for students and graduates, the school continues to look for ways to maximize results and improve the process for all involved, Tsung adds. “We are committed to partnering with students to help them achieve their goals and will always look for ways to aid in their overall success.”
