BUSINESS BECAUSE 5 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL MBA CAREER


PLANNING MBA Career Tips From Lorraine Lucas, Business Engagement and Careers Manager, Bradford University School of Management.


Lorraine Lucas is Business Engagement Manager – Careers, Alumni & External Relations at Bradford University School of Management. She supports MBA students in career planning before, during and after their studies. Step 1: Start your career planning before starting your MBA


It is never too early to start planning your post-MBA career. Many MBA students make the mistake of concentrating exclusively on their studies and not on thinking ahead about their long term goals. This means that when they graduate, they have no strategy in place to inform their next career move – which delays the benefits of doing an MBA.


Before starting your MBA, fully assess your current skills, expertise


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and personal qualities. Ask yourself where you want to be in three, five and ten years’ time. What does the job/employer look like? What contacts do you already have that will help get you there? What gaps are there in your expertise and professional network? What barriers are there to you achieving your goals?


Julian Bartholet, Strategic Business Development Sales Manager at Bunzl Greenham Ltd, graduated from Bradford’s Executive part- time MBA in 2010. He says: “I had a clear plan from the beginning of my MBA that I wanted to use my sales expertise to make the journey from middle management into the boardroom. This meant both getting an understanding of wider business functions through my studies and developing the personal and professional skills to talk confidently at board level and influence the strategy of an organisation. By the end of the first year, I had already dramatically changed as a professional in my existing role and by the time I graduated I had the confidence to go out and target


senior roles at the companies I wanted to work for.”


Step 2: Make the most of the careers advice, resources and events on offer at your business school


Once you have defined your goals, work with the careers service at your business school to set out a clear strategy for achieving them in the short, medium and long term. Also use your PDP (personal development) modules to focus on the specific skills you need to achieve your career goals in your discipline/sector taking into account your personal circumstances. It is up to you to shape your MBA experience to deliver the best results for you.


Your business school careers service will also give you regular ‘extra curricular’ opportunities to interact with practitioners. Whenever you can, make sure you attend guest lectures, panel discussions, careers fairs and networking events – and use them as an opportunity to make contacts and gain new insights.


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