UCD Smurfit MBA Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Career’

It’s that time again… it’s the time that companies start opening their doors to MBA students and recent grads.

Internships are popular with MBAs, particularly those who are considering changing career paths.  There are two types, (1) internships for students who have graduated, and (2) internships for students who are in the middle of a two year program.  Whatever your situation, now is the time that those doors open and now is the time to get those applications in.

The majority of internships with multinationals are located inside the US.  There are exceptions, and for those of you who would like to have an experience in another country while performing your internship.  As there are many US multinationals that have internships on offer, I have chosen the following because they offer internships outside of the States.  Here are some details on them:

Company: BASF

Location: HQ is in Ludwigshafen, Germany although BASF is active in many countries

Number of positions available: Various placements

Note: BASF calls the program the Accelerated Development Program for recent grads. Also do a search for “Praktikant”

Company: Credit Suisse

Location:Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore close 28 June 2012. Sydney internships close 26 Jul 2012.

Number of positions available: Not specified, but numerous

Note: The application process is quite long, and they will ask you for exam scores(remember SAT and GMAT?)  Set aside some time before taking a stab at this one.

Company: Amazon

Location: Mostly UK and Germany, with some positions EU and worldwide.

Number of positions available: Four titles, several positions in each

Note: For internships in Europe use amazon.co.uk.  For US opportunities, use Amazon.com. (I think you have to register twice).  On the Amazon.co.uk site specific req numbers are: 168865, 154996, 132494, 170988

Remember, this is only a picking of companies that offer internships worldwide. If you choose to go to the States then the choices are virtually limitless.

So, there you go.  Dust off your CV, add your most recent experience, and get it out there.  Getting an internship at one of these companies is far from easy.  You are competing against MBAs from around the world, so companies essentially have their picking of graduates. Whatever the outcome, make sure to send out, make contact, and follow-up.  Best of luck!

- Michael Munevar, EMBA 2011/13

In the last month, I’ve had the attention of a couple of several hiring managers, and used the opportunity to talk to them about how they hire MBAs and recent grads.  Although I won’t mention specific company names, I can tell you that these four companies are publicly listed multinationals with revenues in the range of $4b to $70b

Company A – US Multinational with European operations in Dublin. 

Industry: IT/Internet

The first company is an online payment provider.  They told me that at they used to have a hiring system in place for taking on university students.  They even had an intake system for graduates, but have since last year have downscaled their undergrad internship program and ceased their graduate program.  The reason for ending their graduate program was that they weren’t able to offer contracts to those graduates who completed the program.

Company B – US Multinational with EU HQ in Dublin

Industry: IT/Internet

20% of their staff comes from the student world as they want to keep in new and fresh ideas.  They occasionally hire MBAs and focus mostly on their internship program specifically targeted at recent graduates.

Company C – US Multinational with EMEA HQ in Dublin

Industry: IT/Software

They cited not particularly hiring MBA grads because of their salary requirements, but could understand justify some business development roles in new markets where MBA grads would be. ”We put MBA grads in two categories.  There’s the recent grad that thinks we owe him a big salary because he just spent 26+ grand on his MBA, and then there’s the older candidate that says and oh yeah, I also have an MBA. To us, that’s a plus.“

Company D – German Multinational with offices in many developed countries

Industry: Chemicals

The hiring manager told me that they regularly look for MBAs and undergraduate students to work in various cities that they operate in.  He went as far as to walk me through the MBA hiring process.  He told me that they regularly look for MBAs for career opportunities and internships developing their markets.  Most MBA internships were in the summer months and were based on specific projects.

Overall, I felt that the hiring managers gave me a good insight into their hiring processes, and that some companies are more interested in hiring MBAs than others.  My advice to an MBA student who is looking for a job: focus on companies that are interested in your skills. Some companies will value your skills in accounting, management, finance and operations.  Focus on getting their attention.

- Michael Munevar, PT MBA 2012/2013

michaelmunevar.com

Tweet Me!: twitter.com/michaelmunevar

Coaching has been one of the most beneficial aspects of the UCD Smurfit MBA Personal Development Programme in my experience. It is something I was offered in the past, but did not take up at the time due to time pressures.

In Year 2 of the EMBA, there are three coaching sessions offered to every single EMBA student.  In these one-on-one sessions, I set out my goals and my plans for achieving them. In my case, this was my business plan. My coach acted as a sounding board and through the coach’s skilful questions, it challenged certain assumptions I held and encouraged me to tease out certain issues – challenges that I envisaged and how I planned to overcome them. The coach helped me pin down my preferences on the options that were before me.

Managers can sometimes get caught up in the day-to-day operational aspects of the business and neglect to come up for air and look at the big picture and where they should be heading.  Have the goalposts changed?  A few sessions with a professional business coach can help you to take stock and review your position and focus on getting to where you want to go next.

Kate Healy, EMBA 2010-12

Wednesday 7th December saw the 2011 class being conferred in the O’Reilly Hall in Belfield.  It was a great occasion for all the graduates and their families some of whom had flown in for the day and a fitting event to mark all the hard work and effort put in by the MBA participants from the beginning of the applications process, in some cases year ago, to the handing in of the final assignment and putting the pen down in the final exam.  The conferral was a joint one between the MBA and the Masters in Accountancy programmes.  The ceremony itself was conducted by UCD President Hugh Brady and Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh.  The address was given by Dr. Tony Brabazon, Director of UCD Smurfit Business School.

As usual the run up to the conferral was marked by lots of running around getting gowns and scanning of the hall to locate family, not an easy task in such a large hall.  After the official part of the day was successfully completed by graduates the 670 men, woman and children present adjourned to the O’Reilly Conservatory for the Conferring Reception.  There were lots of introductions of family to class mates, photographs taken with classmates and family with a rather splendid Christmas tree as a back drop and discussion of everyone’s plans for the evening.  A couple of the classes had arranged group meals or events for after family meals were over.   By all accounts some people didn’t finish celebrating until the early hours of the following morning.

Congratulations to the UCD Smurfit class of 2011 from all in the MBA Office.

- RoisinO’Loughlin | EMBA Programme Manager | MBA Office