The Career Advising Team

The Career Advising team provides one-on-one advice to students from the very beginning of the program.

Executive Director of Career Management

The executive director, Amber Wigmore Álvarez, oversees three key areas: career advising, recruiter relations and career education. Her responsibility includes designing the career classes that Career Management Center does for each program which focus on CVs, cover letters, salary negotiation, mock interviews, personal branding and how to get on the radar of a head hunter.  She oversees three key directors who are responsible for those main areas.

The International Side of the Career Management Center

One of IE’s major competitive advantages is its international network of  24 offices around the world. Although their main mission is to help with admissions for IE programs, because of their local market knowledge and relations with our alumni in those regions, they almost act as a back office for the Career Management Centre. Of all the offices, six are a lot more geared towards Career Services, one of which is the office in India. The other offices which have a strong career management focus are the ones in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Dubai and Singapore, which also covers Hong Kong and Taiwan.

All IE offices have a listing of all our careers collaborators and providers on the IE careers portal. This includes an excellent resource called Going Global. In this, there are a series of country career guides. Each of these guides includes visa information, CV tips, and cover letter tips, interviewing tips, a list of the top online job sites and a list of the executive search firms in those countries. In addition, the economies and the labor market are taken into account. Students are also guided to other markets where Career Management Services foresees that there could be opportunities.

Career Services in India

Bhushan Vishwasrao has recently been appointed as Careers Director of the India office, and the India office is the first office of the 24 to have a Careers Director. He is generating recruitment opportunities and centralizing them through the IE job bank. And there is a special monthly bulletin he sends to IE alumni residing in India where he is making sure that they are aware of all the initiatives in Careers and if they have any recruiting needs, they let him know. Mr. Vishwasrao makes sure he has all their information by reaching out to them. He is also doing a lot of outreach to HR associations, executive search firms, etc.

A heavy component in Mr. Vishwasrao’s day is recruiter relations and business development – going after companies and making them aware of IE and pitch the talent of all the different programs and profiles IE has, starting with the IE University fresh graduates to pre-experienced Masters in Management to our full-time MBA students and finally our executive programs. He also takes into account where Indian alumni would like to work.

Nevertheless, this is not a placement agency. Mr. Vishwasrao is generating opportunities that we are posting in our job bank. He is informing the Indian alumni about that to encourage them to apply to these opportunities. At the same time, he’s been through Careers Training like CV writing, cover letter writing, etc. When alumni approach him and are looking for more local market expertise when it comes to their career portfolio documentation, he’s prepared for that as well. Mr. Vishwasrao would also go to industry events such as a finance conference, an HR conference and really get the word out there about IE’s presence in India.

In a recent interview, Amber Wigmore Álvarez, IE’s director of the Career Management Center spoke about the future of international recruiting and hiring. She said, “At our career fair on campus, 128 companies came last year. It was an incredible volume from around the world with 42% of the opportunities from outside of Spain. But there’s a lot of news in the press these days about the ‘career fair being dead’, because business schools are finding it more and more challenging to get companies to physically visit the campus in a world of virtual recruiting. So we are now investing in a platform to do webcasts.

When we go out and meet recruiters from around the world, instead of trying to get them to come on campus at one specific time, now we’re able to do a recruiting event with them in a much more flexible format. Just a week ago, a colleague and I were in Hong Kong for a recruiting conference. We did a finance trip with students where we visited banks and finance firms in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai. For financial firms, it is difficult to come on campus during one particular week in October. So now we’re going to do a webcast with them so they can launch a Graduate Management Trainee programme or an internship programme from their headquarters. We can videolink live with them and have our students participate. We have the team and the training for this technology.”

In addition to recruiting, are companies also interviewing virtually?

“We do have a lot of our students who use Skype for interviews. The material that we are preparing them for and a lot of our documentation is no longer about interviewing techniques only. We send them a lot of documentation on how to best handle an interview virtually. The 13-month MBA programme is very intense immediately after the students join. Immediately after they arrive, they have deadlines if they want to participate in the internships. Right from day 1, they are interviewing and it would be very difficult for them to miss classes and travel around the world to interview for internships. So, many of the internship interviews are done almost exclusively via Skype now.”

