Career Boosters: An MBA Podcast

Hosted by The Career Boosters

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Episodes

100

Latest episode

Jun 2026

Language

EN-CA

About the show

Welcome to The Career Boosters: your companion for personal and professional growth. Embark on transformative self-discovery with our MBA Podcast. Unveil secrets to reach your career's peak. Learn self-awareness, grasp strengths, passions, and aspirations. Navigate modern careers confidently. Leverage cutting-edge tools to forge your dream path, from novice to career veteran. Tune in for expert interviews, trends, and skill insights. Subscribe to reshape your career journey. Your dream career is one listen away!

Listen to episodes

60 recent

June 5, 2026Episode 2939 min

Collaboration Boost: Beyond the Narrow Win

This week, we're joined by Andras Morosi and Robb Sombach, professors at the Alberta School of Business who co-teach a course designed to prepare undergrad students for the parts of work that technical courses don't cover.While they come from different backgrounds, they both have a passion for setting students up for success in a way that is so much more than just technical skills. And in doing that work, they've also learned more about their own strengths, how they complement each other, and what it actually looks like to widen the definition of success, for students and for themselves

May 29, 2026Episode 2833 min

Empathy Boost: People Are Whole People

This week, we're joined by Heather Braid, Manager of Teaching and Learning at the Alberta School of Business, who took an unlikely path from civil engineering to leading a team focused on student experience and program quality.Heather talks about what empathetic leadership actually looks like in practice by building it into your structure, your schedule, and your habits. She also pushes back on the idea that empathy is just being nice, makes you soft, and means you don’t know how to have a hard conversation. She also shares honestly about where it gets hard leading with empathy, because it does sometimes.Her reminder is a simple one: the people you work with are whole people, not just their job titles, and your work as a leader starts there.

May 15, 2026Episode 2735 min

Recruitment Boost: Prove You're Human

This week, we're joined by Veronica Alfred, a global talent acquisition specialist who introduces us to something she calls ‘talentless recruitment’: a growing reality where anywhere from 50 to 70% of candidates in a pipeline are fraudulent, AI-generated, or simply not who they say they are. She shares what recruiters are now having to do to catch it, and what it costs legitimate candidates in the process.Her advice: standing out is no longer about being polished on paper. It's about being visible, verifiable, and human. And most importantly, communicating that before someone ever opens your resume.Connect with Veronica on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicaalfred/

May 1, 2026Episode 2628 min

Quarter-life Boost: Let’s Be Important to Ourselves

This week, we're joined by Varsha Govindarajan, a part-time MBA student and energy professional, who came on to talk about something she calls the quarter-life crisis: that stretch between 25 and 35 where the path you were expecting turns out to be different than your reality. She talks honestly about growing up with strong expectations, learning to make peace with the gray, and what happens when perfectionism meets real life. And in sharing her realization that between work and school, the first ball she dropped was herself, she offers some strong advice: let's be important to ourselves.

April 20, 2026Episode 2533 min

Brand Boost: Perfect vs. Present

This week, we're joined by Brea Elfer, Marketing and Communications Partner at the Alberta School of Business, who opened up about her own difficult undergraduate experience and how it shaped why she does this work. The conversation kept circling around a central idea: the best brands (personal or organizational) aren't built on a polished, curated version of yourself. They're built on presence. Brea makes the case that our quirks, our failures, and our real personalities are the actual assets, and that's as true for the school's brand as it is for a student figuring out how to show up in an interview.

April 10, 2026Episode 2431 min

Athlete Boost: Thriving on a Full Plate

This week, we're joined by Harkirat Malhi, first-year MBA student and varsity soccer player for the U of A Golden Bears. He is doing the MBA while training five days a week, playing games on weekends, volunteering, and adding a summer internship to the mix. His surprising realization is that thriving isn't about having less on your plate. It's about building the habits and mindset that make a full plate feel manageable.

April 2, 2026Episode 2330 min

Networking Boost: It's Just a Conversation

This week, we're joined by Rachel Lachman, the Employer and Community Partner Outreach Specialist on the CWIL team at the Alberta School of Business, whose job is building relationships between employers and students. Her take on networking is straightforward: it's just a conversation, and the only real mistake is standing next to the appetizers all night. She also shares her own recent embarrassing moment networking, and proves that we’re all human and that networking doesn't require a perfect performance. It just requires showing up and showing out.

March 27, 2026Episode 2232 min

Self-Awareness Boost: What the MBA Reflected Back

This week, we’re joined by Danyelle Bernier, MBA/MAg student, to talk about what the MBA has reflected back to her.She came into the program with a solid sense of who she was, but still found herself surprised by what started to surface through the classes, the coaching, and the conversations along the way. What comes through in this episode is not a total reinvention. It’s a clearer view of her own strengths, her leadership, and the parts of herself that were already there but easier to miss when you’re in the middle of living them. It’s also a good reminder that sometimes growth looks less like becoming someone new and more like finally seeing yourself clearly.

March 13, 2026Episode 2134 min

Networking Boost: Curiosity, Connection, and Being Interesting

This week we talk with Andriy Tovstiuk (MBA 19‘) about networking, curiosity, and what actually makes someone interesting to talk to. From serving in the military to teaching around the world and now working in AI, Andriy shares how saying yes to experiences creates better conversations and stronger professional relationships. We also talk about a surprising benchmark from Stanford MBA students, who aim to have five to ten informational conversations every week. And we’re reminded that networking is not about collecting contacts. It’s about being curious, participating in things, and becoming someone others genuinely want to talk with.

February 27, 2026Episode 2030 min

AI Boost: Using AI as a Career Thought Partner

This week we walk through the AI career management simulation Tiffany ran in class, with Paul as the guinea pig. We load real context into AI, ask it to build a “perfect” job posting for Paul, draft resume profile lines, create a cover letter hook, generate interview questions, and practice a story-based answer. And we show that the value in partnering with AI in career management isn’t in the first output. It’s in how you challenge it, refine it, and stay in control of the thinking.Here is the link to the Career Management AI Simulation document:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1apbnlBVtovq1_5RLQ6By9dLwTnVPZvFgW_-qXrL8S0Y/edit?usp=sharing