Tag: Weston Career Center

Mary Houlihan, executive career coach at the Weston Career Center, wrote this for the Olin Blog.

Considering a career change? The Weston Career Center is excited to offer a free, comprehensive Virtual Career Boot Camp this fall to assist working professionals and alums with navigating career opportunities and transitions. 

This bi-weekly, eight-session series is designed to enhance fundamental career development and transition skills. Course leaders will provide content at each session. In addition, the sessions will be interactive and provide an opportunity for participants to share and ask questions, as well as get connected with other EMBAs, PMBAs, OMBAs and Olin alums. 

You can sign up for the entire series or for individual sessions, depending on your interest.  

The series runs from 6-7:30 p.m. every other Wednesday from September 7 through December 14.  When you register, you will be able to select the sessions you plan to attend. If you plan to attend the entire series, select all sessions. 

September 7: Taking Charge of Your Career—Learn to set career priorities and objectives, along with the importance of attitude, preparation and giving throughout your career.

September 21: Defining Your Personal Brand—Know who you are, your value proposition and how to differentiate yourself.

October 5: Communicating Your Brand—Create effective marketing messages and materials including your resume, networking documents, and other visuals.

October 19: Leveraging Social Media­—Learn how to use the power of social media, particularly LinkedIn, in communicating your brand. Learn how to be found by recruiters and hiring managers, improve your profile, expand your network, and apply for open positions. 

November 2: Creating Your Career Campaign—Establish your career/transition strategy and plan, including the use of resources, how to prioritize your efforts and how to stay organized.

November 16: Building Professional Relationships—Create strategies and approaches to build and expand your relationships over time.

November 30: Acing the Interview—Prepare for and excel at job interviews, improving your chances of getting an offer. 

December 14: Negotiating the Offer—Negotiate an offer that works for you and is consistent with your value, ultimately improving your compensation over your career.

Sign up here.  

Cost: FREE

WCC career coaches Mary Houlihan, Don Halpin, and Anne Petersen will lead the sessions.

To maintain the confidentiality of attendees, the sessions will not be recorded. The WCC will provide PowerPoint slides after each session. 

Please contact maryhoulihan@wustl.edu with questions.

Twenty-two WashU sophomores used spring break to visit eight investment banks during WashU’s New York City Investment Bank Trek, March 14-15. It was the first such trek since 2019.

Olin’s Weston Career Center’s Lee Pelligreen, EMBA 44, employer relations lead-finance, and Burt Sheaffer, finance industry specialist, facilitated the trip and shared the experience with the Olin Blog.

Why would sophomores join the NYC IB Trek?

“For the students, it was an amazing chance to step outside of academia for an in-person glimpse into the world of finance. The trek offered connections and learning opportunities with the passionate support of alumni.

“‘I took away insights about companies, got to meet successful people across the finance world, and gained a new framework for decision-making,’ one student wrote about the experience.

“The trek offered students the chance to learn about different sectors of investment banks, explore careers, and network and connect with alumni.”

How crucial was WashU alumni support?

“This trek could not have happened without the support of the WashU alumni. 

“Thank you to alumni at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, HSBC Global Banking and Markets, Groupe Crédit Agricole, Lazard, Guggenheim Partners, Financial Technology Partners and Edgemont Partners for hosting us.”

Anything else you’d like to add?

“A shout out to Molly Mulligan, senior associate director of University Advancement Programs at Olin, and to the Advancement team for organizing an alumni roundtable on the first evening, where the students continued networking.

“And the trek was capped off at Elliott Management, with Steve Cohen hosting a dinner finance experience along with alumna Bridget Han.”

Cohen, BSBA 1989, is an equity partner at Elliott, and Han, MACC 2013, is a principal at NY Family Office.

“We look forward to watching the alumni continuing their career paths. And we look forward to the time when these sophomores support future sophomore bears in NYC!”

Considering a career change? The Weston Career Center is offering working professionals and alumni a comprehensive Virtual Career Boot Camp this spring to assist with navigating career opportunities and transitions. 

The bi-weekly, eight-session series is designed to enhance fundamental career development and transition skills. Course leaders will provide content at each session. In addition, the sessions will be interactive and provide an opportunity for participants to share and ask questions, as well as get to know other EMBAs, PMBAs and Olin alums. 

You can sign up for the entire series or for individual sessions, depending on your interest.  The series runs from 6-7:30 p.m. every other Wednesday from January 19 through April 27. When you register, you’ll get a follow-up email to select the sessions you plan to attend. If you plan to attend the entire series, select all sessions. 

