A full day of every week of the London school’s MBA program is dedicated solely to careers, something its students value highly.
Cass also offers a range of personal development experiences and consultancy trips. Experiences in Chile, Vietnam, Iceland and even the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst are just some of those on offer.
As head of professional development at Cass, Jenny Portalska is accountable for the careers development curriculum for around 2000 Cass MBAs and specialist Master's students.
She speaks on the kinds of experiences and training Cass MBAs can expect from the program, as well as the future of careers services in the Internet age.
What sort of careers experience does Cass provide?
Providing a holistic and integrated careers experience is paramount to us at Cass, and the design of our team along with how we work with students contributes to the service we provide.
We often meet students before they join Cass, work with them throughout their MBA, and continue working with them long after they graduate. We collaborate very closely with the program and faculty teams as well as other professional services teams.
Finally, our careers curriculum is embedded into the programme, with a full day of every week dedicated to careers on the full-time MBA. Professional development is also a credit-bearing aspect on our Executive programs.
Do you find many of your students are looking to change careers?
We find that our students are mostly looking for career transformation, global opportunities, and job enrichment.
Engaging with the Cass MBA enables them to explore multiple opportunities and expand their thinking into potential careers in other roles and industries.
What kind of a role does experiential learning play in career services?
Experiential Learning is highly-valued at Cass, and it’s closely-integrated into the core of the MBA program. Our students have to practically apply their knowledge throughout the degree.
Our FT MBAs undertake a six-month strategy project where they work with organisations to address real strategic issues, and all MBA students also take on consultancy projects with organisations in Chile, Iceland or Vietnam.
We find that providing experiential, transformational experiences like these really deepens the analytical, problem solving and consulting abilities of our students. In Iceland, our students have had the opportunity to climb Eyjafjallajökull, the island’s most infamous volcano.
Our careers team also provide our full-time MBAs with a unique experiential learning event, held off campus at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where we are the only business school to deliver a program.
At Sandhurst, our MBAs explore leadership styles, learn how to create followership, examine examples of effective team communication and develop deeper insights into mental fortitude and resilience.
What fields do Cass MBA graduates tend to find employment in?
Though financial services and consulting remain popular career paths, our more recent cohorts reflect the growing global trend of MBAs finding work in tech firms, healthcare and entrepreneurship.
As Cass is a business school in the City of London, students find themselves in a hub for well-established financial institutions, international corporates, leading technology firms and start-ups, along with the creative industries found in Clerkenwell and Shoreditch.
Students often arrive with a clear vision of their post-MBA career, although their interests change throughout the course due to their exposure to such a variety of industries, inspiring business leaders, and practices. We continually cultivate new relationships in diverse industries to support this active exploration.
We also work closely with our head of entrepreneurship to build connections and opportunities for MBA students who have a desire to set up their own organisations.
What’s the most interesting avenue of work a student of yours has pursued recently?
The working landscape in London is so diverse and enriching that our students inevitably explore multiple industries and career paths.
Recently, one of our students very successfully built a portfolio career, by working part-time with a leading investment firm whilst also developing their own business in the health and fitness market.
As MBA programs continue to move online, do you foresee online careers services becoming more commonplace?
People are used to managing their lives online, from banking and shopping to booking a holiday. Cass students expect to be able to do the same with our career services, and to access our resources 24/7. This is particularly important for our part-time and Dubai-based EMBA programs, who are on-campus less frequently.
We offer a range of subscription-based resources and eLearning modules to enable students to become more effective in their job search and professional development. We’re also kept up-to-date with new career resources and trends in the marketplace.
For example, employers are increasingly using video interviewing to screen candidates, so we ensure that we offer this resource for our students to be able to practise. Webinars are also an important tool and we have offered these, sometimes through providers such as FirstHand.
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