In this week’s Trivia Tuesday column we turn our focus to a leadership program at the McCombs School of Business that focuses on professional development.
The McCombs MBA+ Program is a career development initiative open to MBA students at McCombs. This optional program is designed to facilitate students’ professional development through experiential workshops and projects. Some of the most popular components of the MBA+ Program are the free, targeted executive coaching sessions it offers with area business leaders, along with the communication coaching sessions moderated by Ph.D. students with the UT Austin College of Communication. These sessions prepare students for everything from making a presentation in the classroom to navigating the recruiting process.
The MBA+ Program also sets up micro-consulting projects, completed during the academic year, that connect students to the companies and industries they hope to enter once they complete their MBA. Each business supplies a McCombs student team with the details of a corporate issue it is currently facing, and the team is given four to ten weeks to determine a course of action that would do the most to solve the problem. Most participating companies independently apply to the MBA+ Program in hopes of being matched with a McCombs MBA team, but students who hope to consult for a particular company are free to contact its representatives directly and offer their services. In the 2009-2010 academic year, participants in the McCombs MBA+ Program included American Express, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, the Houston Rockets, Sandals Resorts and many others.
Industry-specific seminars and speeches also form an integral part of the MBA+ Program. Many of these events are designed in response to student requests for a seminar or workshop dealing with a specific topic. Past events have included “Corporate Valuations As They Are Conducted on Wall Street,” “Sales Training: What Every MBA Should Know” and “A Year in the Life of a Consumer Packaged Goods MBA.”
To explore the leadership offerings at McCombs and other leading business schools, be sure to check out the Academics and Special Programs sections of the Clear Admit School Guides!
Read the full article: Trivia Tuesday: The McCombs MBA+ Program