Moore School of Business - Moore School - Professional Skills Development Course

Th Georgia Doran presents practical dining skills to students e experts call it “Boardroom Presence” – possessing the leadership, communication, and self-knowledge skills that will lead to success in today’s business world. The new Moore Professional Series, launched in the fall of 2004, provides a series of experiences and activities designed to enhance our graduate students’ boardroom presence.

“It’s not just how smart you are. It’s how well you know yourself, how you work with others, how you lead,” says Georgia Doran, associate director of the Moore Graduate Career Management Office. “These ‘soft’ skills, these ‘people’ skills, are very important.”

The Professional Series includes:

Career development classes that teach resume development, interviewing skills, and job search techniques;
Professional development activities that include “how to mix and mingle receptions,” etiquette instruction for meals, business-writing techniques, and seminars about how to conduct business in different regions of the world;
Personal development classes that enhance leadership and self-awareness skills, the latter developed through the respected Birkman Method; and.
Lunch and Learn sessions, where panelists from various industries provide their insight into the realities of different career paths.

The Professional Series “is giving our students the tools they need to get to the right place,” says Jane R. Willis, director of the Graduate Career Management Office. And, since the average professional today will change jobs at least seven times over his or her lifetime, these interviewing, job-search, networking, and negotiating skills are more important than ever. Graduate students taking the Professional Series courses and activities agree.

Understanding the Birkman Method and learning to apply its principles helped “draw me to the Moore School,” says Elena Arecco Bridgmon, 28, an IMBA student who hopes to land an internal auditing assignment abroad after graduation next May. The Lunch and Learn sessions and business etiquette activities have also been “great,” she says.

For Utah native Phillip P. Smith, 27, the opportunity to work one-on-one with Doran and Willis has been incredibly helpful. Before an interview for an internship with Ford Motor Co., Doran spent an hour going over specific dinner etiquette with Smith – from how to scoop butter onto your plate to how to pass the rolls to how to excuse yourself from the table. “I didn’t learn that in Utah,” he says. Smith got the internship.

Ryan Flaherty, 26, has learned the importance of sending a written thank-you note after a job interview – not just an e-mail. “Most everything in the business world is done now with e-mail,” he says. “But I have found that a written thank-you note helps us stand out.”

For Pedro Baez Gil, who grew up in the Dominican Republic and worked for the same company there for 11 years before enrolling in Moore’s IMBA program, the Professional Series has helped him improve his resume and be prepared for the job interviewing process. “I think this whole program will be a differentiating factor when we start interviewing for jobs,” he says.

Adds Smith: “Everything I’ve learned so far will help me with my career.”


At the Etiquette Luncheon, from left to right: Amanda Brown,sponsor, from KPMG, Bob Stacey, and Melissa Lumpkin		First year IMBA student George Hwang introduces himself to Sean Helsel, from the Pepsi Bottling Group, while Susanne Haines, also an IMBA student looks on.


Brenda Reuter, a corporate volunteer from Eli Lilly & Co., makes conversation with IMBA students.		Georgia Doran, associate director for career management, guides students though the complexities of formal dining.

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Teaching Practical Job-Seeking Skills to Our Students