Advice from Daniels alumni about job-hunting
While receiving a master’s in business administration is an accomplishment in itself, most students are seeking much more when they come to the Daniels College of Business for their education. They want career advancement, career change or to launch their own business.
Bauer with her PMBA cohort at the Nature Place in 2019
We asked two MBA alumni to share their advice on job-hunting. Allison Bauer graduated from the Professional MBA program in 2020, and is also pursuing a concentration in business analytics. She works for Lockheed Martin Space as an inventory planner and controller. Dustin Hays graduated in 2019 from the Denver MBA program. He works as a chat and messaging product manager II at DISH.
Q: What advice would you have for future MBA students regarding finding a job?
A (Allison): Start as early as possible. I started meeting with the career coaches before I officially started the program. You are only in school for a limited amount of time, so use the student card to your advantage. You can reach out to people at companies for informational interviews. This is good if there is a company you are targeting to work at.
A (Dustin): Have a general idea of your strengths and weaknesses and how you plan to address both. Reach out to professors, fellow students, and others at professional networking events, and be up front with intentions about a possible job or internship.
Q: What did the Career Coaches at Daniels Career Services help you with? Would you recommend working with them?
Dustin Hays
A (Allison): 1000000%. The career coaches can help you prepare. Even if you don’t think you are in the market for a new job, you should still use them because you never know when the next pandemic will hit and you will lose your job. They can help you with your LinkedIn, resume and cover letter, interview prep and so many other things. It takes a bit of time to get things looking perfect so start early! I honestly owe a big part of me getting hired at Lockheed Martin to their help.
A (Dustin): I used the career coaches for resume building. I would work with them in several sessions in order to determine the strengths I wanted to highlight in my resume and how best to explain what I did in previous jobs. They were especially helpful with translating my military experience to more civilian-friendly Information.
Q: What kinds of activities did you participate in at Daniels that helped you land a job?
A (Allison): Daniels has a lot to offer. I always tried to attend the guest lectures and networking events when I could. The College brings in some big name people and it is always really cool to hear their stories. At Daniels, the more you put in the more you will get out of your program, so take advantage of all the speeches and activities where you can network with other current and former students as well as business leaders.
A (Dustin): All of the challenges were beneficial to my development. However, my summer internship with DISH in 2018 and my internship during second year with a local consulting firm were the most crucial to being able to attain a job post-graduation. As an incoming student, start planning, networking with people and reach out to all types of people or places you want to work/work with.