On Friday, June 3, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) held its annual Commencement ceremonies under cloudy skies. The latest System Design & Management (SDM) graduates listened to a speech by actor and activist Matt Damon, as well as accolades from MIT President L. Rafael Reif, and processed through Killian Court as part of a ceremony that awarded 1,780 graduate degrees and 1,076 undergraduate degrees. Sixty-seven SDM students walked in the ceremony and received official recognition of their completion of our program. That afternoon, the newly minted SDM alumni joined faculty, staff, family, and friends at the rooftop garden at Le Meridien in Central Square in Cambridge for a celebration of their accomplishment. Check out our photo galleries here (courtesy of Ravi Raina) and here, and please feel free to share your own memories of the day!

SDM Conference on Systems Thinking 2016

The annual SDM Conference on Systems Thinking for Contemporary Challenges is coming up fast! This year the conference is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September 28, to coincide with HUBweek, a festival celebrating innovation, creativity, and collaboration in the city of Boston. We’re excited about the opportunity to be part of the second year of this unique event, and we invite you to check out some of the other events happening across the city as part of HUBweek. 

In addition to the main conference and the back-to-the-classroom sessions, we are also holding our annual student-alumni networking event on Tuesday, September 27. The event will take place at Morss Hall from 6:00 to 9:00 PM and is free for SDM alums. We encourage all of you to attend, whether you’re coming to the conference or just happen to be in the Boston area. It’s a great chance to catch up with your fellow alumni and meet some of the current SDM students. We look forward to seeing you there! Register for the conference now.

We’re also planning an event for our San Francisco area alumni to coincide with the conference—more details will be available soon. To ensure you are on the Bay Area email list, please email Naomi Gutierrez at ngg@mit.edu.

Please read on for an update from Jonathan Pratt, SDM/IDM Director of Career Development and Recruitment!

Hello all,

I hope that this newsletter finds everyone well. I wanted to send out a quick note from the Career Development and Recruiting department to make sure everyone is aware of the resources we have available.  

First, we have set up an email distribution list called SDMJobs for companies that would like to recruit SDM alumni. If you are not on this list and would like to be, please email Naomi Gutierrez at ngg@mit.edu to be added.  

Additionally, our program alumni have full access to recruiting and career development resources from the MIT Sloan Career Development Office, including its job board. You will need a MySloan account to access these resources. For more information, check out the MIT Sloan website.

Finally, we will be sending out the latest edition of our resume books for current students in the SDM and IDM programs later this fall. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to anyone whom you feel might be suitable for an opportunity within your organization. Also, feel free to forward books along to your recruiting department. 

Thank you all for your time and efforts!