Wharton EMBA Career Management Services offers much more than tips on getting your next promotion. Dedicated career counselors in Philadelphia and San Francisco help executive MBA students learn to manage lifelong careers by providing individual counseling as well as career-related programming. Alumna Mary Gross, director of Career Management Services for Wharton’s Executive MBA Program in Philadelphia, discusses these services.
Lifelong Career Management
It used to be that we worked for a company for most of our life and the company managed our career for us. They let us know when a promotion was available and what we should be doing next. That is not the world we live in today.
I look at career services as trying to help students learn how to manage their careers over their entire lifetime. It’s not just about getting an MBA and moving to the next thing, because the next thing they do probably won’t be last thing they do. Part of my job is helping them figure out when it’s time to make a career change and what steps they need to take to make that happen.
A Partnership
When I do an overview of our services with a new EMBA class, I always say, “I’m not here to find your next career position, whether it’s with your current company or somewhere else. I’m here to help you figure out how and when to do that. It’s a partnership and it requires input and effort on your part, and I’m willing to provide that same input and effort on other side.”
One-on-One Counseling
A lot of my time is spent doing one-on-one counseling with students to work with them on where they are now and where they want to go. That is the greatest part of my job, and the most challenging because we have such a diverse group of students. I have to be really broad in my ability to provide advice and guidance.
Programming
Beyond those individual conversations, I offer programming that is available to all students. The programs range from learning how to network, to doing a better job of preparing a resume, to preparing for an interview. Any student can benefit from support and feedback on those processes.
Web Resources
Another component of the Wharton EMBA Career Management Services is our extensive website, which provides a lot of information and services that students can access on their own time. This availability is very important for EMBAs because their time is already really challenged with school, work and their personal lives. Now, they’re adding in trying to think about their career and perhaps making a change. So having access to resources whenever they want is critical.
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Mary Gross graduated from Wharton’s EMBA program in Philadelphia in 2002 and is the director of Career Management Services for the Philadelphia EMBA program.