The Social Enterprise Club aims to give students interested in social enterprise the inspiration, information, tools, and contacts necessary to achieve their career goals. The Club provides resources for students by organizing career events, sharing information and leads, distributing a resume book, working with the career services office, and cooperating with affiliated organizations, such as Net Impact, Business for Social Responsibility, Social Venture Network and a variety of other organizations.

Finding Focus & Suggested Readings

Given the breadth of Social Enterprise, students aim to find a balance between exploring different options and focusing on a few target areas for career search purposes. Although students may express an interest in working for companies in Social Enterprise roles, nonprofits, or public sector organizations, students may find it useful to clarify which particular area within the field they intend to investigate in detail. There are a number of books that are assumed reading for traditional MBAs (Liar's Poker, Barbarians at the Gate, Monkey Business, etc). MBA students interested in Social Enterprise have compiled a number of book recommendations (please see book list one, two and three). These might be of interest to those interested in current ideas, exploring career options, or looking for inspiration to pursue careers incorporating personal values and social and/or environmental benefits.

Social Enterprise Career Areas

Social Enterprise is a broad category defining a number of careers that span several different industries. A brief description of various social enterprise areas, is provided online. The common uniting thread is the desire to blend business skills and personal values to achieve social and environmental as well as economic value.

Social Enterprise issues also arise in traditional for-profit careers (and cut across functional areas, such as strategy, operations, finance, marketing, accounting, and human resources), providing MBAs with opportunities to serve on boards or special commissions, enter public-private partnerships, and help companies become more socially responsible. Given the increasing level of public interest and scrutiny of corporate actions, keeping up to date with social enterprise issues will become increasingly relevant in the pursuit of for-profit careers.

Career Interest Groups

The Social Enterprise Club Interest Group initiative seeks to provide networking and mentoring opportunities for club members interested in specific focus areas within social enterprise. Our current Interest Groups include:

• Community Development
• Corporate Social Responsibility / Corporate Philanthropy
• Education
• Environment / Energy
• Nonprofit Consulting / Management
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Socially Responsible Investing
• Venture Capital / Philanthropy

If you are interested in participating in the Interest Group initiative, as an alum or a Columbia MBA student, please contact our VP of Alumni & Mentoring.

Career Events

One of the advantages of being in such a large and diverse city is the opportunity for MBA students to attend and organize events that draw upon participants and speakers from a wide array of international and US-based organizations. SEC, IDC, Social Enterprise Program, other student clubs and MBA Career Services organize a number of career events both jointly and independently throughout the year to help career seekers in the social enterprise sector. Previous career events held at Columbia include the Annual Social Enterprise Conference, summer internship panels, alumni panels and networking events, mentoring groups, speakers and panels focusing on career areas within Social Enterprise and issues common to a number of areas. See SEC Events for further details.

The Social Enterprise Program and Club share the same listserv that is available to current Social Enterprise students and Columbia Business School alumni only. This is the primary method by which students, faculty and administrators share information on career events and job leads.

Independent and Pro Bono Consulting Projects

Columbia's location offers unparalleled opportunities to integrate career interests with course-related projects—both core courses and electives that are explicitly or implicitly related to social enterprise, as well as "independent studies" that are supervised by business school faculty. New York is an ideal base to find domestic and international organizations for course projects and pro bono consulting assignments. These activities can cover areas including marketing, finance and accounting, strategic planning, organizational development, operations and technology.

The integration of career interests with course work helps students develop contacts and hands-on experience in a target area, while also providing opportunities to create a positive impact for the community. Organizations benefit from the business-consulting skills and experience of MBA students working on these projects.

Examples of past projects are available on the Students section of the Social Enterprise Program website. For a list of courses, see the Social Enterprise Program website, SEC Courses, a listing of all business school courses, and electives in other Schools of Columbia University.

Volunteer activities also provide ample opportunities for students to find and work with Social Enterprise organizations. Common favorites include the Small Business Consulting Program, which matches nonprofits to student consulting teams, the Global Social Venture Competition, and volunteer activities organized by groups such as the Committee on Volunteering and Philanthropy (COVAP), Harlem Tutorial Program of Columbia, I-Prep, and Junior Achievement. For these and other volunteer resources, please visit the Social Enterprise Program website.

Organizations looking to find MBA students for pro bono consulting projects can find further information in the Community Assistance section.

Finding Job Positions

Although a number of social enterprise recruiters come on campus, the majority of social enterprise positions are found via faculty and alumni, independent networking, internal job postings, Net Impact, and MBA Nonprofit Connection postings. Social enterprise students have typically found the most effective way to identify job openings is via the first two methods. Columbia University also hosts a nonprofit careers fair open to all graduate and undergraduate students.

Organizations looking to recruit or participate in career events, can find further information in the Recruiters section.

Further Career Resources

More details on specific career resources are available to Columbia MBA students and alumni only, in the Career section of the Social Enterprise Program website. The Social Enterprise Program careers section has a "Guide to SE Career Resources" which covers areas including:

• General social enterprise questions, advice and career counseling;
• Overview of the social enterprise field and the type of positions available to MBAs;
• Making networking contacts and calls;
• Finding social enterprise job postings;
• Information on specific social enterprise organizations; and
• Typical salaries in the social enterprise field.

The careers section of the Social Enterprise Program site also provides information on: Loan Assistance, Social Enterprise Summer Fellowship Program, Social Venture internship fund, and CSR & Sustainability paper awards, as well as career links by category that have been gathered by students and alumni.

Current students are also assigned to career mentoring groups, which are based on student's interests in various social enterprise areas.