Yesterday, nearly 200 first-year students packed into cars and buses and headed to Boston and New York City to take part in three days of company visits as part of the Career Development Office’s (CDO) annual consulting, investment banking, and marketing treks. These visits offer students a great opportunity to explore career goals, learn about companies and industries, and have fun with their classmates. All tolled, students visited 12 consulting firms in Boston, and nine investment banks and six marketing firms in New York.
Needless to say, it’s been a busy start to what is shaping up to be another great year of recruiting at Tuck.
As a quick introduction, I am Director of the CDO and this is my 9th year working at Tuck in this department. I have an MBA and my professional background is in investment banking and entrepreneurship. But my favorite job was coaching college sports, and the opportunity to coach MBAs in their career search process was what brought me to Tuck.
The first month of career-related activities at Tuck is focused on career exploration, with students beginning to engage the many resources available to them, including the CDO career coaches, classmates and alumni, and the companies that recruit Tuck students.
Individual attention from an industry-expert career coach
Students at Tuck work one-on-one with one of our five career coaches, all of whom have extensive experience in the industries Tuck students are exploring. The mission for my office during the first two weeks of classes is for us to meet with each of the students individually to introduce our team, get to know their career goals, and share some insights and perspective on the job search. This is typically the first in a series of meetings students will have with us throughout their two years at Tuck. During that time, they will meet with multiple members of our team as they explore different career paths. For example, those interested in consulting would meet with Stephen Pidgeon, a 2007 graduate of Tuck who worked for McKinsey for four years, while students interested in working in technology would meet with Mathias Machado, a 2009 Tuck graduate how has worked as a product manager in technology.
Meeting classmates, second years, and alumni
I always encourage new students to speak with classmates, second-year students, and alumni throughout their career exploration—there’s just so much they can learn from their peers and our graduates. Reaching out to other students and alumni in industries and companies where students may want to work enables them to learn about careers while expanding their professional network. The personal nature of Tuck makes this easy to do; Tuck is small relative to other top business schools and we are in a rural location with a centralized campus hub serving as the base for student activity. We also have the most engaged and supportive alumni network of any MBA program. More than 70 percent of alumni give to the school each year, and they are equally eager to support the careers of our students. Also, some of the best ways to connect with other students is through clubs and activities. One of the most active and fun groups is Tripod Hockey, which is open to everyone!
Company briefings and networking events
Though we are just 30 days in, students have been actively participating in company briefings. A typical briefing includes a short presentation and Q&A session followed by informal networking between recruiters and students. I anticipate about 130 companies will visit Tuck to recruit our students this year, which is just a fraction of the 900 active recruiting relationships our students have access to. Some of the companies that have visited Tuck in the past two weeks include:
• Consulting: Bain, BCG, McKinsey, Parthenon
• CPG/Marketing: Colgate-Palmolive, Land O’Lakes, Procter & Gamble
• Finance: Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan
• Technology: Amazon, Microsoft, Symantec
• Other Sectors: 3M, Cargill, Samsung, Siemens, Thermo Fisher, etc.
These companies also offer a range of networking events so they can meet the students and so that students get a chance to learn more about the companies in a less structured format. Examples of these events include one-on-one office hours, small group dinners in Hanover, a women’s breakfast, coffee chats, fireside chats, and more.
For more details on recruiting at Tuck, take a look at the 2012 Employment Report or feel free to reach out to me or another member of the CDO team.
Jonathan Masland
Director, Tuck CDO
jonathan.masland@dartmouth.edu
@JonathanMaslan1