Over the past few weeks, Darden Admissions has hosted several webinars focused on different aspects of the Executive MBA student experience. Below, please find a summary of our recent sessions and plan to join us for more upcoming webinars. Topics include an Executive MBA overview, applicant tips, tips for career climbers, a conversation with program alumni and more.
Recap: 3 Key Tips for Career Switchers
Last week, Director of Career Education and Advising Kellogg Leliveld shared tips for candidates interested in changing function or industry (or what we in our Executive MBA Program term “switchers”).
During the hour-long session, Leliveld encouraged attendees to think about both the “why” and the “what” of switching. She also stressed the importance of three key aspects of any career transition:
- Knowing your “why”: What do you want, what is success?
- Leveraging your career capital: What can you offer the world, what is your value proposition?
- Owning your plan: What are your goals, what is your timeline?
Networking also plays an important role in any successful transition, and as Career Coach Jim Collins shared in his recent World Class Resumes webinar, it is imperative for candidates to get “known” beyond their resume.
If you are exploring a few different paths, informational networking is also a way of “prototyping” various careers. For more ideas about how to apply design thinking principles, like prototyping, to your life and career, be sure to watch Career Coach Sarita Soldz’s Life Design webinar from February.
Join us for the next installment in our ongoing career-related webinar series, 3 Key Tips for Climbers on 2 June, and catch up on all of our recent career-related sessions.
Recap: Learning Teams, Review Sessions and More
Members of the Executive MBA Class of 2021 recently joined a conversation about the ways in which they work together to manage the work of the program.
All Executive MBA students are assigned to a Learning Team at the beginning of the program. These teams consist of 5-6 members, and we consider a number of different factors when forming these groups — work experience, educational background and more.
Our goal is to create a microcosm of the broader class within these groups, but we also try to combine students with complementary skill sets so that all students have an immediate resource to help them navigate the program’s curriculum, which includes both quantitative and qualitative courses.
In addition, students who are particularly strong in the program’s quantitative disciplines will often lead review sessions for their classmates. Popular topics include accounting, finance and decision analysis.
Learning Team interactions factor into how the Admissions Committee evaluates applicants. When reading your application, we are thinking about not only the perspective you will bring to the classroom, but the kind of teammate you will be. Are you interested in learning from others? Are you willing to share your knowledge and expertise with your classmates? Are you motivated to help people who may be struggling with a particular topic or concept?
These are all important considerations for us as we shape the class, and as we’ve said before, the learning process at Darden is very much a team sport.
Check out faculty thought leadership published on Ideas to Action. And stay connected with us via social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, WeChat
