The MBA Career Management Center

From the minute you set foot on campus, you can learn more about fields that interest you and network with company representatives through a myriad of events and resources, including symposia, company presentations, career fairs, off-campus networking trips, and on-campus interviews. Yet students enter the business school with diverse career interests and various levels of job search and career planning skills. As such, the services provided by the Duke MBA Career Management Center (CMC) are designed to meet a wide range of interests and needs.

The CMC's career counselors help students identify their career goals and teach them how to market themselves effectively to target employers. "We don't just provide services and resources to help students find jobs now," explains Assistant Dean and CMC Director Sheryle Dirks. "We want them to leave here with career-building strategies and skills they can use as they climb the ranks throughout their careers."

Students also benefit from the CMC's Career Fellows program, in which second-year students coach first years on their internship search. They review resumes and cover letters, conduct mock interviews, and share insights and contacts from their own network. At the same time, all students enjoy access to a network of over thirteen thousand Duke MBA alumni around the world-a network many consider among the most helpful and responsive of any business school. After graduating, Duke MBA students have access to the complete Duke University network of over 120,000 alumni worldwide.

Many international students come to an American MBA program hoping to find employment with a U.S. corporation. The CMC works closely with international students both individually and collectively to identify their unique needs and directs them to the richest resources available, whether they be in the U. S. or abroad. Our career counselors then continue to support students by helping them to tailor the job search to meet their overall goals and needs.

A key resource available to students is H1-BLUE DEVIL, a tool jointly developed by two students and the CMC. This database allows students to effectively identify companies that have recently sponsored international candidates for business-related positions and is organized by job title, salary, and other key criteria.

The CMC creates and implements robust strategies that consider both domestic and international companies, with a specific emphasis on maximizing opportunities in the U.S. through smart research and proprietary technology like H-1 BLUE DEVIL. Workshops, simulations, recruitment events, mock interviews, and other resources are also offered to students interested in working in cultures other than their own.

The Ford Library provides a variety of databases and other sources that offer Duke students in-depth access to information and contacts at target companies. As an added bonus, many of the databases and services are available at students' convenience via the Internet, through the Fuqua Virtual Private Network (VPN). Learn more at www.library.fuqua.duke.edu (click on the "Companies" and "Career Tools" tabs).

One of the most useful career resources available to Duke MBAs is CareerCompass, an online tool that helps students accomplish a number of recruiting tasks such as:

First-year and second-year students are encouraged to join job search teams, small groups of fellow students who meet throughout the year with a CMC staff member as facilitator, to build group accountability and shared perspective into the job search. Students find the weekly meetings to be a valuable checkpoint, and they share helpful advice, support, and resources with each other.

The CMC, in collaboration with a valued alumnus, has developed a straightforward, proprietary step-by-step process for conducting a productive job search. Entitled the PREPARED model, this approach takes the anxiety and guesswork out of the job search-at all times, students knows what they need to do and when.

The CMC partners with employers to help them achieve their recruiting goals. This includes hosting recruiting events and interviews on campus, helping companies make strategic recruiting decisions, and marketing Duke MBAs to new companies. As a result, the number and quality of organizations that hire Duke MBAs each year make for an impressive recruiting portfolio.

2007-09 Bulletin of The Fuqua School of Business

2007-09 Bulletin of
The Fuqua School of Business