• January 19: Taking Charge of Your Career—Learn to set career priorities and objectives, along with the importance of attitude, preparation and giving throughout your career.
• February 2: Defining Your Personal Brand—Know who you are, your value proposition and how to differentiate yourself.
• February 16: Communicating Your Brand—Create effective marketing messages and materials including a resume, one-pagers and other visuals.
• March 2: Leveraging Social Media­—This session focuses on the power of social media, particularly LinkedIn, in communicating your brand. Learn how to be found by recruiters and hiring managers, expand your network and applying for open positions. 
• March 16: Creating Your Career Campaign—Establish your career/transition strategy and plan, including the use of resources, how to prioritize your efforts and how to stay organized.
• March 30: Building Professional Relationships—Strategies and approaches to build and expand your relationships over time.
• April 13: Acing the Interview—Preparing for and excelling at job interviews, and improving your chances of getting an offer. 
• April 27: Negotiating the Offer—Negotiating an offer that works for you and is consistent with your value, ultimately improving your compensation over your career.

Sign up here.

Cost: Free.

WCC career coaches Mary Houlihan, Don Halpin, Anne Petersen and Molly Thompson will lead the sessions.

To maintain the confidentiality of attendees, the sessions will not be recorded. The WCC will provide PowerPoint slides after each session. 

Please contact maryhoulihan@wustl.edu  with questions.

All of Weston Career Center’s 20 coaches embarked on a rigorous 30-hour training program this summer designed to empower our students and alums to reach their highest career potential.

“The accredited coaching training provided our team with the toolkit needed to partner with students and alums at any point in their career journey,” said Jen Whitten, the WCC’s associate dean and director. “All of our coaches have rich backgrounds and experiences, plus knowledge in core coaching strategies.”

Every coach earned the designation of Certified MBA Career Coach/Certified University Career Coach. The WCC is now one of fewer than 10 programs globally to provide its entire team with this level of training.

The team embarked on training led by The Academies, where coaches had an opportunity to practice new skills through the online coaching sessions and, between training sessions, to pair up to practice on a biweekly basis.

Each coach committed to a demanding five-month training program that included diving into professional coaching competencies founded in neuroscience research coupled with career management strategies. The team had weekly classes and daily homework while actively implementing these skills in their daily coaching appointments and reporting insights each week. Not only did they need to practice, but also each coach was required to reflect on their coaching while also receiving feedback from our instructors multiple times.

A focus on student empowerment

A job and internship search can be stressful, so it was important the team know how to best support our students and alumni. A crucial part of our learning was recognizing and helping the student who is in the red zone (emotionally “hot”) get to the blue zone (emotionally “available”), where they can think more clearly. Overall, the course helped coaches focus less on giving advice and more on student empowerment.

The coaches were trained to ask powerful, open, empowered-future questions (e.g., “What do you think would motivate someone to say yes to your request?”), helping students to be curious, to make connections on their own, and to own the idea they have come up with.

They learned to avoid closed questions, giving advice slipped into a question itself, and leading students to a particular answer.

“This training provided me with a coaching structure and strategy which has elevated my conversations with students in an incredibly meaningful way,” said Karissa Rusu, career coach for students in Olin’s specialized master’s programs. “I have noticed that students are walking away from an appointment with a specific action step and greater confidence in their own skills and abilities.”

Propelling forward the job search

Amy Johnson, a career coach for Olin’s BSBA students, noticed a renewed focus on the development of students’ career search skills throughout the self, story, strategy and journey model.

“The result is further student empowerment to propel their job search forward in the days and weeks that follow,” she said.

Susan Britton, founder and president of The Academies, said she was impressed with the group’s willingness to be vulnerable and with the solid questions they brought to each lesson about the process. She also remarked on their determination to participate, think strategically and remain highly engaged.

“The coaches were willing to take risks,” she said. “They recognized the change management taking place and still had an eye on the big picture.”

Eight core competencies

The International Coaching Federation has defined eight core competencies taught throughout the training:

• Demonstrates ethical practice
• Embodies a coaching mindset
• Establishes and maintains agreements
• Cultivates trust and safety
• Maintains presence
• Listens actively
• Evokes awareness
• Facilitates client growth

Pictured above, WCC career coaches from left to right, starting at the top row: Lenore Albee, Nan Barnes, Janelle Brooks, Taylor Burns, Chris Collier, Don Halpin, Mary Houlihan, Chesley Hundley, Meg Hunt, Amy Johnson, Christine Keller, Danny Kim, Jennifer Krupp, Anne Petersen, Sally Pinckard, Karissa Rusu, Mark Schlafly, Molly Sonderman, Molly Thompson and Jennifer Whitten.

In March, Chinese students gathered in Beijing and Shanghai for two weeklong residency programs. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the residencies were the first time many of the students met in person.

Members of the Weston Career Center team in both the US and China designed the programs, and undergraduate, MBA and specialized masters students attended.

Each day’s activities centered on one of Olin’s pillars of excellence: values-based, data-driven decision making; global experiences; entrepreneurial spirit; and experiential learning. The week culminated with an experiential learning project to solve a real-world business problem for the athletic footwear company New Balance.

Throughout the week, students interacted with classmates, engaged with alumni, listened to industry leaders and met with their career coaches.

