Career Boosters: An MBA Podcast

Hosted by The Career Boosters

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Episodes

105

Latest episode

Oct 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

October 9, 2026Episode 528 min

Stress Boost: What four Minutes Can Change

This week, we're joined by Charla Mckenzie, an MBA student, single mom to a fifteen month old, and a self-described overthinker who says she's currently swimming with her head just above water as she heads into midterm season. In class, we ran students through twenty minutes of chaos, then a four-minute centering practice, and had them list their emotions after each. Charla's two lists barely looked like the same person, proving that we can change our stress state quickly, and easily. She also talks about what she lets slide (aka strategically neglects) when there isn't time for everything, and what parenting has taught her about what’s truly important.

October 2, 2026Episode 433 min

Case Comp Boost: You Don't Have to Be the Smartest in the Room

People skip case competitions because they assume you have to be the smartest person in the room. This week, we're joined by Kaedee Fythe, an MBA student who has done four of them, including one where the whole case had to be solved in three hours. She says heart often comes before brains, and the skills she picked up show up everywhere now, from the business she runs to her community work. She also talks about nerves, and how the confident voice and the nervous one are both just levels you learn to adjust.

September 25, 2026Episode 329 min

Brand Boost: Hearing What Others See in You

Picture sitting in a room while a group of near strangers describes who you are, and you can't say a word. This week, we're joined by Élise Machado, a combined MBA and OT student, who did exactly that in class. She was sure the things she shared would come across as random. Instead, her group kept coming back to the word creative, a word she had never used for herself. She left with a clearer sense of how she comes across, and a reminder that once we know our brand, we can use it on purpose.

September 18, 2026Episode 229 min

Beginnings Boost: Nervous and Doing It Anyway

This week, we're joined by Alpha Sow, the first student from our 2026 MBA cohort. Alpha spent 16 years in telecom in Guinea, most recently leading quality and performance for one of the biggest companies in Africa, and he walked away from it to start over here in Canada. He admits that, like most people, beginnings make him nervous. The MBA has been an extra big beginning, and following fast-talking instructors in his second language was hard, so he built his own system and read ahead. What helped settle some of his nerves was looking around at orientation and realizing that if everyone else could do this, he could too. As he puts it, the hardest part is getting the admission. After that, it comes down to staying positive and getting organized.

August 15, 2026Episode 134 min

MBA Boost: Getting the Most Out of the Unexpected

This week, we're joined by two MBA alumni, Monisha Vinod (MBA 23’) and Kathryn Byron (MBA 25’), who came into the program looking for a clearer path forward and found something more useful instead. Neither of them got what they expected from the MBA. They got something better. Kathryn walked away from a fifteen-year career to figure out what actually motivated her. Monisha discovered that you can't plan for serendipity, but you can put yourself in rooms where it's more likely to find you. Between the two of them, they offer an honest picture of what the MBA actually gives you, and it has very little to do with the formula most people come in hoping to find.

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.