MBA Career Development

A comprehensive MBA career management programme designed to help you maximise your employability

Closely aligned with the Aston Edge, we run a comprehensive career management programme of activities for the Aston MBA, which has been designed to help you maximise your employability. This programme is coordinated by our dedicated MBA Careers Consultant who can provide career support such as:

  • deepen your understanding of the job market across the globe and in the UK
  • refine your interview technique
  • build strategic networks
  • help you to take control of your own professional development

The skills you develop on the Aston MBA not only prepare you for your next move, but also to your whole career.  When you graduate with an Aston MBA you will have developed a far greater appreciation of your strengths, abilities, capabilities, and the confidence to communicate to potential employers, or  to start your own business.

Season 6 - Episode 5 - MBA students at Aston Business School focused on their personal and professional development

Yasmin Ansari, Aston Business School's MBA careers consultant, explains how students benefit from a module called Aston Edge, focusing on career skills and behaviour science. She said MBA students are fully engaged, with “super ambitious and super driven” career aspirations, and that their courses focus on real-life applications and case-based learning.

Release date: July 2023

Read the full press release.

The MBA Career Management Programme

Careers Workshops

A range of topics are covered in a planned programme of weekly workshops to ensure MBA students are well supported and prepared for making strategic career plans. These include topics such as:

  • Self-analysis and decision making techniques
  • Proactive job search techniques
  • making winning applications
  • Preparing for assessment centres
  • Practice psychometric testing
  • Interview preparation
  • Practice interviews with a wide range of visiting managers from industry

Visiting consultants are invited in to deliver sessions, for example on networking skills, negotiation skills, interview techniques and to run workshops focusing on different occupational areas.

Individual appointments can be made with our MBA Careers Adviser, and MBA participants can discuss any aspect of their career planning, job hunting strategy and career development.

Visiting Speakers

A wide range of speakers engage with the MBA programme regularly, sharing their expertise in a variety of industry sectors and functional areas. These include:

  • business and management consultants 
  • banking and finance professionals
  • marketing professionals
  • HR Directors
Online Resources

Our extensive range of online resources includes access to specialist MBA vacancy websites, careers information websites, and career planning tools, such as Career Leader and QS Global Workplace. We can also link you to executive recruitment agencies and  provide advice on career evaluation and change. One-to-one appointments with our careers consultant can be set up remotely if you are not studying with us on campus.

MBA Consultancy Project

This is a very important assessed part of your MBA where you can put your MBA learning into practice and gain valuable experience. 

You will have the opportunity to apply for one of our employer-sponsored consultancy projects or you can opt for a topic of your own choice. 

Our previous MBA participants have undertaken projects for companies such as IBM, BT, Jaguar Land Rover, Deutsche Bank, the NHS and Mace Group as well as small enterprises and new businesses.

MBA Graduate Careers

Whilst investment banking and management consultancy have long been regarded as typical MBA careers, the list of companies who now hire MBA graduates is extensive. Some large national and multinational companies have specific MBA recruitment programmes e.g. GE, Philips, Johnson and Johnson, BT; many other companies will recruit MBA graduates into 'experienced or lateral hire' vacancies.

Here are some of the companies who have recruited MBAs from Aston Business School:

  • Ernst & Young
  • Pricewaterhouse Coopers
  • Accenture
  • KPMG
  • Bank of Tokyo
  • Mitsubishi
  • Ferrari Rolls Royce
  • Johnson and Johnson
  • Diamond Bank
  • Credit Suisse
  • Michelin
  • NG Vayasa Bank
  • Npower
  • Avon Cosmetics
  • Samsung Electronics
  • Nike
  • LG Electronics
  • Phyto Health Corporation
  • Emirates Financial Services
  • Wipro Technologies
  • General Electric International
  • Hyundai Motor Corporation
  • BP Royal Bank of Scotland
  • Mars
  • Kanebo
  • Bangkok Bank
  • Towers Perrin
  • IMS Consulting
  • Veolia
  • Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank
  • Teradata
  • CRU Stategies
  • Eli Lilley
  • First City Monument Bank

Roles that our recent MBA graduates have gone into include:

  • Senior Consultant in strategic finance with a consultancy
  • Financial Accountant with a bank
  • Head of Strategy and Planning with an electronics manufacturer
  • Business Process Consultant with an IT company
  • Chief Financial Officer with a steel manufacturer
  • Enterprise Risk Manager with a provider of financial services
  • Marketing Consultant with an advertising agency
  • Senior IT Associate with a pharmaceutical manufacturer
  • Head of International Marketing with a cosmetics company
  • Area Sales Manager with a leisure company
  • Project Manager with the NHS