Job Fair Success

Lynn Sarikas, Director of Northeastern University's MBA Career Center, provides some tips on some of the ways to be the most successful when attending a job fair.

Preparation, preparation, preparation - critical to making a job fair a success
Prepare to sell yourself - have an "elevator" pitch ready to introduce yourself positively to employers and to quickly give them the headlines of who you are, what you are looking for and what makes you unique.

Prepare to present the best first impression - wear your best business attire, professional, conservative business suit is appropriate, good personal hygiene, no heavy fragrances, avoid flashy attire.

Prepare by educating yourself on the companies - review the list of participating companies, research each company, know what they do, who their customers are, what types of positions they are hiring for and any recent issues that have been in the press, differentiate yourself from others by being knowledgeable about the company.

Prepare by having an event strategy, don't start at the first table by the door and work your way around the room, you may spend more time waiting in line and miss the companies you most need to see, prioritize the companies you need to see and focus on meeting with those on the top of your list, quickly scope the room to see if a top priority company has no line or a very short one, but be willing to wait for those most important to you.

Have an ample supply of your resume - make sure it is perfect - no typos, etc. handout your business card as wellFollow-up is critical - Help them remember you by sending a polite, professional thank you note within 24 hours of the event, thank them for their time, let them what interested you from your conversation, they met many students that day so help them remember you, my personal preference is sending a handwritten note so you don't get lost in their long list of emails.

Your goal is to have the employers remember you but you want to be remembered for positive reasons - not the inappropriate attire, the heavy fragrance, the resume with typos or the mumbled introduction. You also don't want to be a clone. Every MBA could use the same set of cliched phrases to describe themselves - you want to let them know what is unique about you.

Remember who the customer is - you are selling yourself to the employer, don't focus exclusively on you - focus on what you can do for them, how do your skills and experience help them address a business need, relate a prior experience and accomplishment to what you could do for them, know what is important to them and show them how you can help.

At Northeastern University's MBA program, first year MBA students are required to participate in Career Management Class. We work with them to prepare them for their job search with workshops on resumes, cover letters, interviewing skills, job search strategy, networking skills and more. We also utilize HR professionals from our business partners to conduct mock interviews with our students to provide actionable feedback prior to our career fair so the students can refine and enhance their interview skills.

Value-Base Management

Some research was conducted by Professor of Finance and Insurance, Emery Trahan from Northeastern University College of Business Administration on value-based management. Below is an abstract and an introduction from the research piece.

We examine the performance of 84 firms that adopt value-based management (VBM)
systems during the period 1984-1997. The typical firm significantly improves matched-firmadjusted residual income after adopting VBM. This improvement persists for the five postadoption years studied. After controlling for possible sample bias, we find that large firms show less improvement than small firms. We find a negative relation between tying compensation to VBM and post-adoption performance. We also find that firms reduce capital expenditures following VBM adoption, but that the reductions in spending do not differ based on the firms’ growth opportunities. Overall, the evidence suggests that VBM improves economic performance and the efficient use of capital.

Effective corporate governance and financial control includes the use of monitoring and incentive mechanisms to align divergent interests between shareholders and managers and encourage the creation of shareholder value. Value-based management
systems (VBM) provide an integrated management strategy and financial control system intended to increase shareholder value by mitigating agency conflicts. In concept, VBM reduces agency conflicts and helps create shareholder value since it reveals value increasing decisions to employees, allows for easier monitoring of managers’ decisions, and provides a method to tie compensation to outcomes that create shareholder value.

Asset Allocation And Presidential Elections

With the topic of presidential elections being an active topic in the news, some research was conducted by Professor of Finance and Insurance, Emery Trahan from Northeastern University College of Business Administration on tactical asset allocation and presidential elections. This paper was originally published in the Financial Services Review in 2006. Below is an abstract and an introduction from the research piece.

Over the past 75 years, common stocks performed better under Democrats, while U.S. government bonds and Treasury (T) bills performed better under Republicans. Using a mean-variance framework, we find that Democrats provide better risk-reward opportunities for portfolios weighted toward stocks, while Republicans provide better tradeoffs for portfolios weighted toward government bonds and T-bills. More recently, Republicans provide better portfolio opportunities than Democrats for a bond-stock allocation range typical of diversified investors. Moreover, when segmenting the value stock (style) premium by political party, we find that Republicans provide better risk-reward tradeoffs than Democrats for portfolios of value stocks, bonds, and bills.

