When 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