Experience Simon!

By: Rebekah

The University of Rochester, Simon School Admissions office is busy preparing for our upcoming Experience Simon Weekend event for admitted full-time MBA and MS students on April 27 – 29, 2012.  We will facilitate opportunities for students to gather information about area housing, student clubs and organizations, and life in Rochester while networking with current students and other admits.  There will also be a case study session with one of our Operations Management faculty members – Greg Dobson and optional campus tours for any students who are visiting for the first time.

New this year, we have added a session for our foreign nationals to connect with the International Services Office (ISO) on the student visa process and the support available for International Students while in Rochester.  We are also introducing a 4-hour seminar with the Simon School Career Management Center (CMC) to help incoming students understand the timeline and steps to prepare for their internships or full-time job search.  Several staff from the CMC will lead sessions on developing your pitch to employers, and will also outline the summer pre-enrollment deliverables, group webinars and individual sessions that they will be offering to our incoming students.  We are pleased to have one of our alums, Dennis Pidherny who is Senior Director, Sector Head, Public Finance – U.S. Public Power with Fitch Ratings joining us to deliver after-dinner remarks on Saturday night.

Admitted students have one last opportunity to log into their Admit portal to register and attend.  We hope to see you next weekend!

Apr 20, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

Career Management Center Helps Land Dream Job!

By: Anjali Sud

It’s hard to believe that I will soon be graduating from the MBA program here at the Simon Graduate School of Business; it feels like only yesterday I was filling out my application! Having studied business in undergrad, I knew early on that obtaining my MBA would be essential in achieving my long term goal of holding a senior position at a Fortune 100 company. After working for five years, three of which was spent consulting in New York City, I knew the time was right to go back to school. As a Rochester native, I was aware of the prestige the Simon School carried in not only New York State, but throughout the world. Naturally, it was my top choice!
 
After being admitted, the whirlwind of my graduate school experience began. During orientation weekend the Career Management Center (CMC) explained the plethora of job opportunities that would be available to me upon graduation, as well as the resources their office provides, such as internship and job boards, access to our alumni network, resume assistance, interview prep, and a variety of self-improvement workshops. Each student was assigned a counselor to help navigate through internship and job searches, answer questions and provide guidance.

It isn’t glaringly obvious how exactly one goes about getting a job; however, if you’re willing to put yourself out there, the amount of help and support at the Simon School is endless. The CMC can provide you with best practices and connect you with Simon alum in an industry you find appealing. Practically every week of the Fall quarter company representatives come in to tell students more about their firm and the positions available. This is exactly how I found out about my future employer. During Fall quarter of my second year, a friend who worked at Liberty Mutual over the summer invited me to the company presentation, as she knew I was interested in the Insurance Industry. After learning more about the integrity of the company, and their commitment to responsibility, I knew it would be a great fit for me.

I regularly checked our internal job board for their posting. In the meantime, I began scheduling meetings with each and every student who had interned with Liberty Mutual over the summer and visited the CMC to get contact information for Simon alum who were currently employees of Liberty Mutual to learn as much as I could in anticipation of an interview. After confirmation of my on-campus interview, I made an appointment with a CMC counselor for a mock interview. Although I had interviewed before with a few other companies, I wanted to refine my presentation skills for a final boost of confidence. Although always supportive, the CMC staff also provides constructive criticism to help students put their best foot forward. In my case, the CMC helped me work on perfecting my “pitch”.

After a successful on -campus interview and subsequent on-site interview with Liberty Mutual, I was offered a job. Bob Park, the Executive Director of Corporate Relations and Career Management here at Simon, literally made himself available day and night to help walk me through the offer negotiations. I have thoroughly enjoyed the classes here at Simon and the friendships I have built along the way. However, nothing beats the feeling of having landed my dream job and it certainly would not have been possible without the help of the CMC!

Apr 13, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

The Great Balancing Act: Academics, Career Search/Networking, and Campus Life

By: Dana

On Monday, April 2nd, the Simon School Admissions Office hosted another successful Open House event on-campus!  This time, I had the opportunity to moderate a current student and alumni panel.  One of the questions that generated a lot of discussion amongst our panelists and audience was in regards to the work (study)/life balance of a b-school student.

The life of a graduate business student can be quite busy- after all, you are balancing academic course work, team work outside of class, and the full-time search for job placement or internships.  With limited hours in the day, it is very important to fine tune your time management skills and maintain realistic expectations about how you plan to accomplish everything while still fitting in time for clubs, networking, and of course a few hours of sleep here and there!  As one of our alumni noted, this will take some time to get used to in the beginning, but you’ll find that it gets easier as you go.  While the first quarter will be an adjustment, by the second and third quarters of study you, “find your groove” so to speak, and will have a much better sense of what your personal limitations are in the great balancing act.  Of course, having Friday’s free from classes helps to build in time for the networking and career search that our students will focus on during their study at Simon.

