One-Stop Shopping at the Rotman Open House

Niki da SilvaWe had a very busy weekend hosting the Annual Rotman Open House earlier this month! The Open House, which took place on October 13th, is a school-wide event where candidates who are exploring Rotman’s various degree options (Full-Time MBA, Morning/Evening MBA, Master of Finance and Executive MBA) have an opportunity to learn more about our Programs and determine which path is right for them.

Roger Martin at Rotman Open House

Roger Martin delivers his keynote address to the Open House crowd

Nearly 400 people took part in the day’s events, where they got to explore the various opportunities at Rotman! The day began with remarks from Mihnea Moldoveanu, Associate Dean of the Full-Time MBA program, followed by a keynote address by Dean Roger Martin. We also had a range of breakout sessions throughout the day, including:

  • Information Sessions run by all of the Degree Programs
  • Panel Discussions with Current Students & Alumni
  • Sample Classes run by Mihnea Moldoveanu, Jan Mahrt-Smith, Maja Djikic, Walid Hejazi, and Heather Fraser
  • Information Tables hosted by our Degree Programs, Executive Programs, Women’s Initiative, Career Centre, Kaplan Test Prep, and Banking Partners
  • Trading Simulation in the Finance Lab
  • Lunch hosted by our Student Ambassadors
  • Open Doors at the Business Information Centre, Self Development Lab and Desautel Centre for Integrative Thinking
  • Rotman Building Tours
Walid Hejazi at the Rotman Open House

Professor Walid Hejazi teaches Open House visitors during his sample class

The Rotman Open House can be best described as one-stop shopping for anyone considering business education. It is a very efficient (and comprehensive) way to experience not just the content you will be exposed to as a student here, but also the culture of the Rotman community. Our team had a fantastic time connecting with prospective Full-Time MBA students and it was so nice meeting candidates in person! It will be exciting when we start seeing applications come in from these individuals over the next few months, as it’s always nice to connect the story to a face from someone we have met during our recruiting activities.

Those of you who didn’t get to attend can get a taste by watching Dean Roger Martin’s speech from the last Open House or by checking out the full Open House schedule.

It is refreshing to see candidates moving from their online search to exploring Rotman live and in person.  The opportunity to explore and experience a School and get a true understanding of the culture of the Program, calibre of the classroom experience, and diversity of students is such an important part of the MBA research process and I was thrilled to see so many impressive potential Rotman candidates!

Open House crowd

Open House visitors choose from a variety of breakout sessions

Who have you connected with at Rotman?

Sheldon DookeranI recently interviewed a Rotman candidate who impressed me.  What stood out about him was that he talked about Rotman’s culture and evolution from an insider’s perspective. As our discussion continued I discovered that he has a friend in the program. He also found a Rotman alum in his LinkedIn network and reconnected with him about his student experience.

Last week, Kobi Gulersen, Director/Leader Global Digital Marketing for MasterCard Worldwide, advised first year Rotman students to prepare for their careers by learning as much as possible about their potential employers. The same advice applies when considering business schools.  Websites serve as the best place to start researching, but once you’ve learned as much as you can online, you have to get an inside scoop from members of the organization. The impressive Rotman MBA candidate I mentioned at the start of this post did exactly that!

Engaging in meaningful interactions with students, alum, faculty or staff can help you get accepted and help you decide if Rotman is right for you.

networkingYou must decide on a school that will meet your academic and professional needs – plus everything in between.  Hearing personal stories from people at Rotman will give you deeper insights about the student experience.

Professor Walid Hejazi, who teaches International Competitiveness at Rotman, has done research on why some students get better returns on their investment in an MBA degree than others. He identified the ability to effectively network as one of the key factors that contribute to the success of MBA students. Connecting with current students now is a great way to start building your network – especially if you don’t yet have one in Toronto. If you aim to start at Rotman in 2013, then the second year student that you meet today will be a recent graduate with connections in the working world by the time you begin your Rotman MBA.

By revealing what you’ve learned about Rotman by reaching out to members of the Rotman community, you reveal to the admissions committee that you have the ability to network and that you are interested enough to go beyond the information found online.

I concluded the interview by asking the candidate if he had any questions. He said his friend, a first year student, told him that students have to bid for elective courses in the second year. The candidate asked “Can you tell me how the bidding system works and the best strategy for bidding?” Since the Rotman website does not mention the bidding system, his question demonstrated his research and networking skills.

Rotman-Ambassadors

If you do not already know a member of the Rotman community, I encourage you to engage with our current students by reading their Rotman Ambassador profiles and emailing any who appeal to you. You can connect with Rotman Ambassadors by phone, email, Skype or in person. If you’re close enough to visit our campus you can even sit in one one of their classes.

