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MBA students play 'recruiter' as they prepare themselves for their future careers

Manchester Business School runs first CV workshops as Middle East MBA students as increasingly look for careers advice
29 June 2011 (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) - With the resurgence of the regional employment market, MBA students studying with Manchester Business School (MBS) in the Middle East are increasingly turning to the Global Careers Service (GCS) offered by the school to help in the process of self evaluation, career planning and presentation. MBS has just conducted the first CV counselling workshops, in which students were asked to play the role of recruiter and to submit their own CVs to peer group review.

The Global Careers Service is available to all MBS students through the course of their studies until one year after graduation, and is offered to all its current 3,000 MBA students in over 100 countries around the world. The School has seven international executive centres worldwide and the Global Careers Service was rolled out across the network during 2010, starting with the Middle East.

MBS has one of the largest communities of MBA students in the Middle East, with over a 1,000 experienced students following its part time executive MBA programmes, and has just appointed its first full time External Relations Officer, who joins the Middle East team from the MBS campus in Manchester, to provide the Careers Service support on the ground.

"The GCS is designed to increase the self-awareness of all our students, through careful career visioning and self-evaluation - this leads to improved performance in their own companies and a greater likelihood of fast-tracked careers," says Daria Malova, External Relations Officer - Careers & Alumni, at MBS Middle East. "We started with CV development because the CV is such a fundamentally important tool in the process of presentation to prospective employers, whether you are an MBA student or graduate. Our first workshops attracted students and graduates who were looking to move up to higher management levels in the construction and finance industries, or to switch careers, and needed guidance on presenting themselves effectively in this context."

The GCS takes a blended approach in offering students access to a comprehensive and customised web 2.0 portal of resources, psychometrics, databases, webinars and jobs. Workshops are delivered through the School's international executive centres.

Daria Malova adds: "'The MBA qualification is internationally recognised and still sought after in business but MBA students still need help understanding their unique value proposition, and to market to, and negotiate with, employers. They need support in understanding job markets and targeting, in order to find local and international career paths. Ultimately, the GCS will become part of our Talent Management Programme, which we are currently developing for the Middle East."

MBA students need specialist skills to navigate a tough market, where networking and the hidden job market are more crucial than ever. The GCS is a career management programme that strongly supports MBS students in achieving their international career goals and salary expectations.

According to Randa Bessiso, Director Middle East at MBS, over 80 per cent of students take an MBA to help them meet their career ambitions: "A world class business school must provide a service that supports this key motivator, as an added value service. The vast majority of our students are self financed. Company sponsored students have access only to the self-evaluation tools of the Global Careers Service, to help them understand how they fit into their existing management structure."

-Ends-

Manchester Business School is the UK's largest campus-based business and management school. It provides a comprehensive range of undergraduate, postgraduate and custom-made executive programmes, for organisations from both the private and public sectors. Manchester Business School holds triple MBA accreditation - AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB. All successful MBA students are awarded a degree by the University of Manchester and no distinction is made between the different learning formats - all have reached the same high standard expected of a Manchester MBA.

Issued on behalf of MBS by WPR.

Media contacts:
Jonathan Walsh
WPR
Tel: + 971 50 4588610
Email: jon@wprme.com

© Press Release 2011