4. A Better Way to Gauge Company Culture, True Commitment to Diversity
Another recurring theme we encountered when asking students about what they valued most about the conference was getting an up-close, real-time glimpse of companies’ cultures. “You get to observe the way the people representing a company interact with one another and other candidates, and that can be very telling about the culture,” said Tuck’s Gordon.
Who a company decides to send to the conference also sends a signal. “There is a difference when a company sends actual diverse talent—and that might mean sending someone in addition to the actual recruiter,” said her classmate Goins. “It think it says something to see actual diverse employees there who want to bring diverse talent back to the company.”
While representation is important, authenticity is key. “When I have a conversation with someone from a company and I ask about what diversity initiatives the company has or what opportunities there are for people like me, I feel like you hear it in the answer if it is genuine or if it just sounds like it’s cookie cutter, from a script,” added Anderson. Not every company will have amazing success stories to point to, she continued. “Not everything is going to be rosy—some companies are working on it, and that’s okay,” she said. But for companies that say they want to have more diversity, she wants to see evidence of their commitment. “When I follow up and ask what they’re doing, I want a genuine answer, not just, ‘I don’t know.’”
For Kelley students Barbosa and Vilchez Kupres, getting to meet with company recruiters at the conference also sheds light on how open those companies are to hiring international students. “Yes, especially for us internationals, we need to understand if they are willing to sponsor,” said Vilchez Kupres. “It’s one thing to hire Latins that were born in the U.S., it’s another thing to see that companies really want internationals who have experience working in other countries.”
5. Inspiration
Last but certainly not least, students come to the NBMBAA/Prospanica conference to hear from trailblazing minority executives who have climbed the ranks to the highest levels in a business landscape that, despite progress, is still dominated by white men.
“One of our students is very connected with NBMBAA, and her primary purpose in attending the conference was to get inspiration,” said Melissa Uyesygi, associate director of diversity and inclusion at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. Foster School representatives and students attend the conference each year, she said. This year, though, the cross-continental location and associated cost of attending, coupled with the fact that the conference fell during the very first week of classes at Foster, kept the numbers lower than usual. Still, for the student seeking inspiration as well as a classmate hoping to connect with financial services firms who don’t recruit on Foster’s Seattle campus, the conference seemed worth the trip.
And for those seeking inspiration, it was abundant. A CEO luncheon panel discussion moderated by Carla Harris, Morgan Stanley vice chairman of wealth management, addressed the necessity of “next-level leadership” to drive results. The panelists—Marriot International CEO Arne Sorenson, GE Lighting President and CEO Bill Lacey, and Adtalem Global Education President and CEO Lisa Wardell—touched on everything from how they have faced their biggest challenges to the importance of servant leadership, with each offering up advice to the would-be CEOs in the audience on how to propel their leadership careers. “Just say ‘yes,’” counseled Sorenson. “Start living it now,” said Wardell. “It can’t be a job—it has to be a passion,” chimed in Lacey.
Other headliners offering words of wisdom and hard-earned tips for success included award-winning journalist and TV personality Tamron Hall and Washington Post sports columnist Kevin Blackistone, among many others.
As if the above weren’t reason enough to attend, the conference also included breakout sessions and workshops on topics ranging from “How to Make Your Side Hustle Your Main Hustle” and “Leadership in a Difficult Climate” to the “Business Side of Sports” and “Mastering the Career Pivot.” Case competitions, a pitch competition, and an array of social and networking events hosted by individual companies rounded out the conference’s five packed days of programming.
As Johnson’s Saunders-Cheatham pointed out, the conference also serves to jumpstart the career search process for many students. “It shocks them into realizing what it takes to be ready for the career search,” she said.
Next year’s conference will take place September 25-29, 2018, in Detroit, Michigan.
Pictured at top: Tuck second-year MBA students Bianca Goins, Sadé Lawrence, and Jodine Gordon.
