Marquee career development events offer Harris students “one-stop shopping” in the private, public and nonprofit sectors
October 20, 2016
Ed Finkel

On September 30, some 150 Harris students spent a day exploring opportunities in the consulting world. They heard from panels of alumni who described their consulting careers, as well as second-year students who had completed consulting internships. Meanwhile, others in the field shared tips on how to write resumes, pen cover letters and master case interviews.

The private sector-focused conference was the first of a three-part series of opportunities for Harris students to learn about and network with those in the workplace. On October 20, students explored public sector careers at a daylong conference; a series of events at the end of the month will introduce students to opportunities in the nonprofit world.

“We as a career office feel the way we can best serve our students is to connect them with the right people at the organizations they want to be in,” says Adam Heeg, director of the Harris Career Development Office, who notes that the school also hosts information sessions with individual employers roughly every other day throughout Fall Quarter. 

Heeg says the consulting event came together because the Career Development Office has noted a growing interest in consulting among students, and sought to bring students together with those in the field. Alumni and representatives came from more than a dozen consulting firms, including Accenture, RW Ventures LLC, McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, Cambridge Global Advisors, Manatt Health, Andersen Economic Group and Civic Consulting Alliance.

“It was as close to one-stop shopping as you can get,” says Heeg.

Alma Ceballos, associate director of career development for private sector relations, says the event both introduced students to potential employers and also offered them a sense of the various types of consulting available. “It was a conference for not only career preparation but also exploration,” she says. “The panel let us bring in employers who haven’t come to Harris. They could meet Harris students and to understand the caliber of students we have here.” 

The panel offered unique firsthand accounts from alumni—“how they leverage their Harris education in the consulting world, and what that career trajectory has been,” says Ceballos. Further insights came from the summer experience panelists, who described what to expect from a consulting internship, and helped first-year students decide whether they’d like to pursue one.

Students seem to appreciate the experience. “I met one prospective student on the way out, and he talked about how this was, for him, an illustration of our commitment to supporting students’ careers,” says Ceballos.

Student Gracelyn Jennings-Newhouse attended the event because she recently had become interested in consulting as a career path, and wanted to find out more about the varying firms and industries within the field. 

“Having such a diverse array of private, government, and nonprofit sector employers to speak with really helped me clarify the different options I might have as I explore a career in consulting,” she says. “I loved the range of opportunities to engage with these firms, from the skills-based workshops to the more freeform networking sessions where we got to talk one-on-one to form personal connections with the people who actually do this work.

“All in all, I think it was a terrific way to kick off the year, and incredibly beneficial for students,” says Jennings-Newhouse.

On October 20, a similar public sector career day featured workshops and panels with organizations like the U.S. Government Accountability Office, State of Illinois Secretary of Education, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, and the mayor’s offices of both Chicago and San Francisco. “That again was one-stop shopping—a chance for students to connect with folks at all levels of government,” says Heeg.

Employers in the nonprofit sector will visit during a series of events that will include the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Each event provides multiple platforms for students to connect with employers, says Heeg. “The thing about policy that’s exciting, but also challenging, is that students can do just about anything. So where do we begin? These types of events give students a feel for what are the types of work students and alumni are doing, who may have a policy background similar to theirs.”