STUDENT IMPACT STORY
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CDO Helps Student Persevere In Job Search
ejection, painful as it can be, is a part of life – especially for graduate students vying with their peers for top jobs. Sometimes, the company simply offers the position to someone else. The Career Development Office at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business can help students pick up the pieces from a job rejection and keep them focused on the goal of finding the right position for them. Jessie Katz, MM ’20, knew she wanted to get into healthcare consulting. It just took her a little time to find her niche in the field. The Denver native came to Michigan Ross after receiving her undergraduate degree from U-M’s School of Kinesiology. Toward the beginning of her time in Ann Arbor, she leaned toward a career in physical therapy. She shifted gears after two internships, deciding that PT may not be her true calling. She discovered the Master of Management Program at Ross and dove into the 10-month intensive degree program designed for recent nonbusiness graduates with little related work experience. “I knew I wanted to do some sort of healthcare consulting,” Jessie said, adding she was looking to blend her medical background with a business focus. “I knew there were other ways I could make an impact in healthcare.” Upon arriving at Ross, Jessie began meeting regularly with Josh Milligan, associate director of career coaching at the business school. “He recommended going to a bunch of company presentations, networking events, and tailoring my cover letters and resumes to those companies,” Jessie said. “ It was definitely helpful advice and helped me learn to navigate what recruiting looks like.” During the fall, Jessie was active in the recruiting process at Ross, with her best job lead coming from a financial planning firm. She made it to the final round of interviews with the company but was ultimately not selected for the position. Jessie, understandably disappointed, knew she needed to carefully consider her next move. She had a self-described “job-rejection therapy and reset” session with Josh at an off-campus coffee shop. Jessie decided to do everything she could to put herself in the best position to land the next job she felt passionate about, joining one of Josh’s Job Action Groups and attending the Master of Management Happy Hour events to further network and get additional support. “I was always incredibly impressed with Jessie’s drive and perseverance,” Josh said. “The career search process can be
incredibly daunting. We often tell students ‘It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon,’ and Jessie took that to heart. Like any good marathon runner, she took the steps she needed to in order to be successful. Jessie was always really honest with herself in recognizing when she needed to take a moment to pause her search so she could recharge. Just before she found her current role we had a great conversation that revolved around how frustrated and exhausted she felt. By verbalizing these emotions she was able to take ownership of them, move past them, and really devote her energy to the next opportunity that came along.” Josh encouraged her to remain open to a variety of possibilities, Jessie said. “He recommended getting exposure to different companies even if I wasn’t sure I wanted to work there. His advice to be open to everyone helped me weed out what I didn’t like to find what I did like.” What she did like was VillageMD, which came to campus this winter. The company – a leader in value-based primary care – specializes in going into physicians’ offices and helping them transition from the “quantity first” care model to “quality first.” After putting her focus into the opportunity, Jessie landed the job and is now employed at the Chicago-based firm as a strategy and operations analyst. “It’s a chance to change the healthcare system as a whole, from the practicing physicians who are actually working with the patients,” Jessie said. “I find that it’s making a really big impact.” Jessie said she owes a lot to the CDO for the staff’s assistance as she found her way along her career path. “People may go into Ross thinking that the CDO will hand them a job,” she said. “That’s definitely not the case, but taking advantage of everything they have to offer, whether it’s cover letter services or just conversation – even running into people from CDO in the hallway was really nice. You could talk to them about what’s going on, maybe after getting a rejection, getting that motivation to keep going, recommending that you take a break and focus on other things after that rejection.” The career-development services Jessie received were made possible in large part by the Michael Gross Student Success Fund, established by Michael Gross, BBA ‘83, and the Career Services Student Success Fund, established by Bryan Marsal, BBA ’73, MBA ’75. These funds were created with the goal of providing students with the resources needed to plan and secure successful careers upon graduating from Ross.