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Hult International Business School - Dubai

How Hult Graduates Achieve 87% Employability in Dubai

A few months ago, we spotted a pattern on our platform and in our offices:

“Three new Hult grads just got hired in a single week!”

“Isn’t our new intern a Hult grad as well?”

“Yup!”

“And didn’t Carolina from the Employer Alliance team go to Hult too?”

“She did!”

“That’s a lot of Hult!”

“Don’t forget Steven.”

“Seriously?!”

On the Oliv platform, we noticed graduates from Hult International Business School were consistently getting hired by some of the top companies in the UAE (Yup, we just included ourselves in that list!). Our Hult alumni at Oliv have also always been top performers.

We wanted to know more about this pattern, so we decided to put our detective hats on and investigate.

We learned that Hult had an 87% employability rate in Dubai. From leadership skills to lifelong learning, and students attending bootcamps to entrepreneurs opening businesses, Hult had wrapped up all aspects of employability into their graduate programs to equip students to accelerate into a career regardless of where they were in the world.

But what was the secret sauce and how did they achieve an 87% employability rate in Dubai? We dug deeper.

The Basics: focusing on preparing students for success at work

Hult is an international business school with campuses in six different cities around the world: New York, London, Shanghai, Boston, San Francisco, and Dubai, and across all campuses, the main focus is to ready students for the working world.

How Hult achieved 87% employability in Dubai

We spoke to Becky Ewen, Director of Enrollment for Middle East/Africa, about Hult’s strategy and approach in doing this, and she told us that employers typically had two main concerns about new hires, which they (Hult) embraced as their two main concerns about students:

“Students sometimes lack adaptability when starting their careers, and while they can implement theory into their work, they are unable to adapt themselves to working together across teams.”

So Hult decided to tackle this by building a program that taught foundational skills while also giving students the opportunity to put those skills into motion via entrepreneurship challenges, internships, networking events, and building strong employer relationships. In line with the global mindset, additional focus was added on employability not just in Dubai, but internationally.

But this was just half of the strategy.

In order to implement the theory, students participated in bootcamps which are built into each degree programs, and teach them networking, interviewing, and negotiating skills, which brings us to…

The Difference: what sets Hult graduates apart?

Entrepreneurship Capital

It can’t get more entrepreneurial than a specialization in Entrepreneurship, right? What about a specialization in Entrepreneurship and participation in an entrepreneurship challenge? That’s, like, super entrepreneurial.

There are always three options in business:

  1. Climb the ladder
  2. Build the ladder
  3. Become a lumberjack and source wood for other people’s ladders

We definitely don’t want aspiring entrepreneurs to go for option 3 (unless cutting plastic trees with a little plastic axe and yelling timber is a childhood dream, in which case we’re all for it).

Dubai is an entrepreneurship capital so being at Hult Dubai means having experienced mentors to help you build your own ladder.

Students at Hult get to do a trial run of their first entrepreneurial ideas before stepping out in the real world. They conduct research, create a strategy, and implement their business from A to Z. But the best part isn’t the strategy or the implementation, it’s the mentorship, peer assessments, and opportunities to learn from mistakes.

Then with all those lessons learned, it’s no surprise that 10% of all students open their own business after graduation!

Idea behind the Internship

Around 52 percent of all internships turn into full time positions. At Hult, students have the choice between a six-week Global Rotation or a four-month internship, and for some students choosing to stay at their home campus or choosing internships was a no-brainer:

“I have the opportunity to obtain an internship and be able to participate in the internship for a full three months. This will allow me to get as much hands on experience as possible.” – Samaneh Zamani, ‘16

“San Francisco is a combination of what all the other campuses have to offer. It is known to be a startup and tech hub. The Bay Area is one place which gives every individual an equal opportunity to be ‘someone’.” – Nichel Soni, ‘16

While students are encouraged to get out of the four walls of Hult, they are also encouraged to make their decisions based on their own career goals and motivations.

How hult achieved 87% employability in Dubai

Employable, around the world (a-round the wooorrrllldddd…)

Hult is the only business school in the world where you can study on three continents in one year and be equipped for a career in any country. In fact, 99% of graduates change their country, industry, or function.

This diversity is fueled by professors who are experts in their fields in and out of the classroom. For example, Hult Professor, Selina Neri, doesn’t use a single textbook in her class, opting for real case studies as examples to prepare students for the ‘real world’ once they leave the classroom.

Students are able to interact with people in and from different countries, in person and via online speaker series, which means graduates have a global growth mindset that helps them overcome challenges with diverse solutions.

HULT employability Dubai

Hult’s network of employers

When considering new hires, employers need to make sure candidates are a good fit based on more than just skills and work experience. For example, an alignment between the values of the company and candidate are equally, if not more, important. And this is something we share with Hult!

Hult has an employer relations team, much like the Oliv employee alliance team, dedicated to gauging the success between employers and candidates, increasing awareness of students/graduates, and developing relationships to make job searching easier for students once they graduate.

Solely relying on career fairs means missing out on all the other events, like hackathons, competitions, and networking events that bring together and nurture top talent from all over the UAE. An approach that focuses on the needs of students and employers means being able to find the right fit for employers of all different industries and students of diverse interests.

The Result: who, what, where

Where are they now?

When students are well-versed in theory and seasoned with practical experience, they are able to network and secure jobs at some of the best companies in the world like 3M, IBM, Microsoft, KPMG, L’Oreal, Maersk Line, and Hilti (which are leading employers of Hult Dubai grads).

While there are many examples of stellar accomplishments of Hult alumni, like making it into Forbes 30Under30, beginning a career at Google, Youtube, and Vidsy, and opening successful startups, we’ll just leave you with one example.

Raissa Mendes is a Hult alumna who graduated in 2016 with a masters degree in international business. She’s a Brazilian student who rotated from the United States to Hult Shanghai and became so taken with the business capital, that she ended up staying in China. She now works at DJI in Shanghai – ‘China’s Silicon valley’ – leading their marketing efforts in Latin America. Her openness to moving abroad and accepting challenges paid off in a spectacular way!

“If you have your eyes on a job, don’t let the country limit your success. You don’t know how perfect that fit can be.”

Lifelong Learning

The academic journey should, ideally, be a never-ending one. Being able to remain relevant (personally and professionally) in the world means keeping up with the changes and advancements that occur across all areas. This is why Hult provides all alumni with the opportunity to come back and study an elective for free, every year, for life. This level of aftercare makes an impact by making sure the school, the education, and the students remain relevant, for life!