Most people decide to do an MBA to advance further in their careers, change industries, increase their earning potential, or just learn for learning. But in the midst of all the hustle-bustle of Q1 of your MBA, and expanding your knowledge base, it is easy to overlook the career reasons for doing your MBA, which is why the Career Discovery Week was such a great event. Hosted by Rotman's Corporate Connections Centre (CCC), the Career Discovery Week (CDW) was held just after the end of Q1, before we got into the madness known as Q2. Over the course of the four-day event, the CCC covered sessions on Career Blueprinting, Designing Your Core Message, and Art of Connecting, to develop your blueprint for your professional future, and present it in recruitment situations. We also met in our Career Teams with our Career Advisors (most students already had a few meetings), to go over the game plan for the next two years, and fine-tune our documents at the Résumé & Cover Letter Advisory Clinic. One great highlight of the CDW were the Alumni & Student Panels, where Rotmanites in different industries and different hierarchical levels, provided honest insights into their industries, including Strategic Management, Internal Strategy, Corporate Finance, Finance (Sell/Buy Side), Operations, Technology, Human Resources, and Sales & Marketing. The CDW also provided ample opportunities to network with our Upper-Years, as well as the visiting Alumni. One insightful part of the CDW were the sessions on "Self-Management: Developing a Leader's Instincts" which covered building self-leadership by using different psychological techniques for personality realignment, and honing our leadership instincts.
A big shout-out to the CCC and the super-helpful Career Advisors, for their patience with our career confusion, helping us develop a road map for the summer internships in 2012, and holding the Career Discovery Week, to remind us that while it is okay to get caught up in all the craziness of classes, it is also important to take a step back, and also spend some time on the career side of our MBA.