GRADUATE (MBA & MS) DEGREE PROGRAMS

MBA Career Management Center
Prospective Full-time MBA Students

The MBA Career Management Center provides you with services and opportunities to enhance your employment marketability. The small size of each entering class also means that we will work closely with you to develop a career management strategy that fits your unique abilities and professional goals. The following describes our basic services, but we realize that your needs may require more personalized attention.

MBA Career Services:

• Career Management Training Workshops: Workshops are provided to you in your first and second year covering a full range of career management topics such as job search strategies, effective resume and cover letter writing, interviewing skills, researching companies and industries, salary negotiations and others.
  
  
• CareerLeader™ Self-Assessment: Developed at the Harvard Business School, this assessment is designed for people,like you, who are interested ina career in business. This tool is used by over 100 of the top MBA programs in the United States and Europe and provides you with a robust assessment of your unique pattern of buiness interests, values and abilities. You can map your results to over 27 unique business careers, comparing your profile with those of happy and satisfied professionals in each respective field.
  
  
• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): The most widely used personality assessment in organizations today. It is a framework that gives you insight into your personality, specifically your preferences for: how you get your energy, how you process information, how you make decisions, and how much structure and order you want in your life. The MBTI also helps you understand yourself and others better. Your personality preferences can have implications for preferred work environments, how you communicate, how you approach/resolve conflict, how you solve problems, and your leadership style.
  
  
• CMC Events: The CMC coordinates numerous events that provide you with an opportunity to gather career information, network, and gain a greater understanding of the skills valued by the industries in which you seek to build a career. Some of the CMC events include:

  Company Information Sessions: Many companies interviewing on campus conduct general information sessions prior to on-campus interviews. These are typically held in the early evenings and can provide you with valuable information about companies’ cultures and values.

  Business Etiquette Luncheon and Dress for Success: Students are taught social skills necessary for lunch interviews, business meetings,along with information on how students should dress according to current professional standards and more!

  MBA Career Fair: This bi-annual fall and springrecruiting event brings together first and second year MBA candidatesand recruiting firms forfull-time and intership opportunities.

  MBA Career Panel Discussions: Industry panels cover a broad range of business functional areas to help MBA students learn in depth about a career interest.

  National MBA Career Fairs and Consortium Events: Cox is a participating member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA), and the MBA Consortium. These organizations provide additional employment opportunities for first and second year MBA students through annual recruiting events held in various locations across the country. A virtual eFair is also held every spring through the MBA Consortium.

• Career Counseling: Advisors are available to meet with you individually to discuss your career objectives, job search strategies, and tools available to you in order to enhance your career potential.
  
  
• CMC Fellows: Second year MBA students are hired as "CMC Fellows" to bean additional resource for first year MBA students to tap into regarding job search issues such as resume writing, cover letters, mock interviews and job search strategies. First year MBA students will be able to schedule appointments with CMC Fellows to work on these different items by functional area of interest.
  
  
• Resume Critiques: Based upon the information that you receive at the Resume Development Workshop, you will be required to write a resume that effectively communicates your skills and experiences. Writing your resume is a critical element of your job search and you will find that it is a process of continuous refinement and improvement. You will have the opportunity to meet individually with a counselor to review your resume format and content while you are an MBA student.
  
  
• Resume Books: Resume books are bound compilations of the resumes from each MBA class and used to market the quality of the MBA students at the Cox School. Hard copy books as well as electronic access aredistributed and availableto companies that currently recruit on-campus, companies that participate in on-campus recruiting events, companies that are being invited to recruit at the Cox School, and those companies that simply request a copy.
  
  
• On-Campus Recruiting: The CMC coordinates a full range of recruiting activities for both summer internships and full-time positions throughout the entire academic year. On-campus recruiting offers a convenient means for companies to select and interview students on-site at the Cox School. Companies will provide job opportunities that will be posted on the CMC's eRecruiting software system. Students interested in specific jobs will submit their resume for consideration. The companies will then pre-select students who they want to interview, and schedule interviews using the interview suite located adjacent to the CMC. Prior to the scheduled interview dates, many companies sponsor information sessions so that students may learn more about the company and its culture. Second year students begin interviewing by October 1^st for full-time job opportunities, while first year students begin interviewing in mid-January for summer internships.
  
  
• Summer Internships: Between your first and second year, you will have the opportunity to secure a summer internship where you can apply your newly acquired classroom skills and help you identify the corporate culture and position that is appropriate for you.
  
  
• Cox Alumni: Networking is an important element in any job search. Cox alumni serve as a valuable resource to MBA students regarding job openings, leads, personal contacts, and advice.

MBA Career Management Center
Cox School of Business
Southern Methodist University
PO Box 750333, Dallas, TX 75275-0333
Phone: 214-768-6227 Fax: 214-768-3116
careers@cox.smu.edu