What does the job search look like for MBA students? How does it unfold at each individual school? The Clear Admit Career Services Q&A Series is designed to answer those questions and more—and we’re kicking off the newest round with an interview with Sue Kline, co-senior director of the Career Development Office (CDO) at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Kline kicked off her own career working as part of Sloan’s CDO more than 30 years ago. Five years in, she left to pursue a graduate degree and then worked for more than a decade in human relations at Boston Consulting Group and Hewlett-Packard, learning the industry side of things intimately before coming home again to Sloan 14 years ago.
“Working in a university was the kind of work I most wanted to do,” she says of her 2001 return to Sloan. “I love being in a highly international environment,” she says. “And I like the literal work of career development at a university, which keeps you continually connected to the business world.”
But more than anything, it was the students that brought her back. “I really, really enjoy working with students,” she says. Of course she doesn’t get to spend all her time with students—as co-senior director she’s got a full plate that also includes administration, business development and working with industry. Even so, advising students is still her greatest passion and she makes sure to stay involved, she says.
Read on to learn more about the many hats Kline wears, the growth her department has experienced recently, how quickly recruiting sets in for first-year students and what prospective applicants can do to help prepare for their career search before even stepping on campus.
Clear Admit: How do you view your role as co-senior director of the Career Development Office? Is it to administer workshops? Counsel students? Counsel companies? Manage the entire office and oversee its various functions? All of the above?
Sue Kline: All of the above! I am responsible for the MBA, Master of Finance (MFin) and Master of Science in Management Studies (MSMS) students. My fellow co-senior director, Janet Marks, works with Executive MBA (EMBA) students, Sloan Fellows and alumni. We have many separate and distinct responsibilities, but we also share some.
In terms of what I enjoy the most, it would have to be working with students. Part of what brought me back to university work was the tremendous amount of energy at a school like MIT Sloan and the diversity of work you can take on in the career development world.
I also enjoy working with companies, connecting with alums when they come back to campus, and managing—especially co-managing—an office.
