
Accelerate Your Career Journey >>
Overview
The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business prioritizes career education beginning on day one of your program through a high-touch, individualized advising approach. As a Katz student, you’ll optimize your value through a career curriculum that equips you with the skills necessary to be a successful job seeker and effective employee. Your tailored experience with the Career Management and Corporate Engagement (CMCE) team will accelerate your career journey and maximize the return on investment of your Katz degree.
At Katz, we encourage you to live and practice what we call the 4 Es: Engage with the CMCE Team and professional development opportunities to become educated on best practices that will empower you to evolve into the business professional that you want to be.
Career Outcomes
As a Katz student, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with a wide variety of companies in established and emerging industries. Recruiters are interested in Katz students because they’re looking for well-rounded, prepared leaders who are ready to make an immediate impact on the company’s strategic goals. By engaging with the CMCE, you’ll create a network to accelerate your career journey.
Working with Career Management
Whether you are seeking a traditional role, planning to pursue additional graduate degrees, or are a budding entrepreneur, the CMCE team looks forward to partnering with you. The CMCE team provides Katz students with a wide variety of resources to support the job search. When working with us, you can expect:
- Individualized career exploration and counseling appointments with our career services team
- One-on-one assistance in developing resumes and cover letters
- Mock interview sessions
- Career development workshops and resources
- Access to Katz alumni
Programs and Highlights
When you join Katz, you’ll have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with current, real-life issues. The CMCE Team is dedicated to developing innovative professional development programming in real-time that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse, evolving student body. Examples of our integrated learning experiences include:
- Super Analytics Challenge: A one-week hackathon-style competition where data modeling and business analytics techniques are utilized to address the issue of homelessness in the Pittsburgh region—requiring students to apply their skills, talents, and business knowledge while working through a complex problem. Students are coached by experts from corporate partners from UPMC, Highmark Health, Accenture, SAP, the National Association of Counties (NACo), and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.
- Bridge Program: When the COVID-19 pandemic took full effect in Spring 2020, Katz developed the Bridge Program to help students attain purposeful, experience-rich internship opportunities and to aid organizations facing complex challenges in a time of great uncertainty. We invite you to hear from Katz students about their incredible opportunities by watching this video.
Career Resources
At Katz, you’ll have access to a variety of resources that the CMCE Team has identified as critical to your career and professional development. These resources include but are not limited to:
- Corporate Information Sessions: Katz students have the opportunity to connect directly with recruiters and learn more about employment opportunities through virtual and on-campus corporate information sessions. Connections made through these information sessions have led to interviews and job offers.
- Networking Events: The CMCE team regularly invites alumni, recruiters, and corporate partners to speak with groups of current students who have specific career goals and interests. Students have the opportunity to network with these guests to increase their industry knowledge and pursue any available roles.
- Mock Interview Day: Each academic year, the CMCE team invites recruiters, alumni, and friends of Katz to conduct mock interviews. These mock interviews intend to prepare students for real-life interviews by providing constructive feedback and instruction on how to effectively answer common behavioral questions.
- VMock: VMock is a 24-7 online resume-review tool that leverages data science, machine learning, and natural language processing to provide instant personalized feedback on your resume based on criteria gathered from employers and global best practices.
- Assessments: Katz students take assessments like CareerLeader (MBA Students only) to aid them in better understanding their own unique pattern of leadership tendencies, business-relevant interests, skills, and motivators.
- Firsthand: Firsthand is an indispensable database of information and solutions for students who are pursuing and managing high-potential careers.
- Interstride: Interstride is a one-stop-shop for international students that provides information on: global career opportunities, visa and immigration support, resources, networking, and more. This platform is recommended for use in conducting research on companies likely to sponsor (search roles from Top 500 H1-B companies), and learning best practices for promoting diverse experiences.
Meet the Team
Christopher Barlow
Director of Career Management and Corporate Engagement
cbarlow@pitt.edu
412-648-7263
Don Norrington
Associate Director, Katz Career Management
donn@katz.pitt.edu
412-648-1501
Samuel Musselman
Associate Director for Corporate Engagement
sam.musselman@pitt.edu
412-648-1507
Molly Christy
Assistant Director, Katz Career Management
machristy@katz.pitt.edu
412-328-0540
Renee Schiffhauer
Assistant Director, Katz Career Management
rschiffhauer@katz.pitt.edu
412-335-2799
Executives in Residence
Our Executives in Residence (EIRs) have significant experience in the professional world and are available to offer personalized advising support and career coaching for Katz students. As current or former senior leaders in a range of well-respected organizations, they know firsthand what it takes to reach the top ranks in the business world. If you’d like to meet with an EIR, book an appointment with them through Handshake or email careermanagement@katz.pitt.edu for more information.
Contact Us
301 Mervis Hall
412-328-9581
careermanagement@katz.pitt.edu
Looking to recruit Katz talent? Visit our recruiter page.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
Katz provides networking and career guidance early in the MBA process. The impressive number of events and case competition help me represent the school and keep me involved. I credit the unparalleled scholastic environment to an immensely knowledgeable faculty and camaraderie generated by the career office.
Katz is unique because of its genuine dedication to students. Career Management’s no-nonsense approach carefully creates a customized academic and career roadmap to ensure each student receives the necessary skills to secure a successful internship and job placement.