Where else can we expect virtual interactions with employers?

On top of virtual recruiting at the career fair, Ms. Wigmore Álvarez says: “Last year we brought more than 75 companies to do on-campus recruiting and corporate presentations at different points during the year. This year, we expect to see even more of that with the webcast that I mentioned earlier. It’s these relations that we have in different markets that are contributing to us gaining more international opportunities for our students.”

Since we have welcomed the IMBA April intake this week, we would like to dedicate a post to this badge and anyone else who is interested in career change, and getting the most out of the IE experience, even if you are a student or alumnus.

Participate in Alumni Events!!!

Something unique about IE is that right from day one the Career Management Center encourages students to go to alumni events. Even if it’s not a careers event per se, if you’re interested in working for that company and the director of supply chain is coming, come to the event and introduce yourself. The next day, you can send a targeted cover letter.

Last year, the Executive Director of the Career Management Center, Amber Wigmore Álvarez, was selected along with her counterpart from Kellogg-Northwestern, to present at the annual conference on Best Practices in International Recruiting. With 42% of IE’s recruiting happening outside Spain, that is a very high volume. In addition to the mandatory career sessions that students have, the Career Management center also organizes different career drives, voluntary sessions on personal branding with different gurus brought in from different parts of the world. The Career Management Center always tells students to be active and participate in alumni events.

How to Handle a Career Change

If it’s functional change, consider going back to the same company. At IE’s Career Management Center, students and alumni can talk about industry change and leverage relationships and networking. If it’s geographical change, an internship is a great way to lay the groundwork for a career change. Also, getting involved in the IE Clubs can help. Students who come in with an interest for a career in finance but they don’t have any experience in that field, are encouraged to join the IE Finance Club. If they’re interested in consulting, join the Consulting Club. Participation in clubs should be put on your resume, and shows an active passion for the area you are looking to enter.

Questions Commonly Asked to the Career Management Center

Where are graduates placed?

For those looking for information on where students have secured opportunities from previous intakes, look at the various placement reports which are published online. In each section (IMBA or Masters in Management), there is a detailed report.

What countries do IE alumni end up working in?

IE has a tremendous diversity of profiles and students coming from more than 80 countries and alumni working in more than a 100 countries. They are going everywhere. The Career Management Center is approached by a lot of recruiters because they know of the tremendous international profiles here. There is quite a lot of geographic mobility amongst IE students. They don’t necessarily go back to their own countries.

What are my internship opportunities?

The internship program is a part of the IMBA Program Management. For example, IMBA Program Management organizes the IMBA in Practice which is the internship they get academic credit for it. However, even though it’s organized by program management, the Career Management Center is involved from the beginning. At the information session, somebody from Careers gives a presentation about the best resources for looking for an internship.

In a pre-workshop class students are talked through the process of converting the internship into full-time employment. This is essential, because one of the major trends in Career Services is that multinationals are no longer doing a separate process for internships and a separate process for full-time. For example, Johnson & Johnson are looking to hire full-time from their pool of internship candidates.

Can Career Management help me secure a visa to work abroad?

Many students coming from the non-European countries expect that it’s going to be a lot easier to get a visa because they’re studying here and that is not necessarily the situation. Career Management doesn’t provide students with visa services but it does provide them with information on firms that do.

What are current trends in recruitment?

One of the biggest trends around recruiting is the use of LinkedIn. There’s a statistic that 80% of employers will look at your LinkedIn profile before they call you for an interview. So one of the things that the Career Management Center suggest is that students put at the very top of their CVs, in addition to their contact information and email address, the public URL of their LinkedIn profile. There is an active Career Services professionals group on LinkedIn which stays abreast of what’s going on. There’s a new, powerful tool which is LinkedIn.com/alumni. This is a powerful search filter for students to help them identify IE alumni that could help open doors to certain companies.  Additionally, the IE Alumni Association has an Official Alumni LinkedIn group, Twitter and Facebook which often have job postings and can be used as networking tools.

