Richard Pinnock.com

Schulich School of Business Career Development Centre

• Communication, especially verbal (including grammar)
  
• Leadership
  
• Lack “impact and influence”
  
• Lack “gravitational pull”
  
• Interviewing skills:
  
• Lack creativity
  
• Programmed responses
  
• Suggest companies use better interview questions (less generic), corporate presence at Career Fridays, informational interviews
  
• Companies should consider changing questions to address diversity of  interviewees and sometime a lack of Canadian Experience
  
• Case interviews – poor methodologies used
  
• Trouble with problem identification & poor analytics
  
• Entitlement mentality
  
• Lack of willingness to ‘pay your dues’
  
• Less of a talent pool to chose from
  
• Few people with combination of IT and Business skills & interests (for consultancies with technology-oriented practices)
  
• Lack of Project Management skills
  
• Lack of enthusiasm and vigor when apply and go through the hiring process
  
• Candidates were not assertive when asking questions
  
• From a consumer brand marketing recruiter: “ the MBA program is bringing (in) very experienced international candidates…this pool simply isn’t a good fit for marketing – from a salary perspective and from the opportunity to keep these folks engaged…Our ideal MBA would have 2-3 years of marketing experience”.

• Business communications!!!
  
• Interviews – tell a compelling story
  
• Written and verbal
  
• à Recruiters can support, video-capture
  
• Clubs should integrate better with employers
  
• Assessment for communication skills
  
• Followed by targeted training on communication skills
  
• Grammar/spelling training
  
• Look great “on paper” but not as good at the interview
  
• Admissions screening for communications
  
• Need to be able to function in the Canadian workforce
  
• Employers should better leverage diversity/language-skills
  
• READ THE NEWSPAPER:
  
• Focus on school work tends to supersede knowledge of current world/business events
  
• Students need to apply learning/theory to real world scenarios
  
• Interviews often take place before students have studied the relevant topics
  
• Provide more leadership opportunities to graduates, along with co-op placements
  

• READ NEWSPAPER
  
• Go to CDC at START of MBA/BBA to…
  
• Review resume
  
• Interview(show more energy and enthusiasm)
  
• Learn about companies
  
• Do your homework, come prepared:
  
• Website
  
• Factiva etc.
  
• Encourage students to “break down the walls” and make direct contact with companies, i.e.  recruiters, managers
  
• BUILD RELATIONSHIPS with recruiters:
  
• Attend conferences
  
• Attend seminars
  
• Attend breakfasts
  
• Companies can tell through interviews who has made the effort and it often goes a long way towards selection
  
• Take advantage of summer internship opportunities
  

• Summer “business” jobs, Even more important for BBAs than MBAs
  
• Get involved
  
• Volunteer (i.e. student hosts at CDC)
  
• Boards of not for profit organizations
  
• Start a business (entrepreneurship)
  
• Customer exposure
  
• Even retail experience is good (BBA level)
  
• BUT need to be able to “articulate the learning” and “articulate the transferable skills” from these experiences
  
• Be able to demonstrate transferable skills
  
• What did you do with what you did?
  
• Show “potential”
  
• Change “I don’t have experience” mentality to demonstrate potential
  
• Need to get experience even if no internships:
  
• Community involvement
  
• Volunteer activities
  
• Mentorship (use alumni, especially newer alumni)
  
• Recruiters can help identify mentors
  
• Queens University does a “Career Launch” program at beginning of school year where employers can see students in action that we may want to consider
  
• Students listen to employers over CDC, therefore involve employers in workshops
  
• Associations/Clubs:
  
• Looking for LEADERSHIP within associations
  
• Demonstrate marketing/sales skills by organizing conferences and inviting employers
  
• Leadership experience vs. Leadership qualities
  
• ARTICULATE what you got out of your experiences
  
• Preparation and understanding of the expectations of the job
  

• MANDATORY courses on Career Management
• MANDATORY student attendance at workshops
  
• With a Pass/Fail grade on workshops
  
• Help pre-screen candidates
  
• The issue is then culture fit
  
• Some companies had too many and others had too few candidates at Info Sessions (mostly too few)
  
• CDC to give solutions to employers, consult with us more
  
• Do more in the Winter Term
  
• E.g. Fall is only for ‘graduating students’ and Winter is only for ‘non-graduating students’ (internship positions)
  
• CDC to have preliminary meeting to understand company needs which will help the company better select candidates
  
• CDC to screen resumes before they are sent out to client
  
• Ease up on behavioural interview clinics, candidates were too rehearsed
  
• CDC to educate BBA students on what a career in Consumer Business Development (Sales) vs. Marketing (Brand Management)

• Targeted student calls where CDC helps employers identify candidates
  
• Keep recruiters involved YEAR ROUND, annual recruiting
  
• Have industry reps speak in classes
  
• Provide relevant student club contacts
  
• CDC should better know their students (difficult with such large classes)
  
• Focus groups with employers and students
  
• Ask the students what they want to know about companies
  

• Employers LOOK at and CARE about grades and transcripts
• Grades demonstrate ability to learn
  
• General appreciation was shown for putting together an event that involved the Dean, Program Directors, the Career Development Centre and some of Canada’s top employers
  
• It was emphasized that feedback on questions 1-4 was not just Schulich specific but were indicative of behavior and/or qualities found at all of the top Canadian Business schools.