Babson Graduate Students Keep Expanding their Networks
The 5th annual Babson Boston Connect, held on November 30th, 2017, drew a large number of attendees to the HubSpot offices in Cambridge. The event was organized by the Graduate Center for Career Development and Babson’s Events Management Office and was open to all of the current graduate students (One Yr and Two Yr MBA, Blended Learning, Evening, MSEL, MSA, MSF, MSBA, CAM and CAA programs) at Babson College and all Babson alumni as well for a small fee.
The Babson Connects, which are also held in other cities, including New York, Miami and San Francisco, are unconventional career events where students, alumni and company representatives are free to interact with one another over high top tables and a beverage in a relatively informal manner. The event also featured a panel with four participants from diverse industrial backgrounds.
Upon arrival, the students grabbed some appetizers and a drink before heading to high-top tables hosted by “Featured Alums” who represented about 25 different companies at the event across multiple industries, including companies such as Bose, Wells Fargo, New Balance and of course Hubspot. The networking began as the participants waited for the panel to start.
The event was officially inaugurated by President Kerry Healey who was introduced by Boston Alumni Chapter President Dan Wheelock and the panel followed.
The panel, moderated by Kevin Mulcahy, Babson professor and co-author of the book, The Future Workplace Experience, touched upon a wide range of topics from emerging technologies to trends in the job market. Panelists included Carolina Samsing M’15 from Hubspot, Adam Mercer M’12 from Brigham & Women’s Hospital and David Broomhead M’15- founder of Tradehounds. The networking resumed after the panel, with some participants staying as late as 9.30 PM and others continuing their networking after the event at other nearby locations.
The venue added to the excitement for the night. The HubSpot offices were spacious and elegantly designed with a modern feel. They provided an apt setting for an event of this magnitude. “One can never forget what force of energy the Babson community can be. Attending this event – hearing deep stories, sharing interests and ideas only affirmed that memory and excitement for being a part of this large family that will keep coming together to tackle the world’s big challenges”, commented Varun Ramdevan, (M 16’), who works with Johnson & Johnson’s Digital Innovation Group.
One of the table hosts from Brigham and Women’s Hospital who is also a Babson graduate school alumnus commented that the event provided him with an opportunity to meet his former classmates besides serving as a platform to interact with current students. From the students’ viewpoint, this event provided them with an opportunity to speak with representatives and alumni from a wide range of companies thereby enabling them to form connections that would help with their job hunt going forward.
One student in particular, Cyrus Armen Sabouri, has seen the Connect from both sides of the table. In the past, Cyrus attended a Babson Connect in New York as an alumnus of the undergraduate program and as a representative from his employer, American Express. This time around, Cyrus attended as a full-time student in the one year MBA program and found his experience to be completely different from previous Connect events.
Overall, the event was a great success and witnessed over 200 people in attendance with many walk-in registrations.
This post was written by Harsha Ilango MBA’18.