Welcome

From the Director of the Parker Career Management Center

Phil Han
Assistant Dean of Career Services and Director of the Parker Career Management Center

Congratulations on your acceptance to UCLA Anderson!

The Parker Career Management Center team is looking forward to seeing you when you arrive on our beautiful campus this summer!

The Parker team has put in much time and effort into designing and implementing the best career management program possible, and throughout your two years at Anderson, we hope that you’ll actively engage with us to thoughtfully explore and work to pursue your post-MBA career goals. The following are just a sample of the career development programs and resources that will be available to you as full-time MBA students at UCLA Anderson, and we look forward to partnering with you in your career journey.

Contact Parker CMC

Maddy Wojdak Marquissee ('19)

From Emerson College to Forté Fellow to traveling the globe representing Riot Games. She coached at Parker Career Management Center, where she was named UCLA Anderson ACT Coach of the Year, and she worked to bolster the gaming program at the Entertainment Management Association (EMA).

Parker Offers

The Parker Career Series

A 4-month for-credit course is designed to walk you through every step of the career search process. Our hybrid learning model takes you through the fundamental stages and skills needed in the career search process with ample time and resources available to explore industries and functions. Successful completion of this course is required to maintain access to career services throughout your time at Anderson.

Individual advising

Parker’s professional advising staff, comprised of 8 generalist advisors with various industry vertical alignments, is available for individual sessions throughout the year. One advisor will be assigned to you to track you during your time at Anderson, but you’ll have access to work with any advisor throughout the two years to discuss various career-related topics from exploration and research, job search strategies and skills development, and decision making and more.

Anderson Career Teams (ACT)

A unique program where second years, who have recently gone through the recruiting process in various industries and functions, work in tandem with the Parker Career Series, advisors, and professional clubs throughout the first quarter to take the instruction and make it specific for the students’ industry and functional interests. This year, there were 41 teams lead by 77 second year coaches.

Small group workshops

Parker staff host small group workshops throughout the year covering relevant and timely job search topics including 30-second pitches, networking, interview prep/practice, and more. Students get a view of what and how these topics are covered as well as how prepared they are in comparison with classmates. These sessions have surprised some students and jumpstarted them into higher levels of effort.

Corporate recruiting activities

Parker team partners with hundreds of employers interested in MBA talent to facilitate a variety of recruiting activities throughout the year including info sessions, coffee chats, networking receptions, career fairs, job postings, and interviews. Although some of these activities have shifted to a virtual format in recent years, many have also returned in-person allowing for more personal engagement and connections between employers and candidates.

We know that you are excited to get started on your MBA journey, and there will be great ways for you to get started even before you come to campus. Starting this spring, pre-onboarding research materials, assignments and information will be listed in your Status Page, and more details with descriptions and due dates will be available in late-May. In the meantime, we suggest a couple of things:

Reach out to your personal and professional network to let them know that you plan to return to school and share with them your areas of interest. Personal networks are often the most helpful, and you never know whom or what kind of connections or information/insights they might have or information that could be helpful in your own career development.
Start reflecting on your own interests, motivators, and strengths/skills from a career perspective and begin your research into those career options. The Parker team believes that the most successful students are the ones who have gone through this process in a thoughtful manner to target and pursue opportunities that fit who they are and want to be.

We will continue to communicate and provide more updates throughout the coming months, and starting this spring, we will update this site with additional job search resources and pre-onboarding assignments so that you will be prepared to make the most of your first weeks at UCLA Anderson.

We look forward to getting to know you and partner with you over these next two years!

Sincerely,

The Parker Career Management Team