MBA Career Transformation Timeline

CareerLeader Assessment Tool

This tool is designed to provide data-driven insights to help you make better career decisions. You will gain a clear picture of your interests, skills, and motivators, and understand what types of organizational cultures fit you best.

Attend Webinars

Register for webinars designed to help you understand the ins and outs of crafting a resume and cover letter and how to begin early preparation for interviews.

Career Path Videos

This series will acquaint you with the most popular career paths at Scheller, including finance, supply chain/operations, consulting, marketing/sales, and technology, while allowing you to learn from alumni as they share their unique career journeys.

Career Interest Worksheet

This exercise is the starting point of your advising conversation and is designed to help you think through your career goals and how an MBA will get you there.

Personal Positioning Statement

A smartly crafted, brief advertisement for your personal brand that communicates your professional identity/purpose, relevant background or expertise, strengths, and future goals.

LinkedIn

Create and polish your profile to boost your credibility on this networking platform.

Resume

The centerpiece of your employment communications strategy and a results-oriented way to illustrate the positive impact of your past experiences.

Cover Letter

A concise, one-page expansion of your professional story, this letter allows you to communicate how your skills and past experiences are fit for a specific position.

MBA Jackets

Scheller’s gateway to job postings and career search opportunities like information sessions, company visits, office hours, and interviews. You will also have access to the broader MBA platform with national reach.

National Career Fairs

Fairs hosted by organizations like the National Black MBA Association, Reaching Out MBA, and MBA Vets draw a national audience and can help connect you with specific companies that don’t currently recruit at Scheller.

LAMP

List, Advocacy, Motivation, Posting. This acronym, cited in Steve Dalton’s The 2-Hour Job Search, can help you identify and target employers as you work to generate a list of prospective companies for internships and full-time employment.

LinkedIn

Connect with professionals and alumni working in your top industries and companies and stay abreast of job listings.

By the time you reach orientation in August, you’ll be well on your way to a more focused vision of both your MBA experience and your career goals.

You will be welcomed to the College with a two-week Full-time MBA Orientation. 

• Week 1: A general Scheller orientation coordinated by the MBA program office focused on cohort involvement, compelling classes, and building community.
• Week 2: Coordinated by the Jones MBA Career Center team. This week focuses entirely on preparing MBA students for the internship search.

Your semester officially begins with the first day of classes in mid-August. You will also attend a number of Career Development Workshops designed to hone your career interview readiness. These workshops will focus on:

• Refining an employer-ready resume, cover letter, and interview stories
• Networking/interview practice
• Case interview introduction
• Career fair practice

Employer information sessions are hosted by Scheller and provide companies the opportunity to come to campus to meet and network with students. During this face-to-face interaction, businesses can discuss their organization, industry, company culture, and recruiting and hiring practices.

Career fairs are hosted in-person or virtually and occur across the country. Organizations like the MBA Vets, ROMBA, and National Black MBA Association will host career fairs specific to their members’ interests and needs. Career fairs provide the opportunity to expand your professional network and engage in recruiting events.

Qualifying interviews take place during this time. These interviews are a ‘gate’ through which students participating in Employment Partner Recruiting must pass. They are designed to create a bit of stress in preparation for real interviews later on.

You will work with your career advisor to create a list of target companies and positions. Then, the advisors work to simulate an interview environment specific to those jobs and industries. Once passed, you are certified and filled with increased confidence when you approach the actual interviews.

Tech Treks are Scheller-organized in-person company visits to local Atlanta businesses. MBA students meet with Scheller alumni and other company employees to better understand what the business does and how they do it. Panel discussions, building and facility tours, and question and answer sessions all provide valuable insight into what it would be like to work there.

2023 Tech Trek stops included Google, Honeywell, Microsoft, Norfolk Southern, NCR, and Salesforce.

Internship interviews can begin as early as the summer before you begin your first year, but generally are most frequent from November through February of your first year. These interviews are an opportunity to share all that you have practiced and learned, including your personal positioning statement and knowledge of the company and industry.

Remember that your journey is a unique one. Some students will begin internship interviews during the summer before they even arrive at Scheller. Some students will interview right up to the end of their first-year classes in May. The important thing is that you go in prepared.

You can enter the interview season with confidence as you:

• Apply for Jobs: Considerable effort is needed at the front end of a job search. It is a numbers game that you must play to win. Be sure to apply for an adequate number of jobs that will put you in a position to interview and receive a job offer.
• Attend Career Events: Information sessions, networking events, and career fairs give you the opportunity to learn more about specific companies and roles, and they also position you to build relationships with influential individuals during the hiring process. Show up with knowledge about the company and its representatives, and be prepared to ask insightful, sincere questions. 
• Network, Network, Network: Networking is a critical part of the MBA job search experience. As you build a network of professional relationships, you will expand your community of colleagues and industry experts who can help you along your career journey.

Positioned between your first and second years, the summer internship is the first step in a career and/or industry change that gives you an opportunity to gain practical work experience and knowledge in a specific role and industry. Your internship can boost your resume and help you make career-changing professional connections.

As you approach the second year of your Full-time MBA, you will have completed your internship and taken the opportunity to stretch into new industries and gain new skills. Your second year will continue with increased opportunities for major-specific elective coursework, international practicums, and a continued focus on acquiring a full-time offer either from your internship company or at another company.

Students often choose to accept full-time employment with their internship companies. They will also sometimes choose to build upon their internship experience and look for employment based on a new area of interest or newly developed skillset.
 
For students who decide they want to consider full-time employment with other companies after they complete their internships, the Jones MBA Career Center provides a variety of recruiting events, workshops, and one-on-one career coaching to support their continued job search.

The Jones MBA Career Centers continues to provide support during the second year. That support will look different for each student as they progress along their path to a full-time job offer. The following action items, events, and support is provided in a cyclical nature during the second year while students:

1. Research career opportunities
2. Network with target companies
3. Practice interviews to prepare for target companies
4. Interview
5. Meet and enage with coaches for feedback
6. Repeat until you accept a full-time job offer and ring the bell! 

• August - September:
  • Feedback on resume updates after internship experience
  • Refresh interview stories 
  • Recruiter Kickoff Networking Event 
  • Career Services Workshops to prep for fall recruiting  
• Ongoing Throughout the Second Year:
  • On-campus and virtual Employer Partner Recruiting events
  • Practice interviews with career coaches
  • Coaching and support prior to and during national career fairs
  • Workshops led by external experts to prepare students for case and product management interviews
  • Virtual West Coast Networking Event with MBA alumni
  • Frequent one-on-one career coaching sessions