Alumni meetings can have something of the class reunion: you marvel at what has become of your former classmate – or not -, look back on times past and try to find common ground. In the case of business school alumni associations, the focus is primarily on creating networks that help in professional terms. In the USA in particular, elite universities are working towards retaining their graduates at the university even after they have graduated – not least because the professional success of the alumni also reflects on the university.
Incidentally, alumnus (plural: alumni) comes from the Latin verb alere, meaning “to feed”. So the alumnus is someone who is nurtured or cared for, or in other words, a pupil. Scholarship holders are also sometimes referred to as alumni. However, the term has become established as a designation for graduates of a university or college. Many business schools afford their own alumni advisors who maintain contacts with alumni.
Graduates as ambassadors for courses on offer
Stefanie Best-Klossok considers personal meetings in the area of alumni work to be very important.
(Photo: Thomas Hartmann)
Stefanie Best-Klossok, 43, is the managing director and main contact for alumni at the Gutenberg School of Business Mainz:
“Contacts only harm those who don’t have them. Even if the saying isn’t new – it’s true. Especially in the professional environment in which our MBA and EMBA participants move, contacts are extremely important. Whether someone looking for a new job or supporting each other when there is a vacancy – contacts help.This is also a major driving force for our alumni.
Our alumni association ‘MBA Alumni Mainz’ was founded in 2003 by students at the time. This association works independently, but in constant cooperation with us. We in the management are responsible for the two big events – and for the alumni ambassador programs. Our two annual festivals, the New Year’s reception and the summer festival, are important pillars of our alumni work. We invite all current and former members of the Gutenberg School of Business Mainz to the celebrations, as well as all sponsors and friends, of course – it has a cult character. Last year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our EMBA program. That was on August 27th and we managed to find pretty much the only timeslot where you could get 250 people together without any quarantine case whatsoever. A ray of light in the Corona year.
A special feature of our alumni work is the ambassador program. In this way, we integrate graduates and generate new participants. Current or former students can become ambassadors. You provide us with your data and profile, which we then present on the website. If prospective students inquire about our study program, we can convey this directly: Why not talk to this or that ambassador who has also experienced and suffered through our programs. We invite the ambassadors themselves to our fireside chats with experts and to our Friday evening talks with decision-makers from business. There they discuss management issues with students. We thought about a digital form, but rejected it. Such events thrive on direct exchange.
My job is to keep the network together and coordinate it. I have a personal connection to many of the former participants and active students. The interpersonal component is very important to us. I think what distinguishes our alumni work is the very special Gutenberg spirit. We are authentic, or you could also say: down-to-earth, more approachable than other management schools. One of the reasons for this is that our business school is not that big.”
Get to know the next generation better
Both sides can learn from each other, says Martina Dengler: mentees from the mentors – and vice versa.
(Photo: MBS)
Martina Dengler, 49, is alumni representative at Munich Business School:
“Contact with current students is very valuable and important to our MBA alumni and the alumni in general: They enjoy meeting younger people and discussing them with them. This gives them a feeling for the next generation. An alumna once said to me, She’s always happy when, in conversation with the students at our meetings, she hears how the 20-year-olds are currently doing, how they are, how they tick. That also helps in relation to younger colleagues or team members and, of course, what working with customers, so that older customers can find out what is important to young customers and what their priorities are.
That’s why I believe that the contact between our alumni and the students is enriching for both sides. It is more likely that the graduates know an incredible amount and then come back to the alma mater to share their knowledge. In our mentoring program, in which older, experienced alumni support the young students, I often hear from the mentors that they themselves learn something from their mentees, above all new perspectives, for example on male or female identities, cultural differences among our international students or as far as the topic of digitization is concerned. I see it as give and take and try to bring both sides together. For example, during job interview training by alumni for MBA students. This is a newer offer from us and very useful for our international students in particular, because the application cultures are quite different depending on the country of origin.
Of course, networking also thrives on on-site meetings, for example on the occasion of guest lectures. They had to take place online during the pandemic. I was amazed at how well it worked. I think we will keep one or the other online format even if we can hold face-to-face events regularly again – for a very simple reason: there is no need to travel to the event. We’ve had some really good events with alumni who aren’t even here in Munich. For example, an evening with an alumnus employed at Chanel Haute Couture in Paris. He has a very busy schedule, but it was much easier for him to carve out time for his alma mater online. We want to continue to use and expand such offers.”
Regional network meetings with visits to companies
Sigrid Fischer appreciates that alumni involve the students in specific company projects.
(Photo: Daniel Reichel/HHL)
Sigrid Fischer, 35, works as an alumni advisor at the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management:
“What I really like about working with the alumni is the idea of being connected far beyond the course of study and of lifelong learning. That’s why I introduce myself to the new students in the first week and tell them what opportunities they have later “We have alumni. We show our students very early on that we can give them something to take away from their degree. We see this as an offer that we provide and that can be used as much or as little as the graduates want.
Our alumni are very international, with 95 percent of the full-time MBA graduates being international. Many come here to start a career on the German or European job market. Our alumni can use our careers platform to post job offers and get in touch with one another. Our Career Development Team also helps a lot.
Even during their studies, our students exchange ideas with the alumni, for example in our practical projects. The aim is to work on specific consulting projects in companies over a period of several months. Of course, we often ask our graduates if they have relevant projects for our students. This creates a close bond, which is further expanded through guest lectures by the alumni or student initiatives in which the alumni are involved.
Another important factor in our alumni work is our chapter meetings, which are regional network meetings. The meetings are spread all over Germany and also take place in Switzerland and London at the respective locations, where we have a large community. At the chapter meetings, we often visit a local company owned by an alumnus and provide information on the latest developments at HHL. During the pandemic, we hosted the meetings online. This had the advantage that alumni who live further away and in different time zones could also take part. But of course it still doesn’t replace networking in person.
In my experience, both the alumni and the participating professors benefit from the chapter meetings. For example, we learn which skills are currently needed in working life and can receive feedback on how we can incorporate this into our teaching. This is profitable for both sides, because the alumni can also find out which skills could possibly be deepened. About the topic of leadership. You then have the opportunity to attend a corresponding further training course with our Executive Education Team. As alumni, you don’t have to pay it in full, you get discounts.”
International career network
On the Alumni portal Germany alumni can network with each other. The cooperation project of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Goethe Institute is primarily aimed at international alumni who have studied at German universities. However, it also arranges contacts to German institutions, to qualified specialists or to other alumni worldwide. In addition, the portal bundles the activities and educational offers of German organizations that are active in the international environment. University graduates who are members of the network can use digital training courses and advice options free of charge. For example, free career coaching is offered to them.