'Extracurriculars' vital on curriculum vitae

Most of my classmates thought I was crazy when I told them what I had planned for my December break. After a tumultuous semester learning the ins and outs of business, many were content to sit on a beach, sleep late and catch up with the friends and family they had barely seen over the previous four months.

Not me. With more and more employers putting a greater emphasis on extracurricular activities when making final hiring decisions, I decided to forgo most of my holiday in an attempt to further differentiate myself in the ultracompetitive postgrad job market.

My holiday included a whirlwind two-week jaunt to the Middle East to do preliminary work for a consulting course and network with students abroad. Then, it was off to Edmonton where I participated in the annual MBA Games -- a great opportunity to network some more, socialize with classmates and participate in some friendly competition against Canada's top business schools.

I'll admit that I could've used a zone-out vacation, but instead chose to broaden my MBA experience while at the same time beef up my résumé. What's more, I was certain the excursion would provide me with interesting stories to tell potential employers during job interviews in a few weeks' time.

Each year, roughly 100,000 MBAs graduate from business programs worldwide -- each with, at the very least, two degrees and years of work experience.

And while some jobs are awarded based solely on applicants' previous jobs, one of my professors explained that managers and recruiters often make final hiring decisions not on the "education" or "work experience" categories of the résumé but on the "interests, accomplishments and activities" section of the CV.

He explained that a company needs to ensure that a candidate will be a good fit in its corporate culture and that the applicant's values will gel with those of management. After all, bringing someone new into a company is a time-consuming and costly process and minimizing extra costs is a key goal of recruiters. (Some research shows that poor hiring decisions could cost between four and six months of the employee's annual salary when the expense of termination, replacement and lost productivity is included.)

That's where the outside-of-the-office (or, for an MBA student, outside-of-the-classroom) information comes into play.

Take, for example, the on-campus recruiting process of many of the big banks, consultancies and consumer-packaged-goods firms.

After candidates make it through the résumé-read and first-interview phases, the final stage often includes attending social gatherings with senior management. According to friends who have gone through the process, this is where executives attempt to get to know the potential employee on a deeper level -- often asking about charity work, hobbies, on-campus extracurricular activities and personal interests outside of school.

A recent article on FastWeb.com, a U.S. website geared toward university and college students, says that applicants shouldn't underestimate the impact that extracurricular activities can have on a job hunt.

"The skills and experience you develop through student activities can be what puts you ahead of your competition in the interview process. Extracurriculars build the qualities -- teamwork, commitment, responsibility, leadership -- that employers value," the site reads.

"Whether your preferred activity is the college newspaper, student government, a theatre production or athletic team, your involvement indicates to employers that you possess the communication and teambuilding skills they value," it concludes.

What's more, those interests and activities can also have another impact -- helping a job seeker narrow the field of potential organizations at which to apply for a job.

My professor explained that extracurricular activities allow you to find out your true interests and what values you hold as important. Once you understand what drives you and what you stand for, you can search out organizations that align with those same values.

Most corporate websites include information on the organization's mission and values; if that's not available, try to find someone on staff to interview to figure out whether you will be the right fit, my professor added.

Meanwhile, I am confident I made the right decision to stay focused on padding my résumé over the December break as I feel the experiences were invaluable to my growth as a student and as a future manager.

The first leg of the trip involved heading to Israel with some classmates and a professor to do preliminary work for an intensive, four-month consulting course that involves working in a team of 10 (five Canadian students, five Israelis students) to advise an Israeli company on how to enter the North American market.

It involved a couple of all-night work sessions and a steep learning curve as to how managers and MBA students in another country do business. But over the course of the trip, I gained knowledge I would not have obtained by sitting in a classroom, such as putting together a real-world consulting proposal, presenting to a client and how to effectively manage a project with a team of strangers whose first language isn't English.

Only a few hours after returning home from Israel, the next part of my expedition saw me travel to Edmonton as part of my school's contingent of students for the annual MBA Games. It was a jam-packed weekend of athletic and academic competitions as well as myriad social event (I was part of the academic team, battling other schools in the business trivia event).

It also gave me a chance to network with colleagues from 15 Canadian business schools on a social level -- allowing me to get to know about their hobbies, extracurricular activities and interests outside of class; and to discuss mine as well.

My final semester of the MBA program began last week, bringing the countdown to graduation -- and heading back into the working world -- to roughly 12 weeks.

I'm anticipating that the bulk of my spare time will be spent meeting with executives, preparing application packages and interviewing for jobs. I'm expecting some intense competition along every step of the way.

And I'm hoping my holiday abroad will help push me over the top.

Richard Bloom is a former Report on Business writer who has enrolled in York University's Schulich School of Business to obtain an MBA. He writes regularly on career lessons he is taking away from the classroom.