Having a well-written resume is key to landing a position in M&A, Venture Capital and/or Private Equity. Writing a resume for one of these positions is distinctive from other types of resumes because it generally requires experience in finance as a requirement for being considered for a position. Specifically, the ideal candidate will have the ability to add value to one or more areas in the traditional M&A process, which generally speaking includes

• Sourcing potential targets,
• Sue diligence,
• Supporting newly acquired companies.

For this reason, to the extent you have valuation, modeling, management and/or industry specific capabilities, these should be highlighted.  Lastly, the M&A, Venture Capital and Private Equity job markets are very competitive and while most firms do not specifically require applicants to have an MBA, it will improve one’s chances of getting selected.  As a result, your education should also be prominently displayed in your resume.

While other industries may focus on your academic performance, personality and other things unrelated to your professional experience, M&A, Venture Capital and Private Equity job are somewhat different. Recruiters in these areas want to know every detail about your prior professional experience. For example, Private Equity and Venture Capital firms target professionals that have worked in investment banking or a similar financial area for a minimum of two years because they want a professional who is experienced enough to immediately make an impact at the firm.  For this reason, disclosing significant work experience by accentuating the transactions you have participated on and how you added value is very important. Some key elements to highlight when explaining your past work experience include:

• Number of transactions you have participated on;
• Type of transactions and
• Skills you acquired (i.e., valuation, modeling, due diligence, project management).

When writing about your past transactions that you have participated in, the objective is to be exceptional and demonstrate how you specifically influenced and contributed to the transaction process. Rather than just highlighting your responsibilities that you had in connection with the transaction, you should specifically mention how you helped in the transaction.

In the event that you do not have significant transaction experience, one alternative is to highlight other areas that M&A, Venture Capital and Private Equity value: (i) management and consulting experience and (ii) industry experience.  Private Equity and Venture Capital firms value these forms of experience because it is critical after a transaction to had value to its acquisition.  As a result, these firms need professionals, who can support and advise the management team of the newly acquired company and/or provide expertise on what is required to be successful in a specific industry.  Essentially, when writing a resume in connection with one of these areas, a professional must analyze their own resources and capabilities and highlight the key ways he or she can add value to the M&A process.

These are some of the more common questions about the Career Management Center; we decided to put them together in a blog post. If you have any questions regarding these or any other topics, please contact your Career Counselor. 

About the Career Management Center

The Career Management Center at IE is an active member of the MBA Career Services Council and the MBA Career Services for Working Professionals Alliance which is an alliance of the top 32 business schools recognized for providing outstanding career services to alumni and executive students. Within that, IE’s Career Management center is considered among the top in international recruiting.

What are the roles of the Career Management Center?

The Career Management Center’s number one mission is to improve students’ employability. In order to do this, it works to promote an everlasting relationship among the members of the IE community, facilitating a common platform of business, career development and lifelong learning opportunities, with the objective to propel personal and professional development of IE students and alumni, in accordance with the principles and values of IE.

Nevertheless, the Career Management Center does not place students in jobs.  It’s not about that. It’s about providing students and alumni with tools and resources and a very robust career education. Then it’s up to the students to perform well in the interviews, to prepare themselves well, to write strong cover letters, to do an internship to help lay the groundwork if they’re interested in a career change.  The Career Management Center is here to support students and assist them with these necessary steps. However, it’s up to students to secure their own opportunities.

Tools and Resources Provided by the Career Management Center

The Career Management Center offers very similar services of Career Education to IE students.

Career Pre-Program

The Career Management Center provides a career pre-program. Approximately one month before students start studying at IE, they are sent something along the lines of a career portfolio. Through the pre-program, once students come on campus, they can start to concentrate more on the academic content because they are immediately going to be overloaded on the academic side or their core program.

Career Self-Assessment Tools

Students start working on Career Leader and self-assessment tests. Career Leader is a company founded by Dr. Jim Waldroop who was Director of Career Services at Harvard Business School for nearly 18 years. He developed self-assessment tools for HBS students and discovered that this would be useful for business school students worldwide. The Career Management Center has been using it for years and it really helps students to gain focus, to see where they get a score on their best career paths, what are the best work environments for them, what are their motivators. This is what they should be doing even before they arrive.

