By Borijan Borozanov
Over the last several months I noticed a very intriguing phenomenon.
The activity levels of my peer students on LinkedIn (at least the ones I am connected to) significantly increased. I find this to be a strong indicator that many of us have made a conscious effort to execute a more structured approach to get a job or an internship. On the flip side, the level of reporting back to CMC, both in the quarterly polls available on TLE and in the SOAR system continued to be very low or have decreased. I am not even mentioning the updates of the student profiles in Global Connect. Let me be clear from the start, this article is not one of those “save your school” or “improve our rankings” or “help by sharing” preaching mantras. Those are above my pay grade and my intentions are certainly not to trick you in reporting just for the CMC to look good.
I am not that ambitious to scientifically correlate these trends, but I hope you will agree that there is not much logic in why they diverge. However, I have to share a recent conversation with a fellow student (a good friend) on the same topic. In essence his logic can be summarized in: “Why would I do anything for the CMC since I got my job without their help?”
Well, reporting your status is for you. CMC doesn’t use this data to “grade” their performance, they use it to analyze where we are in job search and help strategize conversations with us. I will share three facts about what do you personally get if you report your status.
#1 Visibility in front of CMC and your coach
By letting the system know about your status and preferences you are triggering the alarm bell in CMC. Yes, they do have weekly meetings to review the available data and to agree on action plans. Your coach is equally interested as you are in getting an internship or a job. They need your input so they can reach out to potential employers and get back to you with specific opportunities.
On the opposite side, if there is no sufficient student input you are just building the argument that if students are not serious enough, how can CMC help them?
#2 Customized direct support from Employers Relations Team.
It is very simple. Just last week, all students (domestic and international) with interest in financial services AND with a complete (updated) profile in Global Connect received a direct personal e-mail about opportunities with Axway. Similar e-mails were sent for Western Union, GM financials, the Leasing Association and number of other companies. In fact, I have personally received more than 5 e-mails over the last 6 months including the one that eventually led to my future job. Why would anybody want to miss on such opportunities?
#3 Industry and salary insights and statistics from SOAR.
For the graduation year 2013, a total of 119 students have reported details about their job offers. The number does not seem like a lot, but the data base has extensive inputs starting from 2007.
Are you interested in knowing what the average KPMG salary is for T-birds? Or what was the average salary for class of 2008 and what is it now? Or how may T-birds have accepted a position with Deloitte or Booz in the last 6 years? Maybe you are puzzled on what source of contacts yielded most jobs? Or where most of the T-birds went after their graduation in 2013? SOAR provides all these data points of information. Register and take a peek – you will be surprised at the level of available details.
On the final note, you are already guessing the answer to my friend: “It’s not about them, it’s about you”. So be selfish and report back. And by the way, it is free…
Your article was both interesting to read and useful as a directional signal for all our graduates. Although ultimately each MBA T-bird bears the burden of finding the best employment fit for him or her self, making sure the CMC is part of the search toolkit before, during, and after the search is a way to pay it forward for those who come after. It’s about them, it’s about you, it’s about us, it’s about Thunderbird.
Thanks for a very thoughtful piece of writing.
Suzy