In January, Steve Hernandez joined Wharton | San Francisco as associate director of Career Management Services. Now that he’s had some time to settle in, we asked him about his role at Wharton as well as what he has planned for our students. Here’s what he had to say:
“I’m thrilled to be working with executive MBA students at Wharton. I’ve been in the career development field for 15 years, specializing for the last five years as a career coach for mid-life career professionals in all disciplines. So my background works well with the population that is here at Wharton | San Francisco. I have an individual career coaching philosophy, which also fits nicely with this group. I see my role as tailoring a process to an individual, factoring in their background, skills, lifestyle, and interests – and then helping them create a strategy and map out a process that makes sense for long-term career planning.
“So far, my role at Wharton can be divided into three areas. First, there is the one-on-one coaching with our EMBA students. Most are in some sort of transition whether they are growing to a higher level in their current company or moving into a different functional role or even a different industry space altogether. Also, on a regular basis, I’ll be providing workshops that cover subjects such as networking, advanced job search techniques, resume writing, interviewing skills, strategies for transitioning inside or outside one’s organization, etc.
“The third piece of my role involves aggressive company outreach. I work to bring companies and organizations to campus for both recruiting and informational purposes. We have a nice menu of visitors coming up in April from industries including consulting, high-growth technology, clean-tech and investment management. I’m also doing a lot of outreach with nonprofits and private equity firms. And I’m working to build more relationships with startups, particularly ones founded by Wharton alumni.
“Since I arrived in January, I’ve been able to connect with most of the students. They are a very impressive group of extremely bright and motivated individuals, which makes my job easier in some ways, but also more challenging because I have to make sure I bring substance to the table in terms of offering value. The one-on-one work is really fun, especially with the first years because I’ll get to see how they grow from a career standpoint over the next year. I’m excited to build relationships that extend beyond the classroom experience and into the Wharton community as they become alumni!”
Steve joins Mary Gross, WG’02 and Director, MBA Exec Career Management Services for Philadelphia.