For some, the job at the startup they had targeted never materialized, or the “dream job” they had secured for an internship did not prove to be what they expected. For others, their searches involved a greater level of complexity, perhaps because of specific location requirements or partner concerns. Some students want to focus on culture and work environment, and found waiting until they no longer had competing academic and job search priorities enabled them to meet with companies in person to find that right fit. [...]

For Consumer Products companies interested in hiring HBS students for internships or full-time roles, Lauren and Katja stress the importance of connecting with the Career & Professional Development office for referrals. “The connection with our office has been an important source of referrals for Consumer Products companies, even for those companies who do not plan to post a position or are not quite ready to recruit” said Lauren. [...]

In a snapshot of the PresenceLearning leadership team taken this spring, CEO Kate Eberle Walker (MBA 2005) stands, smiling, just right of center. She’s flanked by three other women and four men—the gender-balanced C-suite she had been determined to build when she took the reins of the online special-education company in early 2019. “You have to be very deliberate and proactive to achieve this,” says Eberle Walker, who set and accomplished the same goal in a previous CEO role. “But it is important. Business needs gender diversity.” [...]

As part of my recruiting, I was able to meet on campus with Conor Walsh, Duolingo PM and HBS ‘18. Conor gave me context on what it was like to work at Duolingo as well as on the role of a PM on a day-to-day basis. This help was particularly useful because I had never worked in tech or in a PM role - I had previously worked in strategy and design consulting, but I really wanted to explore actually applying insights to change a real, live product. Over the summer, I got to do that and much more. [...]

Previous research shows that workplace depression and anxiety can be reduced by coaching employees to increase their resilience, the ability to maintain good mental health despite psychological or physical setbacks. In fact, one study found that over a two-month period, a business-initiated resilience program resulted in a significant reduction in presenteeism (employees working while sick), which led to a company gain of $1,846 per person in terms of greater productivity, the journal article says. [...]