Go Beyond the Traditional MBA Career

 By, Alina Buzgar

If you were wondering “how to secure a well-paying job that makes a difference in US or abroad” the workshop held on Monday, October 20th had some valuable insights.

 

“Doing well by doing good” was a workshop that pointed participants to look beyond traditional MBA careers and revealed strategies to get clear about our goals and transferable skills, get connected with like minded professionals and get hired for the types of opportunities that best fit us.

 

More Than Money Careers (MTMC) has a strategic partnership with Thunderbird to offer workshops targeted to students thinking about social impact careers. MTMC’s goal is to help emerging professional change makers get clear, get connected, and get hired for internships and jobs that maximize impact and income. What sets MTMC apart from other companies with similar agendas is their focus on a variety of fields including CSR, sustainability, impact investing, international development and social enterprise. The company’s process leverages brain sciences principles and over 30+ years of experience with social business leaders to help emerging and established leaders successfully compete for responsible career opportunities.

 

The host of the workshop, Lauren Weinstein, offered examples from her own career, as she navigated Accenture Consulting, and also transitioned from management consulting to career coaching. Speaking about her motivation to hold the workshop Lauren Weinstein says: “Personally, I really enjoy talking to graduate students and learning more about their interests, ideas and what direction they’re headed. I have worked with a few Thunderbird grads and I am amazed by their desire to make a difference so it was fun for me to come to campus and connect with students.”

 

The workshop encourages us to include growth opportunities, culture, values, and social engagement when targeting companies. By following the mantra of autonomy, mastery, and purpose we can set our expectations and focus our energy towards true interests or passions in our future careers.

 

Map your skills

Based on employer surveys the top 5 skills that companies are looking for in the 21st century are:

• Entrepreneurial mindset – it includes being an entrepreneur within a company (intre-preneurship)
• Self-leadership – primarily looking at the combination of emotional quotient (EQ) and intelligence quotient (IQ) Analytical skills
• Relationship management and communication
• Project management – how do you allocate resources, make plan, and set milestones

 

Map your opportunities

At first glance your choices are narrowed when you add the dimension of sustainability in your search for the perfect employer. On the other hand, you can clarify what and who your are targeting. By looking at employers’ attitude towards sustainability they can be segregated into traditional, traditional with CSR programs, sustainable, for profit social, nonprofit generating revenue, traditional nonprofit, and government. This can be of assistance when you map out your career opportunities and intersect them with your core business function. Also remember to look at companies with a critical eye and research the actual culture vs. advertised culture.

 

Map your passions

Even though “follow your passion and money will follow” is essentially true, Lauren urges us to “prioritize our passions and money will follow”. Identify 5-6 things that you would like to have an impact on: material, prestige, self-development, community, and family. Proceed to building a passions’ mosaic and think about yourself. Be specific when you think about your career, time, competition, recreation, and education. This mosaic will help you visualize what you have been doing, what you are doing, and where you are going. It can also be used as a tool to prioritize your daily life (what events to attend, what deadlines or goals to set and where to focus your energy).

 

You can use the company’s website (www.mtmc.co) to create a profile, map companies against your interests and build your passions’ mosaic. You will have several prompts to create a very elaborate profile (6 functions x 7 sectors x 173 impact areas), along a multitude of resources and information about companies and industries.

 

Lauren’s advice is to:

 

Get Clear. Spend the time to reflect and work through the Career Management Center’s tools to get clear on triple fit – skills, sector/culture and industry/passion area.

 

Get experience. Find an internship or a project to figure out what you like and what roles you can see yourself doing. Take the time to do your research and learn about the industry and its terminology.

 

Get Connected/Networked. Start to network via online tools and develop your networking strategy so that you can share your “pitch” and also take your networking offline and in-person!

 

Did you participate in “Doing well by doing good” workshop? Share your thoughts and comments below.

 

Lauren Weinstein’s Bio

Lauren Weinstein is an Account Executive and Trainer for More Than Money Careers. She also works with individuals and organizations in the domain of strategic consulting, coaching and facilitation.  Lauren was a competitive swimmer in college and upon graduation, joined Accenture consulting, where she worked for seven years. While originally placed in the Health & Life Sciences division, she slowly worked her way to Corporate Social Responsibility and international development as part of Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP). As part of her work at Accenture, Lauren became a Certified Coach and mentored/coached hundreds of Accenture employees. She also oversaw Accenture’s sponsorship and involvement in Net Impact’s annual conference. Lauren left Accenture to focus on building her business (Coachable LLC) and also to work with More Than Money Careers, where she has been mentored by Dr. Mark Albion and Dr. Mrim Boutla, the co-founders of MTM Careers. Lauren has a BA in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania and a Certification in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University.  She is the author of Coaching is Calling: A Guide to Coach Training Programs and Professional Career Paths.”

 

 

About More Than Money Careers (MTMC)

The MTM Careers e-learning platform combines coaching and resources to help impact leaders get clear, get connected, and get hired faster for jobs that maximize meaning and money.  MTM Careers has deployed their e-learning platform across over 30 campuses in the US, and has received the 2013 AshokaU/Cordes Award for Social Innovation.