A school that projects you into your future
One foot still in the classroom and the other already in the world of work. The Bocconi Graduate School lives in balance in these two realms, simultaneously fulfilling the task of completing the education of students and at the same time directing them towards their first professional experiences. For eight years, Antonella Carù, and a leading expert in marketing and management, formerly a Bocconi student and researcher, has been leading the team that accompanies students in graduate training. Visiting professor in various universities around the world, today she complements her teaching at the University and at SDA Bocconi School of Management with her role of Dean of the Graduate School.
Theory and practice, training and professionalization, the need to study and the desire to test oneself on the job, how does it all hold together?
Our Master of Science offers a very structured first-year curriculum, common to most programs and during which students consolidate knowledge. This is followed by a second year where everyone has to build their own curriculum by choosing from the experiences and skills they want to deepen. Some of our competitors offer courses that are more compressed in terms of time, it is true, but I believe that the two years are a value to be defended because they guarantee a truly rich and stimulating program. It doesn't mean that young people arrive later in the world of employment; they all do a compulsory internship of at least three month and there are opportunities for continuous interactions with companies and institutions. In fact, our extraordinary placement results confirm the validity of this model.
Students, however, tend to have a natural hurry to move quickly from the classroom to the office..
That's true. This is why we try to explain to them that, in a constantly changing world, it is necessary to have solid skills, but above all open-mindedness, the ability to continue learning, to question oneself. In this, the university years are fundamental because they allow graduate students to take risks, to experiment, while remaining in a relatively protected environment, while developing relationships with their peers which will be fundamental in the future.
In your opinion, what is the ideal time to include an internship or study experience abroad in the curriculum?
We have not deliberately chosen a predetermined sequence of experiences, precisely because the second year of the Master of Science must be built by everyone freely. It is important, however, that they start thinking about it right away, already in the first semester of the first year, and start to sift through foreign universities to go to on exchange, or the companies to focus on for the internship. How you compose your curriculum is already an early challenge on how you will build you career. There are immovable milestones: the exchange program, the compulsory internship, the elective courses and the thesis, but the mosaic that comes out of these elements is always very personal and reflects the responsibilities that the student decides to take on herself or himself.
Which, among the proposals of the university school, would you have liked to have also been there in your years as a student?
The CEO Connect program we launched in October is something that would have really interested me. Already then I was wondering what would be a day like next to the CEO of a large company and when the CEO of Facebook, Luca Colombo, had the idea of ​​involving a group of CEOs to act as mentors for some students, it seemed to me an excellent initiative. Students can sit next to them and talk to them not only about their training choices but about the perspectives of the respective industries, a considerable opportunity. Even CEOs are happy with the experience because they are enriched by the contact with Generation Z, which is subjected to a vast array of stimuli but also able and quick to grasp them.
Speaking of Generation Z, what are the expectations with which these young people present themselves in orientation events?
Most already have an idea of ​​the path they want to take. Their expectations are greatly influenced by the opportunities offered by the world of work, but also by interests and passions, often matured during their three years as undergrads. One thing they always appreciate are the testimonials of our young graduates, not too far from their university days, but already inside the world of professional employment. My recommendation is that, while they keep one eye on the world of work, they do not lose sight of their attitudes with the other.
How much room is there to indulge your personal proclivities in your studies?
In a course of study there are exciting courses and others that are maybe less so, but it is the ensemble that gives roundness to one's preparation. You cannot proceed by exclusion, doing only what interests you: the ability to choose must be based on knowledge of the alternatives. Furthermore, it is true that in graduate school we are already in a context of specialization, but I tell the students that it is better not to close one's perspective too much and let oneself open to be surprised and be led where one might not think. The most important goal is to identify a rich training path that helps you orient yourself towards a job that makes you feel good not only professionally but also at a personal level: this does not happen where there is either too much rigidity or laxity with respect to one's own aptitudes.
Does the decision to start a new program of studies take place more by looking at student demand or employment demand?
By looking at both. The world of work gives clear signals, and young people catch them quickly. We must interpret these signals and take a long-term view. In recent years, the graduate school has implemented the university's far-sighted choice to expand its presence from our traditional areas of study to two new areas of great interest for the future, computer science and political sciences, by activating two new graduate programs (Data Science and Business Analytics, and Politics and Policy Analysis) and hybridizing these with other MSc degree programs. We have also launched two joint degrees with the Politecnico di Milano confirming the importance of opening up to interdisciplinarity to tackle complex issues: an MSc in cyber risk, management and governance, a specific but highly-in-demand skill, from our observation of the market and the needs of companies, and the new MSc in Transformative Sustainability which combines training in management and governance with technology verticals on the environment, materials, energy.
You have directed two Bocconi schools (previously the Undergraduate School and now the Graduate School) since 2012. How have you seen students change a lot over this decade?
Today I find them more open, quick, very casual in the use of technologies, sometimes frightened by uncertainty - and the years we are experiencing certainly contribute to explaining it - and difficulties, as if they were something unexpected. The years at the university must also be used to learn how to deal with failure or disappointment, even if it is only an exam that did not go as it should have. I always tell young people to prefer the enrichment of experience to grade point average, but in this not much has changed over the years, getting a top grade remains a mantra. They literally transform from the first to the second year, they grow a lot. On the other hand, one thing that has definitely changed is the relationship with work: they pay close attention to leading companies in the technological sectors and to experiences abroad, they know how to wait, but pursue their aspirations with determination, and make career choices that are compatible with the many things that interest them, and above all they are very attentive to the values ​​of the companies they choose to collaborate with. It is an aspect that has by now become normal and no longer even needs to be taught to them.
Bio
Born in Varese, she graduated in Business Administration in 1986 at Bocconi with a specialization in Administration and Control. Today, Antonella Carù is Full Professor of Business Management, Senior Lecturer at SDA Bocconi and, since 2014, Dean of the Bocconi Graduate School. She is a marketing scholar and service management expert and was Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, the European School of Management-ESCP-EAP, University Jean Moulin Lyon, and Visiting Scholar at HEC in Montréal. "I chose economics and Bocconi, imagining my future in a company, but when I had the opportunity to remain working at the University I decided to take it, and became passionate about it. About marketing, which was not my specialization, and teaching and research, which were not in my plans! My university years as a student were wonderful, and even the courses I loved least helped me understand the importance of giving yourself time to judge and choose. In my role as a Dean, I happen to go back to that period with my mind and recall the things I had underestimated and the things I had overestimated: I try to encourage students to look around, and fully grasp the richness of the many things that the University offers and the value of our community "