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National Black MBA Association Conference 2017 in Philadelphia


By Bernard Saunders, MBA '19

Bernard Saunders after his interview at NextEra Energy.
This was my first time attending the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Conference, and it was a whirlwind. I started preparing in the summer before first-year MBA orientation after speaking with the Career Management Center (CMC) staff, who advised that I attend and put a lot of time and energy into applying for internships well in advance of the actual career expo. Starting in July, I checked the NBMBAA job board each day to find the right internship opportunities, and I continued to refine my resume. Multiple times I scoured the whole NBMBAA job board, which often had over 1500 jobs posted at one time!

The hard work and deliberate planning paid off. By applying so early in the process, I had seven interviews and three company social events lined up before NBMBAA even began. A lot of the CMC programming in August and September is focused on winning job interviews on the floor in the first two hours of the career expo. The career expo floor is a bit of a circus, as there are over 200 companies there who evaluate your potential fit in a matter of seconds. The CMC prepared us for the chaos with mock interviews and pitch practice – too many times to count – and if you present yourself clearly and confidently there is plenty of opportunity to land an interview on the floor. While I did land an additional interview on the floor, I’m glad I did most of the work up front.

The most difficult part about the whole experience is balancing classes with the applications, interviews, company social events, and company research; having to learn about different industries and prepare for interviews in a variety of roles/industries presented its own set of challenges. Overall, I think the NBMBAA experience was very worth it – and I think my classmates agree. Multiple classmates received job offers from the NBMBAA career expo.
As Bernard notes, the expo floor is a bit chaotic.

I also participated in the NBMBAA Case Competition, which overlapped with the career expo. My team – which included three other Georgia MBAs – didn’t place, but I anticipate a stronger showing next year now that we know what to expect.

My main advice for students new to the NBMBAA experience would be to prioritize your time and be deliberate in applying, prioritize your time at expo itself, and prioritize your social events by which companies you would actually like to work for. To make my time in Philadelphia most effective, I mapped out the companies on the floor, planned my wardrobe and packed my suitcase well in advance, and prepared thoroughly. I’m proud to say that because of the hard work that I put into preparing for NBMBAA, I have many great options for an internship this summer that will take my career to the next level. One leading financial firm created an M&A role for me, and they’ve never had an intern in that group before. So my final advice is to talk to companies that you’re interested in, even if the advertised roles aren’t quite what you’re looking for. If you impress your target companies, they may even create a position for you to attract good talent!

[Editor’s note: Every year, a large portion of our MBA student population attends the career expo put on by the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA); in 2017, Philadelphia was the host city and this was an even larger event than in previous years since NBMBAA combined forces with Prospanica. In most years, Prospanica and NBMBAA are the two largest national MBA career fairs. While there is a focus on recruiting diverse talent at these two events, any of our MBA students are eligible and encouraged to attend NBMBAA and/or Prospanica. There are other population-specific MBA Career Fairs, including the Asian MBA Career Expo, National Association of Women MBAs Conference, MBA Veterans Career Conference, and Reaching Out MBA Conference (ROMBA). This year, we had 74 Full-Time MBAs and 24 Professional MBAs attend. In 2018, NBMBAA will be in Detroit and Prospanica will be in Milwaukee.]

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