How to Use an MBA to Advance Your Career

The biggest piece of advice I give to prospective students who are applying to MBA programs is that the degree itself is only half the battle. If you graduate from business school without really leveraging the school’s network, you are really missing a tremendous opportunity. You should leave the program with not only a great education, but also with a fantastic network of your peers who will be in key leadership positions in the future. The best way to build a network of your fellow students is to get involved in the business school’s professional student organizations that are aligned with your career objectives. UIC Liautaud does a great job of fostering student networking outside of the classroom through professional clubs such as the MBA Association (MBAA), the Graduate Marketing Club (GMARK), the Graduate Finance Club (GFIN), and many others. These clubs are also a great way to reach out to alumni and the business community.

Business school alumni connections have proven time and time again, a key way that students find out about career opportunities. UIC Liautaud Careers Services and Alumni Relations connect our students to alumni by arranging mentoring relationships, making student/alumni professional introductions, alumni mock interview days, professional development events and hosting joint student/alumni networking event that take place throughout the year. Upon graduation, our students are also able to tap into the entire University of Illinois alumni network and association, one of the world’s largest.

Students in the MBA program regardless of their status (Weekend, Part-time, Full-time) have full access to our Career Services. If you have ever sought out a career coach or resume editor, you will quickly discover that the market rate for these types of services is around $300 per hour! As a student, you have full access to career coaching, resume review, review of your LinkedIn profile, assessment tools, mock interviewing, and much more! This is a tremendous value that cannot be underestimated.

The UIC Liautaud Graduate School of Business trains students to be innovative problem solvers. Through courses like Tech Ventures and Innovative Product Development (IPD), the UIC Liautaud MBA takes you out of your comfort zone and connects you with different people and ideas. Business education is one of the best investments you can make in yourself with payoffs that can be seen throughout your career, regardless if you are a career changer, looking for career advancement, or whatever your goals may be.

To learn more about how UIC Liautaud alumni have leveraged their degrees, I encourage you to take the next step and register for our alum panel event next week, Inspired & Transformed: Liautaud Success Stories, an exclusive event where alumni will share their stories of how UIC Liautaud changed their career direction and/or its trajectory. Prospective students are invited to attend this event to see how UIC Liautaud prepares students for a business world marked by continuous change, with academic programs that focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and a multidisciplinary approach. This special panel event will be held at the unique UIC Innovation Center, a collaboration, education and incubation center embedded in the University of Illinois at Chicago.  For more details and to register, click this graphic below or visit: http://go.uic/edu/transform.