Campus visit, career center

[chendawg]

So during my campus visit, I also have a meeting regarding the career center. Any insight on what sort of questions I should ask to gain the most info out of the career center? Thanks a ton!

[throughmba]

Hi

Ask about what kind of career services are provided by the center?
The kind of companies being contacted and contacting.
Last year's statistical exploration, if any.
What kinds of internship opportunities are available?
Which companies have affiliated the school for job and internship opportunities?
What opportunities for internships or jobs are available for international students?
What are the popular career paths pursued by MBA students?

[Jon@Admissionado]

Good questions!
and also you can see if they can hook you up with an alumni or two in your field. It can be a great way to gauge what your real opportunities might be once you get a degree.

[chendawg]

Thanks a lot for the helpful insight guys!

[money9111]

simply put... what types of things do you want to know? when you made the meeting with the career center what were your intentions?

[chendawg]

They actually determined that for me....I really just wanted to sit in on a class and talk with a student (both of which will be done):). I mean, to me, a career center is one of those things where you actually have to experience it to know if it works. Kinda like taking a pill. Sure, it advertises to do X, but does it actually do it for you? That's just me though, please correct my thinking if I'm wrong.

[itheenigma]

chendawg,
I guess I'm not really convinced about your last point..
I'm sure I can get a "feel" for right fit when I visit, but I'd prefer that my meetings/interactions with the career center be purely data driven and not 'experience' based. Perhaps, you meet a charismatic career counselor on that day while in reality the statistics don't match your first impressions?? Or it could very well be the other way around...

But I think I get what you're implying. If you can allow me to take my specific example, School X with a strength of 100 might advertise that it has a 95% placement rate. However, if the unfortunate 5% are all Indians, and if the school has admitted only 10 Indians into their cohort, then as an Indian, that's cause for me to investigate! I guess this is what you're trying to gauge?
Fair enough...but somehow, I doubt whether you'll get satisfactory answers by talking to the career team. You might get better results by talking about this to current students and alumni...

Just my $0.02

Cheers!

[Jon@Admissionado]

I like your 2 cents!

Of course get all the info you can. But let's not forget that when you approach the Career Center, it's like approaching a bakery salesman and asking them if his cake is yummy.

Speaking to students, especially some who were happy and some who weren't, will likely give you a better idea. If you have any contacts to potential employers, they can give you a good evaluation of what they really think too.

[money9111]

the whole thing about researching business school is to get information right? so if the career center tells you one thing... take that ... internalize it.. and then sure either follow up with more questions and/or ask people who have been through the process what their take on it was. it's a completely fair point and honestly - it SHOULD be done. b-school is all about being able to get a job and the career center is a major component of that being able to happen so it would be beneficial to ask probing questions. clearly questions like "what was the placement rate" are very broad and not that telling... but think of your desires and figure out how YOU would utilize the career center. utilization may be different for different groups of people.

[chendawg]

I'm really glad that they scheduled the meeting with the career center; it was really informative in terms of what they did for students in throughout their time at school. It was definitely something that helped me to understand how different businesses recruit at Owen. I highly recommend anyone that visits a school to drop by the career center and ask how they manage the job search process throughout the duration of school.