Placements at SDABAC: Understanding the role of Career Development Services (CDS) Team

SDA Bocconi Asia Center formerly known as MISB Bocconi has seen an impressive placement record over the years since its inception in 2012. For the International Master in Business(IMB) students the Career Development Services (CDS) team is an integral part of the B-School journey, CDS team helps the students make the right career choices through the two years on the campus & beyond.

The CDS Team comprises dedicated professionals with consolidated experience in supporting companies of all sizes, whether large corporations or growing start-ups, from all sectors and geographies. We shall now look at how CDS acts as the bridge between the ambitious IMB students and corporate recruiters.

Before the Start of IMB programme

The admission process of IMB programme is highly competitive wherein a good test score (CAT, NMAT, GMAT, GRE, or Bocconi Test) does not necessarily guarantee a successful selection. A strong emphasis on co-curricular, extra-curricular, & soft skills ensures that an IMB student is holistically evaluated before securing joining the programme. Hence, the IMB batch is diverse in its academics, work-experience, & sees a representation across Indian states. The CDS team facilitates a ‘Boot Camp’ which acts as a pre-course & gets the IMB candidates on a level playing field by helping them brush up their basics. The Boot Camp module has Industry interactions, courses on Analytics, advanced excel, career certifications and even self-paced learning opportunities through platforms like LinkedIn Learning.

The CDS team facilitates a ‘Boot Camp’ which acts as a pre-course & gets the IMB candidates on a level playing field by helping them brush up their basics. The Boot Camp module has Industry interactions, courses on Analytics, advanced excel, career certifications and even self-paced learning opportunities through platforms like LinkedIn Learning.

Facilitating Experiential Learning

The academic rigour of the IMB programme coupled with opportunities across competitions, clubs, live projects ensures that the student journey exciting yet fast-paced. To help navigate the same the CDS Team provides individual career counselling to each IMB student. They strive to help each candidate fully understand the industry of their interest and to evaluate the various options based on their profile and aspirations. They also facilitate insightful industry interactions leveraging Bocconi’s strong corporate network. Through the same, high-calibre students have managed to secure international live projects which provide a unique opportunity to learn and collaborate with industry professionals across the globe. To augment the curriculum there are options provided to students to take up one or more certifications that are supported/subsidised for the IMB Students. Some of them are KPMG Six Sigma Certification, KPMG Certification on Analytics, EY Valuations, etc. The overall learning programme varies according to each class profile and market trends, but always includes the fundamentals to provide IMB students with complete awareness of the job market and industry dynamics through experiential learning modes.

To help navigate the same the CDS Team provides individual career counselling to each IMB student. They strive to help each candidate fully understand the industry of their interest and to evaluate the various options based on their profile and aspirations.

Nurturing Career Readiness

To prepare IMB students for the most challenging selection processes of corporate recruiters, targeted, pragmatic career advice is provided on almost a day-to-day basis, most intensively during live projects, Internships and in the lead up to the placement months. Students are facilitated with various ​sessions and workshops such as career pathways - functional overview sessions, ​industry deep-dive workshop, resume building, mock interview sessions, public speaking, negotiation skills, case study preparation, leveraging LinkedIn, Product/Project Management & even Personal Finance and Tax. CDS spends a lot of focussed quality training hours with IMB students individually and collectively, always promoting personal responsibility and initiative. While the goal is to get the best career results by leveraging the Institution's resources and equal emphasis is given on nurturing the student's latent abilities and helping them make the best use of the knowledge and tools learned in the two years.

Students are facilitated with various ​sessions and workshops such as career pathways - functional overview sessions, ​industry deep-dive workshop, resume building, mock interview sessions, public speaking, negotiation skills, case study preparation, leveraging LinkedIn, Product/Project Management & even Personal Finance and Tax.

Whether you are pursuing the IMB to find your true career passion or to maximise your pre-determined career goals, the CDS team will support you throughout the entire process and in them, you will find mentors during the two years and beyond.

IMB Placements Report 2020

About the author:

Suganthan Asokan is a BTech in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology. With over five years of experience of working with renowned companies such as Accenture, Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, he is now working as an Assistant Marketing Manager at SDA Bocconi Asia Center.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha