Career Centre
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WELCOME FROM THE CAREER CENTRE!
The Career Centre is looking forward to welcoming you to campus in Autumn and to working with
you to develop your career management skills and to secure that first job after business school.
We know that the most successful students are those who are proactive and take personal responsibility
for driving their own career, giving the thought, time, energy and commitment it needs to ensure success.
The best way to do this is to start now!
The career management programme starts as soon as you arrive at London Business School in September, and you will be surprised by how quickly you might have to make informed career choices. To get the most out of the programme, we advise you to spend some time this summer reflecting on your skills, abilities and interests, researching the market and starting to think how to build your knowledge and network:
1. Reflect
There is a saying “if you do not know yourself, you have little chance of knowing anything else”. It can be tempting to skip straight to the job search without giving much thought to your strengths, interests and values, but these are key to a rewarding working life. What internships have you enjoyed and why? In what type of work environment do you thrive? What kind of people do you enjoy having around you? Ask friends, family and colleagues for some frank feedback on your 3 key strengths, and areas for development; it will really help you articulate your unique value to future recruiters. PwC has a great free resource to help you explore and document your reflections – download their Personal Brand Workbook to help identify your values, strengths, passions and purpose.
2. Research
Read the Financial Times and other financial press daily, The Economist weekly and Prospect monthly. These are a must for identifying focal points for the business community. Research the jobs that you are interested in and get familiar with the dates and deadlines of companies in different sectors. If you are applying to Banking and Financial Services in particular, you need to be submitting applications in September/ October. Many Asian and North American deadlines are even earlier. We can of course help you when you arrive, but knowing who you want to apply to and doing your research in advance is an excellent start! We have started you off with some research tips on the portal pages and here for consulting, finance and corporate sector research.
3. Reach out!
Upwards of 70% of all professional and managerial jobs are sourced via networks, so you need to get comfortable building your own professional network. Start now by familiarising yourself with LinkedIn and updating your profile; think about your professional supporters at home – who would you like to have a coffee with before you leave? Who might they introduce you to, at home or in London? Who do you already know in London, and what introductions might be made for when you arrive?
4. Set Specific Goals and Tasks
Get organised. Do a SWOT analysis on yourself and use it to set specific career development goals to propel you forward. For those clear on their career ambitions, managing the application process is essential. For those that are unsure, planning, tracking and doing your career research (functions, industries & markets that appeal) is key. Make sure to document your journey in whatever way works for you; you will return to this knowledge and insight many times over your year at LBS, and it is a great way to see how far you have come.
Your Admits website has further information and detailed Screencasts to help you to research, explore your career options and start to develop your CV. We strongly encourage you to work through all the information we have created for you there - just click on the Careers tab at the top of the page. Once you are admitted, you will have access to our bespoke Career Centre portal, with all the additional information and resources it provides.
Meanwhile, we will be hosting a couple of webinars on 20 and 27 July to help you prepare for the year ahead and create a great LBS CV, so keep an eye on you emails for joining instructions for these. Have a great summer and we look forward to meeting you!
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Your Career Centre Team
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Margaret O'Neill, Career Lead
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Margaret is responsible for the development and delivery of the Career Skills curriculum for the Masters in Management programme. She works with MiM Career Coach Natasha Fay and the Career Centre Employer Engagement team to understand recruiters’ needs and ensure that students are well equipped to make the most of recruitment opportunities. Margaret is a qualified Career Coach, accredited by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, with a BA in Politics from Sheffield University and an MSc in Information Science from Loughborough University; she is also MBTI and Neo accredited. Prior to joining LBS in 2013, Margaret spent 11 years working with MBA students at Cambridge Judge Business School. Her earlier work experience spanned the private, public and not for profit sectors; she has worked in international sales for the Pearson Group, in research for Loughborough University and on special projects for the International Labour Office in London and Geneva.
Natasha Fay, Career Coach
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Natasha is an accredited Career Coach supporting the delivery of the Career Skills curriculum for the Masters in Management programme; her main role includes supporting students across all areas of their job search.
