Philadelphia MBAs and a Consulting Career

MetroMBA: What resources are available to Smeal MBAs?

“The MBA consulting association is a great benefit,” Brenda shared. “This association is managed by students and these student leaders offer professional networking opportunities, consulting career workshops, guest speakers from top consulting firms, industry information and interviewing preparation. Topics can range from ‘How to manage a meeting with a client’ to ‘Careers in operations and strategy consulting.’”

MetroMBA: How does Smeal College stand out in consulting?

Brenda L. Fabian

“Drs. Andy Gustafson and Nancy Mahon co-teach Communication Skills for Leaders, a signature course in our MBA program,” said Brenda. “This required course spans the first full year and allows students to further enhance their individual communication and public speaking skills. The course also includes work in understanding and further developing team communication skills.

Dr. Glen Kreiner teaches a Team Facilitation class. Most courses in the Smeal MBA Program are team focused. Students learn about models of group development, diagnosing team problems, selecting effective intervention strategies, skills in giving and receiving feedback, conflict management, and working constructively with gender, race, and cultural differences within teams (Source: MGMT 520 with MGMT 597B Lab).

Dr. Donald Hambrick teaches Strategy Implementation and Organizational Change. He is an internationally renowned scholar with expertise in CEOs, executive leadership, corporate governance, and strategy formulation and implementation. His course provides students with key analytic ability to assess the gap between the current status of the organization and the need to implement a new strategy or execute change, and then identify a strategy for closing the gap (Source: MGMT 531).

We also offer practical tools and course applications such as Lean Six-Sigma Black Belt Body of Knowledge (BOK).”

MetroMBA: How is a Smeal MBA different?

“Smeal encourages students to gain as much practical experience as possible, including on-site opportunities such as internal case competitions including Executive Panel,” explained Brenda.

“Teams that advance to the final round of competition present to senior alumni and corporate partners. Smeal is also fortunate to be able to provide financial support to students who compete in external case competitions. An added benefit of our internal case competitions is early career networking opportunities.

Consulting involves working with cross functional and cross cultural teams. To help prepare our students for a global business environment, we require students to participate in Global Immersion. Students travel overseas to interact with global business leaders and business colleagues in such locations as the Czech Republic, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Lima, New Delhi, and elsewhere.”

MetroMBA: Why should an MBA candidate choose Smeal College?

“On average 25-30% of our graduates go into consulting,” revealed Brenda. “Top consulting firms such as Deloitte, EY, and A.T. Kearney recruit on campus. With a number of Smeal MBAs working in consulting and a total alumni network of 645,000, the Smeal community offers a great way to get connected in the industry.

With small class sizes and a close knit community, students can pursue a Smeal MBA through the full-time two-year residential program at University Park or take advantage of the EMBA Program at the Chubb Conference Center in the Philadelphia suburb of Lafayette Hill. Both the MBA and EMBA provide students with focused and individualized attention from world renowned faculty in addition to the wealth of resources that only Penn State can provide.”

regions: Philadelphia

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