Blog Archive How to Prepare for Your Second Year of Business School

Blog Archive How to Prepare for Your Second Year of Business School In this new blog series, our mbaMission  Career Coaches  offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches,  click here. We know that many of you are working hard at your MBA internships right now. And even though full-time recruiting seems far away, depending on your target industry, it can begin soon after you return to campus. Therefore, we suggest that you make time to reflect and start your preparations now by taking the following actions:   Reflect What are you learning in your internship? How are you contributing to your department, company, and/or client? What do you like most/least about your internship? How does your internship help you achieve your career goals? Is there a good fit between you and the role/company? How have you performed at your internship to date? Are there areas for improvement that you can address before your internship ends? Do you plan to recruit for full-time positions with other companies? If so, why? Prepare Start reviewing and updating your resume. Be strategic; focus on relevance over comprehensiveness. Share the new skills you have developed during your internship and the experiences that are relevant to your post-MBA target job. Focus on highlighting your impact even if the project extends beyond your internship. Understand the timing of full-time recruiting for your target industries/companies. Seek guidance from your career office on important resume book and job application deadlines, as well as employer events and recruiting policies. Join relevant student clubs to gain access to employer events and recruiting education resources.   Make a list of five to ten target companies of interest to you. Learn about their full-time hiring needs and processes. Connect with classmates who are interning with your target companies. Ask them about their experiences, and express your interest in learning more about opportunities with their employer. Evaluate your internship recruiting performance. What obstacles did you face, and how can you overcome them during full-time recruiting? What can you do now to make the fall recruiting process better? (Perhaps take the time to do more market research or to practice mock interviews.) Think about your updated career narrative. How will you incorporate your internship into your networking pitch? Write down key experiences and accomplishments from your internship. You will be able to use them as stories during upcoming full-time behavior-based interviews. Have you been admitted to business school? If so, do you want to get a head start on defining your career goals? Do you need help preparing for job interviews or learning how to effectively network with your target employers? Or maybe you want to be a top performer in your current role but are unsure how to maximize your potential. Let an mbaMission Career Coach help via a  free 30-minute consultation! Share ThisTweet Career Advice