The External Advisory Board- Wisconsin MBA

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Decisions are part of our everyday life. Some decisions are made in seconds, while others last days or months. For me, a decision that took a while was where to attend Business School. I spoke with a lot of schools and after much research, I decided to apply to Wisconsin. Although there are many reasons why I chose Wisconsin, today I'd like to focus on the External Advisory Board. 

"The A.C. Nielsen Center External Advisory Board is a highly involved group of senior level executives who serve as the voice of industry and help guide the development of program curriculum and networking for job opportunities... Each student is assigned two mentors within the external advisory board to assist in their career development."

I recently attended my first External Advisory Board (EAB) meeting, and it was nothing short of amazing. These senior level executives are extremely involved and are eager to guide and help students as they seek internships and full-time careers. I'd like to highlight 2 attributes that I witnessed in the board members this week. 

Humble Confidence 
The room was filled with 25+ executives with many years of industry experience (ranging from 7 years post MBA to 30+ years). As various topics of research were brought up you could see the confidence in their knowledge of the industry and where it is heading. Their comments, insights, and experience have proved to be invaluable to all students who have been part of the center. However even though they are experts, they exemplified humility. They were willing to listen and learn from students. They were eager to know how we, the students, can best utilize them and their resources for our benefit. They didn't care about titles, they cared about helping. 

Sincere Desire to help others
With all of the moving pieces of a company, many executives don't have the time to help young employees grow. The board is different. They are committed to help us in however we need help. One of them even offered me to come shadow his team and see what a day-in-the-life is like. My assigned mentors, both people managers, are able and willing to talk with me on a monthly basis to help in my professional development. Although the students have a big part in making sure this mentor-mentee relationship works, all the board members I spoke with were eager to help and talk to me. I started off on Thursday having 2 assigned mentors, and went home Friday with over 10 mentors. 

On, Wisconsin! 

Here is a list of EAB Members. 



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