Recent graduates and current MBA students in search of job options are well-positioned to mine their alumni connections, notes a recent article in the St. Joseph’s Haub School of Business Review.
Businesses clearly benefit not only from the loyalty of recent graduates or current students. The fresh experiences and skill sets that MBAs possess make them a valuable asset for companies that want to remain ahead of the innovation curve.
The Haub School’s renowned food marketing program is just one area of study that has seen many graduates succeed via their connections with the school. Hormel Foods and Mars Inc. are two companies that have increased recent recruitment efforts and co-op programs for Haub grads.
Emma Stoll, a food marketing ’14 graduate, was recruited by Mars Inc. for an internship in 2013. Balancing the internship along with her classwork and other projects, Stoll found herself involved career-level scenarios, companies and valuable alumni contacts. Just two years after graduating, Stoll is now the current associate category development manager for the Mars Chocolate division of the company.
“I’ve become a huge advocate for the food marketing program,” Stoll says in the St. Joseph’s Haub School of Business Review. “Because of its incredible track record with interns and new hires, SJU is one of the only schools from which we now recruit for direct full-time hires. This is a big deal.”
Mars Inc. has hired 30 students and alumni from SJU, and has recently instituted a new co-op program with the university. In the program, students are paid for 24 months of work spread across three separate placements. Megan Kalagher, Haub ’17, is the first student to join the program.
“After having the opportunity to work for three large CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies as previous coops, I realized that you can only learn so much in a classroom,” she notes. “Real-world experience has aided dramatically in helping me find out what I like and don’t like about the industry. It also has allowed me to learn more about myself as a person.”
Haub MBA alum Rob Almond (’04) has sung the praises of his experience both as a student and an executive. He is the current CEO of NEST, a company that specializes in construction and facilities management founded by his father in 1994. Almond’s business background informs every aspect of his position, spanning skills from budget and supply chain management to marketing. He was asked in 2015 to participate in Haub’s CEO Intervention, which is the apex of the Haub EMBA.
During this program, MBA candidates gain the opportunity to accept real-world business challenges as a test of their knowledge.
Almond says, “hearing feedback from EMBA students who are not only currently immersed in case studies and learning best business practices, but have also worked in the business world and been successful themselves, was incredibly valuable… There [is] a direct symbiotic benefit… [During my time in the CEO Intervention] I was able to get reinforcement for a decision I was planning to make, and the students were able to engage in a real-life business decision.”