Occupation Preparation
Graduate students in the Sawyer Business School have access to a host of career development opportunities outside the classroom throughout the academic year. These offerings complement what students are learning in their graduate degree programs and give them the additional skills employers are looking for.
“We strive to give graduate students in all our programs access to a range of workshops and events,” says Heather Hewitt, assistant dean of graduate programs at the Sawyer Business School. “A strong pedagogy and classroom experience are just the first step in preparing them for their careers. We also want them to learn everything from ‘soft skills’ to how to write a resume to the how to use Excel.”
Many of these free events are part of the SBS EDGE Graduate Student Workshop Series. Workshops feature instruction on how to write a killer resume, ways to improve interview negotiation skills, technical skills for tools such as Excel, Tableau, and Bloomberg Terminal, and how to be a great networker. There are also program-specific job-recruiting events, like the Meet the Firms night for Accounting students.
Other offerings during fall 2019 included:
- In a presentation to students and faculty, Denise Karkos, CMO of SiriusXM, talked about her career journey and the deliberate choices she made to get where she is today: chief marketing officer of the world’s largest audio entertainment company. “Hearing from and talking to industry leaders and influencers like Denise is incredibly valuable for our students,” says Hewitt. “It sparks the idea that, ‘Wow that could be me in a few years, and here’s how I can accomplish it.’”
- Peter Bagley, MBA ’88, was the featured speaker at a November “Lunch with a Leader” event sponsored by the Suffolk University Graduate Business Association. A former Fortune 500 executive, the founder of four start-ups, and a coach for “Shark Tank” teams, Bagley shared his thoughts on how to start and sustain a successful career. “Action trumps everything,” he told students. “You have to keep going.”
- A presentation skills workshop taught students how to be more confident communicators. Charlotte Dietz, founder of SpeakWell Partners and a communications consultant to global organizations and C-suite leaders, presented techniques to conquer nerves, explained how to feel more comfortable when presenting in a non-native language, and demonstrated why the power of the pause is so important. Students received one-to-one coaching, practiced these skills, and built their confidence in this intensive workshop. As one student said in a review, “This was an excellent course. A valuable workshop to develop my interpersonal skills.”
“For students, these skills are just as important as what they’re learning in the class or with an internship,” says Hewitt. “Our goal is to graduate not only content experts but confident, highly successful contributors to the business community.”
SBS EDGE workshops and other career prep events occur throughout the year and are open to all Business School graduate students. Learn more.
Contact
Greg Gatlin
Office of Public Affairs
617-573-8428
Ben Hall
Office of Public Affairs
617-573-8092