Career Development for Working Professionals (CDWP)

Liesbeth Van Loock, Assistant Director for Alumni Career Development
Career Development for Working Professionals (CDWP)

Through its portfolio of alumni resources, 15 alumni coaches worldwide and a full-time dedicated Assistant Director for Alumni Career Development, INSEAD is increasing its career development support to INSEAD alumni globally.

Lifelong career support: online and tailor-made approach
Career management is a lifelong process and each path to professional success is different. INSEAD therefore offers alumni a range of online career resources, designed to complement individual career coaching sessions. From sector-advisory videos to webinars by world-class career development specialists, the online resources help you fine-tune your target roles and build more meaningful professional relationships in your targeted sector, to achieve your short- and long-term career goals.

Our mission at Career Development for Working Professionals, (CDWP) is to develop and nurture relevant, world-class and lifelong career development for the global INSEAD alumni community. Under the leadership of Stella Mantechou, Associate Director of CDWP, INSEAD has launched a range of new services to support alumni worldwide. Liesbeth Van Loock joined the department in September 2017 as Assistant Director for Alumni Career Development, and since then approximately 150 alumni have reached out and received career support.

Guillaume C., MBA’14D shared his experience of working with Van Loock: “I was considering a career change and read on the website about the two free hours of coaching for alumni. Liesbeth assessed my career needs via a Skype call and redirected me to relevant resources according to my career situation. Now I am very happy about my move to Google. I lead analysis/insights/strategies to grow Google’s advertising business in EMEA on the portfolio of businesses primarily driven by Android/iOS Mobile Apps. The session with Liesbeth gave me the sounding-board I needed and allowed me to restructure my search.”

With a team of 15 alumni career coaches worldwide, a portfolio of enhanced alumni resources and a full-time Assistant Director for Alumni Career Development, we are paving the path to ensure your transition process results in a career that is fulfilling, challenging and rewarding.

Carve out time for career design!
In today’s rapidly changing world, INSEAD alumni struggle to find time for well-thought-out career design.

Are you a young professional, mid-career or senior-level executive? Are you unsure how to structure your self-reflection process? How do you know if you are on track to finding that new, exciting role in the company that matches your professional aspirations, values and personality? Entrepreneurship may be your dream but when it comes to action, where do you start? Where can you find new energy and motivation, if you decide to keep your current job in parallel? Whether you are looking for a career change, a board member role or aiming for promotion within your current company, INSEAD can support you throughout your career.

“Play what you know and then play above that” (Miles Davis)
According to Liesbeth Van Loock, “the luxury of being polyvalent, after an MBA or EMBA, can become a burden during the first steps of the alumni job search journey. The question is often how to choose the right career path or how to change at mid-career level. After several months of sending out LinkedIn messages within their own network, many alumni come to a standstill. Alumni often know how to launch a product on the market but not how to market themselves successfully. Recently a project manager laughed out loud when he realised that career design is not rocket science, but a personal project that needs planning and focus to reduce wasted efforts.”

During her advisory sessions, Van Loock guides you through the process of defining a clear target role, for example, by narrowing down target geographies, defining your private and professional priorities and getting back to basics. She encourages you to make a number of practical lists; this enables the self-reflection phase to be specific and speeds up the process. Besides guidance on targeting, the second most frequent request is about how to build a network in a new sector. The INSEAD online career resources dedicated to this topic provide valuable insights and dos and don’ts, while the coaching sessions are designed to help alumni devise the right networking pitch and personal brand positioning.

Aiming for a sector change
The CDWP team shares best practices on topics such as how to change sector, how to develop relationships with headhunters and executive search firms, and how to execute a successful international job search. The team does not provide direct connections to specific sector recruiters but offers online tools that can help you build your own network and design a successful outreach. Our quarterly CV book for alumni also increases the visibility of active job seekers while the NAA newsletters on MyINSEAD give information about networking events around the world.

Aiming for a board role
CDWP’s objective is to provide lifelong career support and meet your career needs at different phases of your life. Are you wondering how you can be a credible candidate for a corporate board seat and are not sure where to start? Here are a few questions and resources to guide you.

• Start by reflecting on the cultural environment you want to be in. An industrial company, a technology group, an NGO? Each sector has its own dynamics and key profiles – engineers, educators, etc. Who are the opinion makers in your targeted companies? When companies need a board member, they often seek advice from a select group of opinion makers.
• Hearing from other successful alumni will also help with you to build your strategy as an aspiring board member: Simon Guild MBA’90J and Katja Berlinger MBA’05J share some great advice on this topic in our Alumni Experience Video series.

Services available to alumni
Have a look at the alumni website, where you will find at your fingertips a variety of up-to-date alumni resources to help you at any stage in your career. From online on-demand content, a series of executive career webinars, workshops at Alumni Reunions and Forums to one-to-one coaching with a team of 15 executive career coaches across the world, we are here to equip you with the skills and knowledge you need to move your career forward. Our coaches in Europe, Asia and North America have in-depth knowledge of career advisory techniques, tools and market knowledge to guide you through your next steps.

Alumni Career Resources

Meet or contact Career Development for Working Professionals
CDWP will be present at the upcoming Alumni Forums in Amsterdam and Singapore, at the IW50 summit and at the MBA and GEMBA 5 and 10 years Alumni Reunions in May and July 2018 in Fontainebleau. Join us at any of these events, meet Liesbeth Van Loock and get your career-related questions answered.

If you are wondering what’s new with Alumni Career Development and how we can support your career plans, please email us. Learn more about Alumni Career Development here.