DCU Executive MBA Careers Skills Day

March 14th 2019 – DCU Career Service, in collaboration with DCU Business School and DCU Alumni Office, organised a career and personal development day for Executive MBA participants. A programme of activities was created to assist EMBA participants in areas of self-awareness, leadership and career development competencies.

The result was a packed day consisting of 1:1 coaching sessions, mock panel interviewers, assessment centre feedback sessions and CV clinics.

Each element of the programme was delivered by top calibre professionals from organisations such as Deloitte, Central Bank of Ireland, Oracle, Kerry Foods and many more.

DCU Alumni who have gone on to positions of HR Director, recruitment or consultancy roles put our EMBAs through their paces in challenging mock panel interviews and provided immediate feedback on their performance. HR and management professionals ran CV clinics to provide personalised advice on CV’s, while professional coaches provided excellent career and personal development advice to EMBA participants.

Our EMBAs described the line-up of activities and the feedback obtained as ‘one of the highlights’ of their MBA journey thus far. The participants were very impressed with the extent of personalised feedback they received. They were grateful for the opportunity to be challenged by top professionals in a no-consequences context. This event is testament to the value to be obtained from collaboration between a Business School, Career Services and Alumni where each unit delivers on what it is best at.

The DCU Executive MBA programme is the capstone programme in the Business School and attracts a diversity of participants in terms of demographics, industry and professional expertise – participants must have at least a 2.1 degree and a minimum of 3 years management level experience. This calibre of EMBA participant and their organisations make a large commitment to completing an EMBA and they expect a professional offering of the highest international standard. The DCU Career Service delivered such an event this year as judged by our customers – the DCU Executive MBAs.

“The MBA Careers Day is a fantastic opportunity for our Executive MBA professionals to participate in leadership and developmental sessions to enhance their career transitions post MBA Award. Each MBA undertook a mock leadership panel interview with senior level industry experts, helping them to focus on future performance. The one-to-one coaching sessions and team dynamics feedback sessions enhanced personal development. There were 26 industry experts representing 18 employers supporting the event. The Careers Service is delighted to organise this career development event for the DCU Business School.” Yvonne McLoughlin, Head of Careers Service, DCU.