"The biggest piece of advice I hear from MBA students and alumni is to tell fellow MBA Professionals and Managers to 'be ready.' Be ready to show your abilities because you never know when you'll be offered a promotion."

So said Ellen Bartkowiak, President of EllenCoaching and veteran MBA Career Coach, in her October webinar.  She discussed the Top Five Skills to leverage in your current job and highlighted the path for moving on or moving up. The session presented the importance of managing your career and starting a "brag file" so that you have "success stories" ready to go. Participants learned the formula for moving up in their current position and were encouraged to think strategically about how to leverage their network. If you have follow-up questions, feel free to send them to us via [email protected]. A link to the recording of the webinar will be posted soon.

Ellen will host the second webinar in our four-part series this coming month. "Using Your Brand for Strategic Success" focuses on the knowledge of your value proposition. Take a look at your personal brand and find out what makes you unique. Join us on Friday, November 14, at 12:00 p.m. to discover how to create a brand, manage your brand, update it, and utilize it in your current role. Ellen currently works with professional MBA students across the United States on their career plans. To reserve your spot, email [email protected].

Michael Lown is the new Associate Director of Recruiting for the MBA-PM program. Michael joined Tippie from Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, where he was the Recruitment Coordinator for their graduate programs. Through his career Michael has a strong background in recruitment, sales, service, event management, and higher education. He was born in Iowa City and also is a graduate of The University of Iowa with a double major in Communication Studies and Health, Sport, and Leisure studies.

A fun fact about Michael: He chased his dream of working in professional sports and decided that Iowa was closer to his heart. Michael worked for a few Arena football teams and the Seattle Supersonics the last year they were in Seattle before he decided to move back to Iowa.

Have you ever wanted to access information on Glassdoor without submitting content? Now is your chance. Use your uiowa.edu email address when registering for an account to bypass the submission portion of registration. Through Glassdoor, you may access employee reviews, salaries, and interview questions on more than 300,000 companies. This is a great opportunity to gain insights that help with career planning.