The full-time MBA class were in London in late November for the first time in their busy programme. The Careers Advancement Programme offered daytime events at the Work Foundation, which is Lancaster’s base near Westminster, focusing on networking and careers consulting and finance.

Our regular contributors, Derek Walker (former IB recruiter and head of Oxford Said Business School careers service), Don Leslie, (former consultant and recruiter) and Paul McCormick (IB professional now focussing on helping students into careers in the City), received excellent reviews for energetically helping to raise the new class’s skills in networking at senior level, getting under the skin of the lives of consultants and professionals in banking and related roles, and how to develop commercial awareness and display it in meetings and interviews.

Later at a venue incorporating part of the Roman London Wall, alumni, recruiters and Executive MBAs joined a networking event and heard Caroline Whaley (1995) deliver a workshop-style talk on corporate humanity. Caroline encouraged reflection on values and personal accountability for organisational culture, inviting us to be agents for change in widely-experienced corporate lives that can be a wasteland for personal happiness — the KPIs, targets and deadlines of each organisational level being the slayers of contentment for those on the level below. Particularly memorable was an exercise in which a situation was imagined from the point of view of a person giving feedback, the receiver and an observer, each participant playing all three roles and gauging potential effects. There was laughter, revelation, and inspiration, followed by resounding applause for Caroline’s insight and authenticity.

Developing links with recruiters to understand senior level roles is vital to MBA students. We were delighted to welcome guests from Capgemini, BT, Hays – Globalink (who place international MBAs into roles in SE Asia (two recent students have been placed by them in Amazon and L’Oréal)), Ricardo Strategic Consulting, DMW Group, Keytree and Gerson Lehrman Group. Further networking events are planned for 2020.