BUILDING WITH THE END IN MIND

LANDING THAT DREAM JOB TAKES FORESIGHT AND PLANNING — EVEN WITH AN ADVANCED BUSINESS DEGREE. A CENTRALIZED CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTER THE LENGTH OF A FOOTBALL FIELD CAN’T HURT.

When it comes to connecting graduate business students with fulfilling careers, Notre Dame continues to elevate its game.

The Mendoza Graduate Business Career Services team relocated in January 2018 to the new Duncan Student Center, a soaring nine-level facility on the west side of Notre Dame Stadium. Part of the Campus Crossroads Project — the largest construction initiative in Notre Dame history — Duncan was designed to enhance the overall student experience with study, meeting and recreation space at the heart of campus.

It also presented a unique opportunity to centralize Notre Dame’s undergraduate, graduate and business school career discernment and professional development services under one roof. Duncan’s fifth floor, which runs roughly the length of the football field below, is dedicated to helping Domers prepare to enter the workaday world.

At 25,000 square feet, Notre Dame’s Center for Career Development is among the largest higher education career services centers in the country. With its glass-walled recruiter lounge, a sleek, light-filled thoroughfare that connects the north and south suites (and doubles as additional study space), and more than 45 interview and private meeting rooms, the new facility streamlines and enhances the experience for corporate recruiters and students.

“It underscores the commitment that the University has to career development as part of the total academic experience,” says John Rooney, director of Mendoza Graduate Business Career Services.

CAREER LEADERSHIP COURSE
Quick, what’s your unique value proposition to the job market?

If you took Mendoza Graduate Business Career Services’ signature course, you’d have your pitch down cold — with your core strengths mapped to industry needs — and with a networking strategy.

What is it?

MBA candidates kick off their program with this required 8-week course, which meets twice a week. (Other Mendoza graduate business programs have the same curriculum delivered in slightly different formats.)

What’s different about Mendoza’s approach?
The Career Leadership Course starts with a data-driven look at the MBA hiring marketplace. Students get an eyes-wide-open breakdown of the career paths currently available to MBAs so they understand exactly what the job outlook is and can plan accordingly.

Industry deep dives with alumni practitioners give students a better sense of what it’s like to work in specific areas of finance, marketing, consulting and management. Only when they understand the job market do students turn their attention inward to their strengths, skills and goals.

The career services team creates “industry smart sheets” and student journeys with month-by-month lists of what students need to do to land the job they want. They also help students analyze and decode stories from the students’ own lives to better understand and articulate their personal strengths, which are mapped to job descriptions in the MBA marketplace.

Once students have a firm grasp of the job market and their core strengths, they develop their brand: creating high-impact branding documents (think résumé, LinkedIn presence, online profiles, etc.) and a marketing strategy for their job search (think perfecting their personal pitch, networking and interview skills).

“It creates a great foundation for the students to think about their career development,” says John Rooney, director of Mendoza Graduate Business Career Services. “It takes them through three kinds of main pillars: Understanding the market, understanding themselves, and then communicating the value that they have for the market.”

ONE-ON-ONE COACHING

A team of function-specific career coaches with industry experience help graduate business students refine the plans that emerge from the Career Leadership Course. These coaching appointments are used for everything from résumé and cover letter reviews and mock interviews, to fine-tuning a job search strategy. Mendoza also offers a peer coaching program that pairs first- and second-year candidates together.

THE SPACE

The Center for Career Development offers six types of interview rooms; a 1,900-square-foot training room for workshops, employer informational sessions and receptions; and an employer lounge with a private kitchen.

21 traditional interview rooms with seating for 3
4 traditional interview rooms with seating for 4
8 video conference-capable rooms
3 lounge-style interview rooms with seating for up to 6
4 conference rooms with seating for 6
7 conference rooms with seating for 8 to 16

2018 TOP 12 EMPLOYER PARTNERS

These companies collectively hired 154 students from Notre Dame’s MBA, MSA and MSM programs:
EY
Deloitte
PwC
Bank of America
Amazon
Booz Allen Hamilton
Emerson
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Corning Inc.
ExxonMobil
KPMG

HIGHLIGHTS
$133,882: 2018 average MBA salary plus bonus
100%: Class of 2019 internship placement
91%: Class of 2018 MBA job offers within 3 months of graduation