The issue of tactical asset allocation (TAA) around calendar events, such as U.S. presidential elections, is a controversial one for investors.1 At the heart of the matter is whether or not the capital market is efficient in the sense that security prices fully reflect the information content of known events. If so, then calendar events, such as presidential elections, are irrelevant to current investment decision making because security prices already reflect the information content of any perceived patterns or cyclicality. Conversely, if investors evaluate the investment consequences of calendar events in a somewhat inefficient market, or if the outcomes of presidential elections impact the returns on various asset classes, then a series of questions emerge that are relevant to tactical investing.
Applied to U.S. presidential elections, a prominent four-year calendar event, these active investing questions are as follows: Are asset prices impacted by a four-year presidential election cycle? If so, what are the effects on different asset classes (stocks, bonds, bills, etc.) according to the political party elected into office? More important, as presidential elections come and go, should investors depart from their long-term or strategic asset allocation to pursue a TAA posture?

Our initial focus is on whether asset returns vary by the political party in office. If asset prices are related to presidential elections, then investors will want to consider information pertaining to election outcomes in making asset allocation decisions. Tactical investing around a four-year election calendar would hold the possibility of earning superior returns (alpha). Anecdotalevidence suggests that many investors follow expected election outcomes closely.

iPhone and “Brand in the Hand” marketing

Prof. Fareena Sultan, Associate Professor and Robert Morrison Fellow at the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University in Boston gives her reasons why the iPhone is popular and how it fits into the cell phone market.
“At present, the iPhone is running on the ‘cool’ factor. This ‘cool factor’ results primarily from its innovative user interface.” says Professor Sultan.
Despite the ‘cool’ factor, several technical issues and constraints have been identified such as the short battery life, the use of older Edge technology rather than 3G, a closed platform resulting in a lack of applications for the phone, slow e-mail connection issues, and the exclusive arrangement with AT&T among others.
“Given these technical issues, the iPhone is clearly not positioned at present as a personal productivity device such as the Blackberry,’ says Prof. Sultan.
“However, the iPhone is an ideal platform for what we call ‘Brand in the Hand’ marketing in our research studies. These campaigns allow companies to engage in opt-in branding and marketing initiatives using mobile devices. The iPhone’s innovative user interface lends itself ideally for such activities,” she adds.
Apple plans to sell about 1 million units by September 07 and 10 million by end of 2008. Innovator and early adopters are investing about $2000 for owning an iPhone (price of the phone and a 2 year contract with AT&T). “This consumer segment is ideal for engaging in ‘Brand in the Hand’ marketing activities as they are innovative and have the resources to respond to innovative products and services that are not only ‘cool’ but also make their life easier and productive,” says Prof. Sultan. “At present, neither Apple nor AT&T is utilizing the iPhone for such initiatives which they can experiment with despite the technical issues. Then, once these issues are resolved, the iPhone will have the potential to take a lead in such ‘Brand in the Hand’ marketing and branding activities,” adds Prof. Sultan.

iPhone Accessories?

Now that the iPhone has been released, would there be an opportunity for companies to develop accessories to be used with it? Fareena Sultan, a marketing professor at the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University addresses some of these questions below.

Is there an opportunity for Entrepreneurs to develop iPhone accessories?

Yes.
Accessories for the iPhone present a definite opportunity for entrepreneurs.
At present, the iPhone is running on the “cool” factor. Consumers are paying $600 for this new cool “toy” (95% of the units sold are the 8 GB version costing $600). Since the iPhone is targeted as a cool toy, the market is wide open for “cool” accessories.
Additionally, iPhone users are expressive and communicative. They are investing about $2000 for owning an iPhone (price of the phone and a 2 year contract with AT&T). These premium consumers would also be looking to accessorize their cool premium phone with cool premium accessories.
Soon after the launch of the iPhone, companies introduced accessories such as headphones, headsets, skins or cases, chargers, adapters and docks. Although the market is still wide open to innovative entrepreneurs, this market is also a challenging one. Since the iPhone is targeted as a premium product, it is doubtful that users will choose fake or cheap accessories for their expensive “toy.”

When's the best time to jump in? Will it last?

The best time to jump in is now. Early entrants will gain traction in the accessories market. Apple plans to sell about 1 million units by September 07 and 10 million by end of 2008. So, the market for accessories is expected to be growing and profitable. If the iPod is any example of the accessory market’s potential for a device from Apple, the future for the accessory market for the iPhone looks promising.

What Hedge Funds Have Been Hiding

With the recent Hedge Fund problems, Harlan Platt, a business school professor at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration and turnaround expert, wonders if the subprime crisis will shine light on assets the hedge funds may have been hiding:
"Another problem that the recent financial crisis has revealed is that when hedge funds own non-listed assets that they get to set the price themselves," Prof. Platt suggests. "This is kind of like letting student write an exam and then grade it themselves with the teacher never seeing their paper. Not surprisingly, every student has earned an A. There is an element of this in the hedge fund market. Funds invested in illiquid assets pray that those assets don't trade in this tumultuous period because then they would need to reveal their portfolio. You have to wonder how badly some of these highly leveraged funds have done."