increasing visibility and engaging international students in mba career research career services at...
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Increasing Visibility and Engaging International Students in MBA Career Research
Career Services at Chicago Booth
The Career Resource Center (CRC) is a small library embedded
within a large MBA career services department comprised of career
coaches and employer relations staff. The CRC’s purpose is to
support the career research needs of students throughout their
internship and full-time job recruiting.
Chicago Booth Career Services provides ongoing educational
programming, workshops, special events and individual coaching
appointments for full-time MBA students. Students can make an
appointment with either a career coach or the CRC librarian.
Key Facts (as of 9/2013):
Full-Time MBA Enrollment: approximately 1,100
International Students: 36%
Countries Represented: 52
Program Length: 21 months
Average age: 28
Average work experience: 5 years
The CRC houses books, computer stations, a Bloomberg Terminal, periodicals and a study space.
There are generally two categories of international students at
Chicago Booth : (1) those who studied/worked in the U.S. prior to
business school and (2) those who have come to the United States
specifically for business school.
From a career services perspective, international students often face
additional challenges.
Common challenges for international students include:
•Acclimating to a competitive recruiting process
•Learning American-style networking
•Finding people with similar backgrounds to network with
•Finding companies that sponsor international students
•Navigating work authorization issues
The CRC supports students to face these challenges, specifically
with finding companies and people to network with.
Based on research appointments with international students at the
end of the Spring Quarter, 2013, I learned that many students were
not aware of the library resources that could help in their career
research, and that the CRC could increase support for international
students.
For the 2013-14 school year, the Career Resource Center took
specific steps to meet the challenges international MBA students
face, including the following:
1. Make the website easier to navigate: Information for
international students was previously grouped together with
information for U.S. students who wanted to work abroad.
Webpages were changed for a clearer presentation.
2. Create a Guide - then market it: The CRC created a resource
guide for international students that included screenshots of the
databases along with when and how to use them [see figure 2]. The
guide was printed for take-away handouts in the CRC and also
uploaded to our website.
3. Talk to Staff: I presented the above guide to the Employer
Relations staff, a division of Career Services. This helped increase
awareness of our resources among staff, who could also
communicate with international students.
4. Work with Staff: Throughout the year, I increased my attendance
at international student programs and often volunteered assistance
at events. This was helpful to:
•Become familiar with international student needs outside of the
library
•Get to know international students and build relationships
•Get to know staff who work with international students outside of
Career Services
•Generate invitations to additional eventsCRC Librarian Hana Field presenting a workshop on library resources for international students.
Challenges for MBA International Students
Figure 1: The CRC
Figure 2: Create A Guide
Figure 3: Create Programming
Action Action, Continued5. Create Programming: While library programs are usually
based on industry and functions, there was an opportunity to
create a program for job-seeking international students. A series
of workshops designed to help all students create a target list and
find contacts are held for those seeking positions in Corporate
Roles, Private Equity/Venture Capital, Investment
Management/Hedge Funds, Social Impact and Start-Ups.
This year, the CRC created a workshop specifically for
international students– regardless of industry or function—and it
was the best attended out of all six workshops.
Feedback from staff and students on the program showed:
• Live demonstration of databases was helpful
•Students learned at least one new resource
•Students benefited from meeting other job-seeking international
students
•Students liked having a forum to ask questions
•Having a career coach in attendance to answer questions was
helpful
The above actions will continue in the 2014-15 school year and
will continue to be improved upon to meet international students’
needs.
Suggestions From SLA
Hana S. Field
Assistant Director, Career Resource Center, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
The resource guide uses screenshots, arrows and context as to when and how to use a specific resource.
What are you doing at your school? What would you like to do?Contact Information:Hana S. Field
Librarian, Career Resource Center
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business