MBA students should take advantage of instrumental Goizueta alumni network
2017 Ponce City Market Alumni Event
What comes to mind when you think about what you get from business school? The degree itself? The educational experience? The great people you meet, the amazing professors you learn from or the careers you start? All the above, and then some!
The alumni network is an invaluable tool when navigating through business school at Emory. What better way to enhance our understandings of going through business school and finding a job than learning from those who have already been through the experience? Goizueta has given me the opportunity to interact with alumni on many occasions, providing insights and advice for how to make the most of my time at Emory and achieve my career goals.
Of course, one of the advantages of Goizueta’s strong alumni network is gaining introductions to connect with our target companies. It all starts with reaching out to alums to get a foot in the door. Company presentations, coffee chats and office hours are great opportunities not only to learn about different companies, but also gain valuable advice to land interviews and perform well in those interviews. Company presentations begin early in the fall, and from these, we get an overview of a variety of opportunities with different firms. The chance to learn more about different companies in this format is extremely valuable in helping us decide how the next steps in our careers will look. From there, our interactions with alumni include other events, like speaking with alums in the Georgia Aquarium during Goizueta Career Connections. By this time, we’ve been able to make some initial connections and can start setting up our own informal conversations with individual alumni, commonly referred to as “coffee chats.” By the time we speak with our interviewers, we’ve already built a rapport and feel well-informed about company culture and values and comfortable in our conversations.
Two things (among many others) I especially appreciate about working Goizueta’s alumni network is the actual level of interaction we can have, and the flexibility of questions we can ask. Because Goizueta is a smaller program by design, the alumni network is more closely knit. It’s been clear to me that alumni are willing to spend extra time in helping coach and getting to know us. It’s so valuable to be able to build a quick sense of camaraderie and comfortableness with meeting new alums.
With a lot of us making big changes to our career paths and sometimes completely switching industries, we might feel painfully conscious that some of the initial things we say are “dumb questions.” During this time, I’ve been particularly grateful for how comfortable our alumni make us feel. They have been in our shoes before and genuinely want to help us out. Some alums include our former classmates from the previous year, and when we feel unsure about something, we can feel confident that young alums can help us out.
I truly value the interactions I have with the alumni of Goizueta Business School. Their help has contributed greatly to my experience at school, and I hope to pay it forward once I become an alum.