Attending one of our regularly scheduled guest speaker events is a great way to meet current students, alum and members of the business community while exposing yourself to new ideas from a global business leader. If any events interest you, you may attend at no cost by sending us a request via the contact form on this blog. You can also use the contact form to arrange to meet me, or one of my colleagues in the admissions team, before applying.

First year student, Christopher Van de Water learned about Rotman from a co-worker who graduated from here. However, he still reached out to a current student, Robyn Ross, through the Rotman Ambassador program.  He said “It was great to hear from someone straight up – not getting it [information] from the administration or from people who already know you.”  I asked him what he learned and he said that “Robyn was the first person who gave me the heads up that once here, you are exposed to so many different career opportunities and structures.”

By building relationships and staying engaged with the Rotman community you will discover how well you do or don’t fit into the Rotman culture. As an added bonus, you will impress me and the rest of the admissions committee with your insights!

How does the new Career Coach Model work at the Rotman School?

Claire GumusWhen we announced our expansion plan, everyone had a different reaction to the idea. Some were super excited-as much excited as we were- some had many questions. We embraced all reactions and continued our efforts to grow our business school and take it to the next level. We welcomed 313 students this year.  The half of our students came from overseas and the other half came from across Canada: Regardless of their country of residence, they all have one goal in mind: Grow together with us!

As we all know, the MBA is a professional degree; everyone is set to improve their employment prospects post-graduation. When we introduced the expansion plan, one big question everyone; from current students to prospective students had in mind was undoubtedly about the career services. While it was interesting to hear all the comments, I have to say, we were quite surprised because as an internationally renowned business school, we would never think about jeopardizing our rock solid reputation in the business world. However at the same time we are glad to see that people pay very close attention to our initiatives.

In an effort to explain our new career services model, I decided to write this blog post. How does the new [Career Centre] work at Rotman?

Previously known as the ‘Corporate Connections Centre” now called the [Career Centre] has moved to a new model which will enable us to work with our students more closely and provide them with even more personalized career services. We have a growing [business development team]-currently they have 6 members and counting- and their sole purpose is to bring new employers on campus.  At the Rotman School, we would like to be proactive; we actively seek out new venues to meet the needs of our students and the industry. They dedicate all their time and energy to exploring new opportunities globally as we are living in an era that welcomes mobility.

The other team is made up of 7 career coaches who are partnered with our students from the first year until they graduate. The [career coach model] provides us with an opportunity to offer more personalized services. Our student to staff ratio is two times lower than the industry standards. This should be great news for those of you who are researching different business schools!

More changes…Our new curriculum allows us to provide our students to have some dedicated time to spend on their career search. In the first year of the program we have a [Career Discover Week]. They attend employer information sessions to learn more about different kind of opportunities out there. We believe our students need support earlier in the program to ensure they create a targeted internship search for the summer. The summer internship is significant for those who want to change their career and those who come from overseas; great way to get some [local] experience and references!

The career services team also works with the Self-Development Lab but I will be discussing that initiative in a separate blog post. Stay tuned for more updates from the Rotman School.

*We have many more career stories from many different industries.

**Follow our Career Centre on Twitter at @Rotmancareers

Looking for Fall 2013 Class Members!

Afro CruzThere is a sense of excitement at Rotman these days that I have not felt since I began working here 5 years ago.  Maybe it is the new building. Maybe it is the new curriculum.  Maybe it is the new class of students who walked through our doors just a few short weeks ago.  For me personally, the excitement is largely due to my team starting to recruit next year’s class.

Every September, we start out from scratch and begin our journeys all around the world – literally!  We will sit in airports waiting for planes to take off, meet students in hotel lobbies over coffee chats, sit on admissions panels, attend MBA fairs and speak at info sessions all in hopes of recruiting the best and brightest MBA students to Rotman.

Soon, the admissions cycle will take a turn and we will begin to review the applications of the students we have met on the road.  Some essays will make us say “wow we need to have this person at Rotman!” while others will make us think “is this person truly a good fit for our community?” Whatever the case, the applications we receive are a good indication of how good of a job we have done recruiting.

For me, meeting students and seeing them through the application and admissions process is the most rewarding part of my job.  I see what I do as a bridge to connecting students with their dreams and as corny and motherly as that may sound, it is the truth.  School will open many doors for you and the right school will open even more.  I look forward to meeting you on the road this year, to welcoming you to our school as a student and to celebrating your successes as one of our alumni!