Welcome Class of 2019! We look forward to meeting you during the month of August. While most of your career preparation will begin in your foundations term, there is much you can do to get ahead before your arrive at Rotman. Most of the reading and exercises contained through the Career Section of the Pre-Insider, are optional, however we highly recommend that you take the time now to dive further into career exploration and self-assessment to put you in the right frame of mind.  It is more difficult to find the time and head space to do these types of exercises once your academic term begins. These exercises will help you not only in your initial career coaching sessions but they will serve as important career management tools throughout your time at Rotman and beyond. Click here to learn more. Simply enter your name and any email address to access the recording.

Resume 1^st Draft Deadline: Before your first meeting with your Career Coach or by Orientation, whichever comes first.

Your Career Checklist:

• Complete 1^st Draft of Rotman Resume before your first meeting with your career coach OR by Orientation whichever comes first
• Attend one of the Resume Review Sessions in Pre-Program during the month of August. If spots are full, stay tuned for more in the Fall. Sign-ups start in July through RWorld

If you have not heard from the Career Centre by August 1^st, please email mbacareers@rotman.utoronto.ca

Looking to validate your current career interests or explore new roles and industries? This section will provide you with resources to help you narrow your career focus, determine your “fit” for these roles, identify any requirement “gaps” (i.e. key skill sets, designations, experiences which you do not currently have) and get you thinking about an action plan to bridge these.

Both the Industry and Function sheets (PDFs) below are meant to provide you with a “bite-sized” view of the industry and the field, along with additional resources for you to consider in exploring them at a deeper level. MBA students are expected to become a ‘student’ of their industry and function, and these sheets will help you in that preparation.

Industry
http://rotmanccresources.com/uploads/prep/career-path-industry.pdf

Function
http://rotmanccresources.com/uploads/prep/career-path-function.pdf

1. The Wheel: Rate your confidence level on each quadrant to help set your priorities with your Career Coach on what to focus on in your 1:1 coaching sessions.
2. Identify My Preference  It’s important to consider the type of work environment that suits you best. We often know what we don’t like, but consider what you do like – where you feel and work at your best.

3. Career Leader
   If you have not settled on a career path, or you have, and you wish to go deeper in understanding your motivators, interest and the organizational culture that is going to be the best fit for your career, then take the time to complete a Career Leader Assessment. You can choose to book some time with your Career Coach once you arrive at Rotman to further explore how you can use Career Leader as a tool in navigating your search and zeroing in on what is most important to you.

Part I: Your Interests
We strongly believe that your interests, not skills, should be the foundation of your career. All too often, we see people make poor career choices for lots of reasons:

• Yielding to family or societal pressure
• Trying to “harvest” their career too early, before gaining the needed experience and savvy
• Being seduced by money or status

Part II: Connecting Your Motivators and Skills with Your Interests
We also believe that it is the combination of your interests, motivators, and skills that is the “hidden key” often overlooked in setting your career course. Your motivators (financial gain, security, etc.) and your skills (communication, quantitative analysis, etc.) are very important as modifying influences to your interests. But, it is your unique profile of all three factors that should drive how you approach your career in business.

Part III: Navigating Organizational Culture and Avoiding Career Breakdowns
Overlooked by many, several aspects of career satisfaction have more to do with your employer’s organizational culture than with the industry or functional role you have. The work culture may be critical in determining which company or business unit is best for you, even though it was all three factors (your interests, motivators, and skills) which led your search to that industry or functional role in the first place. Lastly, we all have personality features that can be strengths, or weaknesses, depending on the circumstances. At times, the “right” feature in the “wrong” situation could lead to a major breakdown in your career’s forward progress. Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, and knowing when and where to utilize them, is essential for avoiding obstacles in your career progression.

If this is your first Career Leader account, please follow the instructions below:

1. Visit https://www.careerleader.com/sign-in.html and follow the onscreen prompts to the NEW USER section of the page.
2. Enter your Rotman email address.
3. Enter your registration key: rotman-height (the hyphen is required).
4. Once you have successfully logged in and registered your account, you will be brought to your user dashboard. There, you will be able to click on TAKE THE TEST for each of the three inventories (INTERESTS, MOTIVATORS, SKILLS).

Your personalized results are in each of the six sections on the dashboard (for which there are buttons to click). Your printable personalized CareerLeader Report is available within the Toolbox section of the user dashboard.

Students with an existing Career Leader account (some of you may have used Career Leader at another school) are to log in as RETURNING USER with the email and password attached to your original account.

Deadline: Optional, but highly recommended

Your Rotman Resume is an important step in marketing your MBA profile to employers. The Career Centre publishes class resume books and targeted books to help market our students. If you are interested in including your resume in the class resume book, this is the 1^st step in that direction.

For your DRAFT Resume:

• Start with watching the videos and downloading the tools, and the Rotman 1-page template. The goal of this activity is for you to prepare a current resume in the 1-page Rotman format for the Class of 2019 Resume Book. Please note that you are required to submit your resume in this format for your first Coach Meeting and for the Rotman Resume Book.
• Rotman’s 1-page format is the template preferred by many MBA recruiters. However it is not the only version of your resume that you will use for application purposes. You can seek further guidance from your Career Coach on which resume to use for different applications.
• Once you have completed a draft in this format, please use the following link: https://www.vmock.com/rotman and upload this 1-page version of your resume into VMock for another level of screening. Your goal is to get your resume to a score of 70%+ with VMock before your first meeting with your Career Coach or Orientation (Aug 24), whichever comes first.
• Email a soft copy in WORD format to your Career Coach in advance of your first meeting.

VMock Signup Instructions:
After you have developed a draft of your Rotman Resume, please use the VMock system to make further adjustments to your document to achieve 70%+.

• Go to https://vmock.com/rotman
• Enter your Rotman email address and hit ‘Complete registration’
• Set your password and click on ‘Sign Up’ button to proceed
• You will then be asked to confirm your email-ID
• Verify your email address by click on the ‘Verify Account’ button in the email received in your mailbox
• Upload your resume and start using the system
• You will need to toggle between the system feedback on VMock and your document to make the recommended changes
• Once you have made the changes and achieved a score of 70% or higher, please send this version to your Career Coach in a WORD format in advance of your meeting.

Your Resume Resources:

*Click here Rotman-Resume-Template with instructions (1) for Rotman Resume template to download – Please note that we have included helpful textboxes and other formatting directions throughout the document. You will need to delete these and the other instructions when formatting it to your specific profile. It is helpful to toggle between this version and your saved document when pulling together your draft Rotman Resume. Your resume upload to VMock will be unsuccessful if you include these textboxes and directions e.g., “ARIAL ALL CAPS size 10”, in the document.
Click here for the Resume Tips sheet
Click here for the Action Verb Thesaurus
Click here for the Resume Checklist
Click here for VMock instructional video

Recommended Videos For Resume Inspiration

• *Your Rotman 1 page Resume – start here!
• Resume Tips to Spotlight Your Value
• Building Strong Accomplishment Statements
• How to Showcase Your MBA in Your Resume

Register on RWorld for a Resume Review Workshop during the August Pre-Program  – review the Pre-Program Overview & Descriptions document on RWorld for more details!

Deadline: By Orientation (Aug 24) or your first meeting with your Career Coach, whichever comes first.