Identifying Potential Career Opportunities

Then students work on identifying potential career opportunities. A lot of it is in their court. They should be really doing the research to prepare themselves. Career Management Center provides them with all the tools so that they become their own strategic career managers. No matter how good a career advisor is, you should never leave your career in the hands of somebody else. Career Management Center provides students with skills and techniques that they’re going to carry with them throughout their entire lifetime, long after they graduate from IE.

CVs, Cover Letters and Career Marketing Plans

The Career Management Center suggests students to do their CVs, cover letters and a career marketing plan. Right in the beginning of their academic programs, students have an introduction at the Career Management Center session with their point-of-contact at the Career Management Center  All students who receive Career Services are assigned to a key person at the Career Management Center  Then they have one 60-minute appointment with their careers point-of-contact to ensure that they have their career portfolio documentation in order, their CVs and cover letters are all set. Right from the beginning, they can start applying to internships.

Meetings with the Career Management Team

Once they’ve had a 60-minute meeting with the assigned point of contact, they’re welcome to have a 30-minute focused appointment with another member of the Career Management Center team who might be more specialized in the sector or area of their interest. Then they have unlimited drop-in sessions that they can participate in. These sessions are posted on the IE Career portal so each student can see every member of the team, what their specializations are and drop in for brief 10-minute appointments. Somebody who is applying for international organizations can come in and see if their application for the UN is in order and the person here who specializes is the one who advises the students in that area and is also the person who is handling recruiting for those organizations.

Career Strategy Course

Career Management Services offers a course to MBA and Master in Management students called Career Strategy. For the IMBA program, there are 13 sessions on CV writing, cover letter writing, speed networking, managing career transitions, networking, piloting your career, career design and job hunting, interview skills, mock interviews, negotiating an offer and then we talk to them about the IE job bank which we give them access to, 3 months prior to graduation and all the services we provide to alumni lifelong.

This is a guest post by Ben Thomas, a member of the Riley Guide writing team and expert on a variety of topics related to the job search.

Job interviews can serve up stress even under favorable conditions – which is why many of us just hope for a smooth conversation without too many verbal missteps. But if you’re aiming to upgrade to a higher-level position, or to join a highly competitive corporate culture, you may well encounter some of the dreaded “weird” questions: “How many golf balls does it take to fill a 747?” “What do you think about when you are alone in your car?” and so on. These questions are designed to be unpredictable – and since even notorious puzzle-posers like Google and Microsoft constantly shake up their question arsenal, it can be hard to predict what types of oddball queries you’ll face. Still, a positive attitude and a few handy rules can help you understand what your interviewer’s really after, and answer accordingly. Here are three tips that’ll help you answer even the oddest questions with honesty and intelligence.

Match the interviewer’s tone

Different corporate cultures promote different attitudes in interview offices. In Silicon Valley’s startup landscape, interviewers may test your mathematical skill, but the interview’s overall tone is likely to be lighter and friendlier than, say, an interview for a job with the FBI. In any environment, though, questions can come flying at you quickly, from unexpected angles – which is why it’s crucial to keep pace with the pulse of the room. If you’ve built up some rapport with the interviewer and he or she accompanies an unusual question with a smirk, you may be able to get away with a response that makes him or her chuckle. But even in cases like this, you can turn odd questions to your advantage by following them up with a, “seriously, though,” and a more thoughtful answer, demonstrating that you’ve got a sense of humor but aren’t the type to shy away from unexpected situations. “The point to remember is, every question in the interview has a purpose,” says Bill Cole, CEO of Cole Consultants. “Your job as the interviewee is to figure out if the question is just for fun, or if there’s something more serious behind it.”

Follow your authenticity

No matter how absurd the question, you’re unlikely to go wrong by offering an authentic answer – even if it takes you a few seconds to ponder. If a question strikes your personal sense of humor, there’s no reason you can’t offer a response in that same vein – but there’s also no reason to fake a flippant attitude if the question makes you feel genuinely curious. “Most interviewers can see when you are not being real, and for the most part they want to hire someone they make a connection with,” says Michelle Waguespack of Career Planning Services, LLC. Thus, you’ll actually be doing yourself a favor by pondering oddball questions that set your gears turning, and offering a well-thought-out answer. If you come across as overly serious to the interviewer, you may avoid getting stuck with a job in a corporate culture that rubs you the wrong way. By the same token, if a question strikes you as funny, forcing yourself to answer seriously could cast you as a stiffer character than you really are. One caution, though: Don’t let authenticity get in the way of rapport. “Don’t give a dismissive answer, like, ‘I thought I was going to get a serious question; can you ask another one?’,” Cole says. “The question is there for a reason, so at least make sure your answer is interesting.”

