Career Savvy
Office of Career Services director urges job-seekers to network
By JB Shelton

emember the good old days of the 20th century, clear back in 1998? Fond reminiscences of dot-com mania, consulting camaraderie and vibrant venture capital. Now flash forward to job hunting in today's economy.

MBA Career Services Director Mindy Storrie (EMBA '97) and Benito Lores, Class of 2003, discuss career options. Students need to demonstrate leadership and prsent themselves effectively to potential employers to land their dream jobs, she said.

For Kenan-Flagler students trying to create a balanced and fulfilling personal and professional life in uncertain times, Mindy Storrie provides crucial support. Her official title is director of the MBA Office of Career Services (OCS), but optimistic realist is a fitting description. Her 10-plus years of management experience at General Electric, plus her Kenan-Flagler MBA, give her ample empathy and experience in understanding attitudes and aptitudes, and perspectives both corporate and academic.

Think motivator, personal counselor and public speaker. Her mantra for students is no surprise: Face the facts of the current economy. Prepare to compete.

"My role is to be honest, and that means not always telling them what they want to hear," said Storrie. In the rough economy of the early '90s, she was laying people off at GE. "Assisting people in finding opportunities and exploring career changes is a much better scenario for me."

The resume binders on Storrie's office bookcase are filet-mignon thick, containing mini autobiographies of students whose credentials are impeccable and whose education, skills, work experience, volunteer, travel and personal histories are already meaty enough for bestsellers.

In marketing lingo, OCS is helping students "package" themselves beyond single sheets of paper, creating confident individuals who know what they have to offer, how to communicate it and what they want in return. Students need to demonstrate leadership, offer transferable work experience and skills and effectively present themselves to earn the $100,000 starting salary and sign-on bonus available to top MBA graduates, Storrie said.

"We've shifted our workshops, training and library resources to teach students how to be more marketable and persuasive in their communication," Storrie said. "Cover letters now need fine-tuning to convince companies to create jobs."

Networking is essential.

"Six degrees of separation" is the interpersonal-links theory and basis of networking: You know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, and there are no more than six people separating you from anyone else in the world.

Forget the sometimes scary world of job hunting - "six degrees of separation" can be a job hunter's dream.

Storrie elaborates: "Students sometimes misinterpret 'who' has networking potential. They think 'who' means they must know the person with a particular job opening at a particular company. Instead, they must communicate to everyone they know that they are MBA candidates, what their career goals are and what they offer prospective employers."

In light of the current market, on-campus corporate recruiting has been severely diminished at business schools across the country. Students are spending their own time and money for treks to New York, Houston and Washington, D.C., for informational interviewing and alumni hobnobbing.

"Corporations have the opportunity to pick the best of the best," Storrie said. "Job candidates must have flexibility in career goals and realistic expectations and know their competitive edge."