She also offers individual, group coaching and guidance across all programmes at London Business School.
Natasha previously managed the recruitment relationships with the Big4, other niche consultancies and Investment banks.During this role she helped to drive business development across these companies opening up new opportunities for students and alumni.
Prior to London Business School, Natasha worked at the British Academy of Management as their Events Manager.Natasha also has a BSc in Psychology from Queens University, Belfast and a Master’s in Business Studies from the University of Ulster.
Career Centre UPDATES
16/08/16
Hello and welcome to London Business School! The Career Centre team is looking forward to meeting you and to working with you over the coming year to help you realise your career goals.
Now you have access to the full LBS portal, please take some time to explore the Career Centre pages. We have a wealth of information to help you on your career journey, so the sooner you start familiarising yourself with it the better, before you are thrown into all the activity of LBS life. You can find information on different sectors and employers, CV, Cover Letter and interview tips, market research, networking and much more.
Screencasts
We will expect you to have completed all the screencasts and associated exercises before you arrive so just as a reminder, you can find them all under: Career Centre>Toolkit. We will be building on these Screencasts, rather than repeating them, in our Career Development Workshops, so please do be sure to complete them all.
Career Central
You have now also been added to Career Central, our bespoke one-stop shop for all career-related activities, including job postings, booking of coaching and recruitment events. Please take the time to view the Screencast on Using Career Central so you are familiar with it, and ensure that as a minimum that your profile is complete, as this is how recruiters will search for talent. The Screencast also includes full instructions on creating your CV using CV Writer (click on the “Attachment” tab at the top of the screen) so you can get started with your first LBS CV. You will get access to our CV Review system VMock on 30 August, so look out for further information on this.
Career Survey
Lastly, we’d like you to complete a short online MiM/GMiM 2017 Career Survey to give us a better understanding of where you are in your career journey and the particular challenges you face. This is to enable us to focus our efforts; please complete this by 26 August 2016.
So – know you’ll have plenty to keep you busy for now! Meanwhile, enjoy the summer and your preparations for what we know will be one of the best years of your life!
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27/07/16
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Hello all,
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Thanks again for taking the time to attend the webinar today on how to create your LBS CV. If you missed it, you can find a recording of the webinar here.
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I’m also attaching here a comprehensive guide to creating your CV, which should cover any outstanding questions you may have. Remember, our screencast on Writing your LBS CV contains examples and templates of good practice for Early Career CVs. Simply click on the Attachment tab at the top of the screen for further guidance on specific sectors.
You will get access to our bespoke Career management system, Career Central, once you are fully admitted, when instructions will be sent to you on how to create your CV in CV Writer. Access to the VMock software to further improve and refine your CV will be available to you from 30 August.
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Good luck and we look forward to meeting you!
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21/07/16
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The Career Centre held an Early Careers webinar on 20/07/16 on how to prepare over summer for your year ahead.
You can find a recording of the webinar here, for those of you who were unable to make it. Our apologies for the technical glitches, and thanks for your patience!
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We also said we would share some resources to help you prepare this summer:
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Know Yourself
We have already mentioned PwC’s great free resource, The Personal Brand Workbook, to start identifying your strengths and unique personal style. The VIA Institute on Character also offers a quick quiz to allow you to quickly identify your differentiating strengths.
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Know the Market
We know you will be reading relevant business press and specialist information in your area of interest, but to help you identify what kinds of roles are available to graduates, take a look at Top 100 Graduate Employers. You can sign up for alerts and to see a list of deadlines for popular graduate programmes.
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The Graduate and Masters Guide to Companies on the Register of Tier 2 Visa Sponsors shows which companies sponsor Tier 2 for graduates in the UK. You can use a number of filters to search – you will need to enable editing and macros to filter properly.
In addition to the information we have already shared with you, for those concerned about the early Investment Banking deadlines, previous students have developed a comprehensive guide to help you.
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Getting ready for applications
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We have 6 fantastic screencasts which give you all the information you need to get yourself recruitment ready for the Autumn. They are on the Admits portal but as several of you have had difficulty accessing them, the direct links are here:
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