Spears School of Business

Oklahoma State hosted five prestigious companies for an MBA networking event, via Zoom, on Sept 8. Recruiters from ExxonMobil, Heartland, Hilti, ISNetworld and Sandia National Laboratories each briefly highlighted their respective companies. 

 

Immediately following, MBA students were allowed to choose one of five breakout rooms to attend. The breakout rooms lasted 20 minutes and allowed for a more intimate connection to be made with the company of most interest to each participant. 

 

Zack Terry, a second-year MBA student, attended the Sandia breakout room.

 

“The three Sandia National Laboratories representatives were helpful,” he said. “I appreciated being able to get information from experienced employees, as well as feedback from an OSU alumnus with the first-hand view of being recently hired.”

 

Caleb Coats, an MBA graduate from the summer cohort, attended the ISNetworld breakout room.

 

“The breakout room was insightful and full of good information,” he said. “It was nice to interact with multiple employees and ask questions. I was able to gain a better understanding of ISN as a company, its culture and things they look for in a new hire.”

 

The recruiters themselves, several of whom were OSU graduates, echoed the sentiment of the participants.

 

“I thought the breakout session was great,” said Karen Canterbury, Senior Corporate Recruiter for Heartland. “The candidates all took turns and asked very good, quality questions. I’ve already gotten several LinkedIn connection requests and emails.”

 

“My candidates were well prepared, professional and all participated equally,” said Mark Rule, NGE (Neutron Generator Enterprise) Business Manager for Sandia.

 

Oklahoma State graduates have shown their mettle finding jobs in the workplace. Despite COVID-19 changing budgets and protocols, four of the five companies hired OSU graduates within the last 10 months.

 

Exxon Mobil’s representative shared that over the last five years, Oklahoma State has the highest retention rate of any university it has hired from.