When in doubt, reroute

Interview questions are often designed to offer the interviewee a challenge. Whether the interviewer is testing your technical expertise or your sense of fun – or both at once – the biggest misstep to avoid is blowing your cool. Even if you have no idea how to answer an oddball question, you can still shine in the interview room by responding intelligently – and in fact, this may be exactly what the interviewer is looking for when he or she throws a bizarre question your way. “When dealing with math problem interview questions, the interviewer is typically trying to assess your problem solving skills,” Waguespack says. “So show them your creative juices flowing.” If an interviewer asks you about a technical diagram or software program with which you’re unfamiliar, it’s perfectly acceptable to respond that you don’t know about that particular program or process, but have figured out how to use a similar one. “Then go into some detail, emphasizing your experience and understanding of the similarities,” Cole says. Along the same lines, you can often get away with answering a math-related question by explaining the steps you’d take to reach a solution. What you’re really demonstrating, above all, is your ability to recognize relevant facts and incorporate them into your thought process on the fly.

Despite what you may have learned in school, the “right” answer to an oddball question is generally a reply that fits the tone of the interview, conveys your honest attitude and demonstrates an ability to think on your feet. By contrast, even a mathematically correct answer might be “wrong” if it doesn’t appear to have much thought behind it. It’s fine to be nervous when facing an oddball question. Just remember, the answer itself is often less important than how you arrive at it.

Ben Thomas, a member of the Riley Guide writing team, is an expert on a variety of topics related to the job search.

Founded in 1994 by a university librarian, Margaret F. Dikel (formerly Margaret Riley), The Riley Guide is the Web’s premier directory of job, career, and education information sources available online. Although aimed at job, career, and education seekers, others including recruiters and other career services should also find the guide to be a valuable reference.

Amber Wigmore Álvarez, Executive Director of Career Services for IE, presented to an audience of more than 230 pre-MBA women at the Forté Forum in Boston on August 21^st. The panel on which Amber presented was moderated by Liberty Mutual, a recruiter at IE, and Amber shared her views on how an MBA will help prospective students who are not interested in careers in investment banking or consulting, career transition and progression with an MBA and flexibility of the degree, how to balance career with family and the importance of the MBA network. Kimberly Janulewicz, Director of Business Development for the Northeastern Region, North America, contributed her views as part of the Admissions Panel.

Be sure to take a look at the agenda (below) for the upcoming 2012 Women Lead Webinar Series, hosted by Forté. The Women Lead Webinar Series explores topics surrounding leadership, career advancement and improving performance.  We hope you’ll take advantage of these special online events featuring leading experts, business authors and senior executives from top companies.

 Agile Critical Thinking: The Skills You Need to Make Better Decisions in a Complex, Competitive and Dynamic Workplace
Thursday, September 27, 12:00 – 1:00 pm Eastern. Register.

 Transitioning from an Expert to a Leader
Tuesday, October 30, 12:00 – 1:00 pm Eastern. Register.

 Great 8 Trends Driving Growth to 2020
Wednesday, December 12
, 12:00 – 1:00 pm Eastern. Register.

Do you know Dice.com ?

Dice.com is a career website geared toward the best in tech. Gigs in software engineering, online game development, project management, and more can be found at top companies like: Google, Adobe, Microsoft, Dell, Amazon, Oracle, etc. Not only are there listings for the best jobs on Dice.com, but you can get access to career advice, discussions, and join tech communities, all for free.

Isn’t it time you found an opportunity that provided you with a springboard to become the latest and greatest innovator, thinker, and genius in your field? Find a job that gels with your personality, education, and skills at Dice.com.

If you use it, let us know how your experience was.

Good luck in your job search!

We want to share with all of you some Resume Tips for C-Level Executives that has been prepared for our students and alumni by BlueSteps, the career management service of the AESC that have partnered with IE.