In addition to the academics and career search, another exciting and important aspect of b-school is the extracurricular component.  There are many clubs, guest lecture series events, networking opportunities, and social functions for our students to take part in.  These opportunities cater not only to your academic pursuits, but also your career ambitions, and even social and athletic interests! With clubs that range in everything from portfolio management (Simon Meliora Fund), to dance (Simon Dance Club), to soccer (Simon Soccer Club) to wine-tasting (Simon Uncorked) there is certainly no shortage of opportunities to get involved.  In addition to clubs, Simon students keep busy by attending our on-campus guest lecture series events. The Frederick Kalmbach Executive Lecture Series (sponsored by the Simon School through a gift from the Frederick Kalmbach Foundation and managed by the Student Services Office), offers students and opportunity to hear from senior corporate executives from around the world as they come to Simon to lecture on current issues in management. The Max Farash Luncheon Series (underwritten by a contribution from the late Max Farash, Chairman of The Farash Corporation) are informal, interactive luncheon lectures featuring prominent speakers from the alumni and business communities.  And finally, the Sands Leadership Lecture Series, founded by Richard Sands, chairman of Constellation Brands, is one built on the premise that leaders emerge from all fields (government, business, education, not for profits).  Interested in studying abroad?  The Simon School also offers International Exchange Programs to provide experience abroad to students anticipating careers with an international focus.  

There is much to gain from your b-school education: a solid foundation of business knowledge, a network for your career search and resources to assist in reaching your professional goals, as well as a vast array of opportunities for leadership and extracurricular involvement.  So how do you do it all? According to our panel of current student and alumni experts, the key to making the most of your experience all comes down to time management.

Apr 04, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

Great courses at Simon!

By: Bonnie Liu

Is it still winter in the place you live now? It is already spring in Rochester, and it has been really hot recently. People here all said that the past winter was the mildest one in Rochester’s history. No matter if it was caused by Global Warming or some other reasons, it is always great to have a warm spring come early. We are currently in our Spring Break this week, and I just finished my second quarter of my MBA studies. Yes, 1/3 of my MBA life has passed! I am looking forward to starting my new quarter, but I also hope time goes by slower, so that I can experience more about this great school and the great city of Rochester.

As I promised, today I will introduce the classes we had in the past quarters. After finishing my two quarters study, what impressed me most was how closely the courses we studied linked with each other:

In my first quarter, I took four core courses as a start: ACC401-Corporate Financial Accounting, FIN402-Capital Budget and Corporate Objectives, GBA411-Framing and Analyzing Business Problems I, and STR401-Managerial Economics. All of the four courses provided a basic knowledge of accounting, finance, economics, statistics & modeling. The way that professors teach is very practical. Those tedious concepts became vivid when we discussed real cases of accounting problems or merger & acquisitions. Among the four courses, GBA411 was the most challenging one for me, because I did not have much experience in doing modeling before. But I enjoyed facing the challenge and was happy to see my big progress in the final exam.

For the past quarter, I took two core courses: MKT402-Marketing Management and GBA412- Framing and Analyzing Business Problems II; and two elective courses: FIN411-Investment and ACC411-Financial Statement Analysis. I always tell my classmates that the key word of my winter quarter is “Regression”. Why is that? Because all the four courses I took required to use regression tools in solving different problems. GBA412 mainly introduced regression and modeling skills in using Excel.

MKT402 was my favorite class in last quarter! I loved every assignment we had. It was of great fun to estimate the ticket office of the movie The Lorax, and to play the marketing simulations with my team trying hard to gain more profit and revenue.  And yes, as I mentioned last time, Financial Statement Analysis was demanding but extremely useful. How to judge a company’s profitability or solvency? How to evaluate a company by using DCF model? You will know that from this course. And we even analyzed a case ourselves by using Simon School’s F.A.Ct. Method. Interested in options or portfolio management? FIN411 would be a good choice for you to start.
Although I don’t know the details about what we are going to learn from next week, I am sure there will be a lot of fun. Oh yes, one more point to make, you will know how knowledgeable our professors are only when you take their courses.  Don’t be surprised if you find marketing strategy questions in your accounting homework, or hear a professor talking about economics model in his marketing class. You can discuss any topic with professors, you can also seek help from them for your job search problems, and even do mock interviews with them.  And I also greatly appreciate that professors do surveys before starting of our new quarter, they would like to know more about us, such as how to pronounce our names, the way we prefer to be called, our past experiences and our career goals.  What can I say more about this great community in Simon? I just love it!

Alright, I am going to enjoy BBQ with my friends tomorrow at the Ontario Beach Park, what is your plan for the weekend? Looking forward to meeting you this coming autumn.

Meliora,
Bonnie

Mar 23, 2012 | 0 comments View Post
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