The human connection

The opportunity to meet her peers face to face stood out to Ruxin (Andrea) Zeng, MSBA ’22. She’d met her cohort through Zoom, but the residency gave her opportunities to interact with her peers in a casual environment.

Learning from industry leaders

Wenxin (Hugo) Xue, MSCA ’22, enjoyed the opportunity to listen to industry leaders. As a business analytics student, he was excited to learn more about the future of big data and how it could affect his career.

Endless opportunities in business

Similarly, Yang Shen, MSBA ’22, found it helpful to learn more about different opportunities in business, whether he networked with employers or listened to various distinguished alumni.

The WCC team planned excursions for students to enjoy during breaks from their coursework. The Beijing students took a day trip to the Great Wall of China, while the Shanghai students took a night cruise down the Huangpu River.

Frans VanOudenallen, Olin’s director of executive career development, is retiring to spend more time with his 15 grandchildren and to travel. His last day is January 22.

VanOudenallen, 74, has worked for Olin for more than 12 years, sharing his wisdom, time and passion with Executive MBA students and alumni. He built Olin’s first career development program for EMBA students and managed a successful TEAM EMBA community, which now has 1,149 members who are at the ready to assist other EMBAs in their careers.

In all, VanOudenallen has coached more than 1,000 executives, including in Mumbai and Shanghai.

“The effective career coach cares,” he said in a recent interview on Zoom. “I would rather have as a coach someone who has average skills and cares about the person than someone who has terrific skills but doesn’t really care and blows you off, changes appointments, etc. And that’s what really is the essence of coaching. We should have that feeling of doing whatever we can to assist them in their career.”

VanOudenallen’s own coaching skills are top-notch, according to pages upon pages of letters from numerous EMBAs.

“Frans has impacted so many people’s lives, and many are grateful for his advice and unwavering commitment to their career success,” said Jen Whitten, associate dean and director of Olin’s Weston Career Center.

‘Able to draw out the best in us’

Take Don Halpin, EMBA 46, a retired US Air Force colonel and pilot. “You know how you meet people in your life who are remarkably humble but have incredible impact?” he asked. “Frans is one of those.”

Halpin met VanOudenallen in 2014 when Halpin enrolled at Olin. In 2018, Halpin was transitioning from healthcare systems engineering and product innovation in Peoria, Illinois, to the unknown in St. Louis. “Frans was there, ready to help.”

VanOudenallen “was always able to draw out the best in us and help us see things that we didn’t see naturally,”  Halpin said. Essentially, VanOudenallen helped Halpin translate his military background into the language of other industries.

“He helped us draw out the gold that we didn’t know was there,” Halpin said. “He could take people like me, with a military background. He took doctors. He took people from the corporate world. It didn’t matter the background. He was able to draw out the essence of that person’s personal brand, their passion, what they’re really good at, and help them craft their message as these people are going into a new environment.”

Halpin himself became the chief operations officer of Catholic Charities of St. Louis, with 1,400 employees, a $100 million budget and 100,000 people served annually in the St. Louis region. “It was the perfect fit of my skills and passion,” he said. “It wouldn’t have happened without Frans.”

He ‘truly cared about their success’

VanOudenallen, who founded the St. Louis-based nonprofit executive career coaching service Executive Connections, was hired in 2009 to work full time on helping Olin EMBA students find jobs.

Every day, VanOudenallen brought his personal, custom approach to supporting EMBAs in the program and as alumni in enhancing their careers, said Mary Houlihan, Olin executive career coach. “He got to know literally hundreds, if not thousands, of EMBAs both personally and professionally and truly cared about their success.”

Through one-on-one meetings and support groups for students and alumni, VanOudenallen honed in on some of the challenges particular to EMBA job-seekers.

“Executive MBAs have significant experience to draw on,” he told The Wall Street Journal in 2010. “Most of the time it’s an asset. But at other times, it can be a perceived drawback because their experience often comes from one silo, industry or discipline.”

They may feel that their experience in one area is not transferable to other companies or industries, he said. “But that is absolutely not true. … These experienced folks have to learn that what they know is transferable to many companies and experiences. That’s where I focus and get them to talk about how they can be successful.”

In addition to his role at Olin, VanOudenallen donated his time as a mentor with Olin’s Hatchery, which is for entrepreneurship students. On top of that, he has a private practice in which he coaches executives to optimize their performance within their organization or to transition to a new opportunity.

Advice: Be ‘a positive giver’

Those who turned to VanOudenallen for career coaching will remember him as a giver. It’s a philosophy he embraces while encouraging others to do the same.

“I talk a lot about collaboration, about being a positive giver and giving as opposed to being a taker ,” he says. In fact, the first book he recommends to EMBAs is “The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea.” In it, a go-getter named Joe discovers that changing his focus from getting to giving leads to unexpected returns.

Oh, one more piece of advice before VanOudenallen packs his bags. It’s advice he offers to EMBAS —and to his grandchildren: “Find what you love to do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Pictured at top: Frans VanOudenallen and his wife, Jean, with six of their 15 grandchildren.