They are also having a complimentary seminar on October 4th, 2012.  Details of the event will be posted in the IE Alumni group on LinkedIn 

Resume Tips for C-Level Executives
By BlueSteps.com
What does a C-level resume/CV look like these days? What information should it include? What information should you leave out?
Here are some tips to help you get started:

Contact Information
Don’t use an AOL email address. It may seem like a silly suggestion at first, but an AOL address will give the reader an impression of an old-fashioned, behind-the-times individual, fair assessment or not. A Gmail address is very important to have on a resume/CV. It says that you are up-to-date with technology (even if you personally are not).
Including a URL to your LinkedIn profile and to your professional website, if you have one, is also very valuable to the reader, as it is an opportunity for them to obtain additional information from these sources, while also demonstrating your familiarity with Job Search Web 2.0 tools.

Glance Factor
When recruiters or executive hiring managers first come into contact with your resume/CV they are going to give it on average a 10-second glance. Does your resume/CV pass the test? If you are unable to showcase your talent and accomplishments in such a way that they jump off the page, you may not get a second look.

Maximize Your Resume Real Estate
The most critical section of your resume/CV is the top one-fourth to one-third. This small area has to show the reader at a glance who you are, what you have done, and what you can do for them! Some refer to this section as the “profile” or “summary.” The information in this section must be clear, compelling and concise. Think of it as your marketing and branding section—it is what differentiates you from all other candidates.
This section should include:
 Two sentence overview of you the candidate. Be brief.
 Feature three accomplishments that emphasize top talents.
 Keywords.
 Your degrees, certifications, languages, and experience that relate to the potential position.

Keywords
It may seem like C-level executives wouldn’t need to worry about keywords. Wrong. Recruiters will run the resume through a keyword search, particularly if the position is in an industry where it is paramount that top-level management have expertise in certain key areas or have very specific management skills.

Experience
Avoid a list of job descriptions. Focus on your accomplishments that tell your success story. Generalities don’t make the grade. Quantified accomplishment-based statements in the experience section show a true C-level’s value. What has been the key impact you have had in each position? Express it in numbers whenever possible.

Length
Resumes/CVs today need to be read not only on computers, but also on iPhones and other mobile devices. Therefore, the resume/CV must be kept to two pages. I know, you’re a C-level executive and you deserve more space to talk about all of your accomplishments; however a longer resume just does not work today.
LinkedIn profiles and professional websites can highlight more detail. A resume/CV should highlight the last 10-15 years of experience. This helps keep the resume length inline and the focus current.

File Formats
Having various file formats is helpful. A Word document, plain text, and PDF are the most common formats that are usable in most cases. You will also want to have a complete LinkedIn profile with a professional photo, and a professional website is also encouraged.
In addition to your public LinkedIn profile, a BlueSteps.com profile will also confidentially raise the visibility of C-level executives to top global search firms.

About BlueSteps

IE Business School and BlueSteps, the exclusive career management service of the AESC, have partnered to provide you with a direct link to over 8,000 of the world’s top retained executive search professionals, as well as provide you with a suite of premium career management tools and services specifically designed for executives. As a IE Business School student or alumni, you are entitled to an exclusive discount of 30% on a BlueSteps Membership. Premium BlueSteps services are also included at no additional cost (a savings of $89 USD /year). To join Bluesteps today, contact the IE Career Management Center at careers.online@ie.edu
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INSIDE VIEW

Yasmina Mallam-Hassan of Global Career Company is looking for grads of top international b-schools who are from Africa, MENA, Asia Pacific, or Central & Eastern Europe, to place into jobs back in their home countries. See the jobs board for vacancies that Yasmina is currently looking to fill in beverages, energy and management consulting in Africa.

JOBS

Senior Strategy Director, EMERI - Christie’s Fine Art Auction - London

Sales, Marketing & Supply Chain - Leading premium drinks business - Africa (various)

SAP, Enterprise, Oracle Technology Roles - Top-tier management consultancy - South Africa

Management Roles in Finance, Planning, Logistics - Puma Energy - South Africa

Social Enterprise Associates - On Purpose – London