Career Services
- Career Resources
- The Graduate Career Services Office (GCS) serves the professional and career development needs of MBA students in all of Kelley's graduate programs. As members of the GCS team, Professor Bob Grimm and Professor Ken Wendeln serve the immediate needs of Evening MBA students in Indianapolis and Carmel through career coaching, personal assessment, and guidance on building a professional network. Both faculty members leverage decades of Fortune 500 executive experience to help students position themselves for upward movement in organizations. Based in Bloomington, Dave Thompson assists students with resume preparation, job search strategy, and interviewing skills. She also manages evening students who pursue on-campus interviewing with MBA recruiters in Bloomington each fall.
- Professional development curriculum
- The Evening MBA program is a national model of how to meet the career service needs of working professionals who complete their MBA on a part-time basis at a nationally-ranked business school. During their first semester, students complete a battery of personal assessments and participate in a leadership simulation to identify professional strengths and weaknesses. Coursework and GCS career coaches help students use this data to formulate a career action plan by the end of the third semester. In a lecture series each spring semester, executives from successful Indiana companies (large and small) expose students to career tracks and opportunities in different industries. Local executives also mentor small groups of interested students with common career interests. MBA enterprises allow students to gain professional experience through consulting projects with Indiana companies. The program offers a for-credit course on career management for students close to graduation.
- On-campus interviews in Bloomington
- A small number of Evening MBA students elect to interview alongside the full-time MBA students in Bloomington each fall. Success in this process requires rigorous preparation that begins in March under the guidance of GCS staff in Bloomington. Students must be willing to drive to Bloomington multiple times, especially between August and November. Students win few job offers that keep them in Indiana through this process, so a willingness to relocate must be strong. Instead of interviewing in Bloomington, students who seek to change employment but stay in Indiana are encouraged to conduct a self-directed job search with the assistance of GCS.
- HiPo Program
- Instead of a job change, most Evening MBA students seek advancement with their current employer. The HiPo (High Potential) Program meets the needs of these students through group coaching that helps students appraise their organizational environments, increase self-awareness, and act upon opportunities to demonstrate value for their employers. Expanded use of assessments and an emphasis on self-reflection help students overcome self-imposed professional limits.
- Job Loss "911 Service"
- Nearly all Evening MBA students work full-time and rely on some form of tuition subsidy from their employer. Students who unexpectedly suffer job loss can call upon GCS for help in identifying a job search strategy targeted to restore employment in the short run and enable completion of the MBA degree.
