Admissions Advice and Commonly Asked Questions The following are articles mostly from my blog (http://mbaapply.blogspot.com) as well as magazines that I wrote for. I have also produced the video series Interview Don'ts. Enjoy!
Every decade or so, one "hot" sector captures the imagination of MBAs looking to be the Masters of the Universe - that big payday or that job that would be the envy of their classmates and peers. It's this glory seeking, trophy hunting and status-seeking mentality that drives the herd mentality within the MBA jet-set. In the 60s, it was advertising. In the 70s, it was conglomerates. In the 80s, it was bond trading. In the 90s, it was dot-coms and venture capital. And in this decade, it's private equity/hedge funds. It wasn't long ago when people were arguing that dot-coms were going to be hot for a long time. Even b-schools introduced ecommerce majors, as if business fundamentals were somehow different in a virtual world (well, they are when you are in a stock market bubble). Before that, quite a few assumed that bond trading would continue to be the darling of MBAs, and Silicon Valley was scoffed at as just a bunch of geeks in a garage. If history is a decent guide, you can probably fill in the blanks. Things change, but human nature never changes. While some of the interest certainly is genuine, most of it is, like any market bubble, driven by greed and fear. Like any asset market, greed makes you buy when you should be selling, and fear makes you sell when you should be buying. The smart money got in before the sector got hot. You probably know that the private equity market is overheated right now. Same with hedge funds. Too much cheap money chasing too few deals. Bad times never last forever, but good times never do either. If you're looking for a career in the "hot" sector, by all means go for it. But if you're looking for glory, you're too late to the game. By the time you have a shot at glory, the party's over. All that talk of billion dollar bonuses at hedge funds and private equity shops are about 10 - 30 years removed from where most MBAs (and aspiring MBAs alike) are at today. Working as an underling *for* a big swinging d*ck isn't the same as *being* the big swinging d*ck. The former is like being a chambermaid for royalty - just because you help make someone's bed, doesn't make you part of the family, nor does it mean you have anywhere near the same benefits and perks either. Like celebrities in People Magazine (and MBA herd mentality is like People Magazine), all hot sectors "jump the shark" before it's replaced by something new. And private equity has jumped the shark. What used to be the playground for burnt-out investment bankers in the past has now become the dreams of IT engineers - just as the market has peaked. It's like schoolteachers talking about the latest penny stock. Like advertising, conglomerates, bond trading and dot-coms -- private equity won't disappear. But it sure won't garner the attention or glory in the future that it does now. And it may even institutionalize even further, making the "big swinging d*ck" in private equity as obsolete as it is in investment banking. The nature of the job is gatekeeping. You are a gatekeeper of money. The folks who made it big didn't make it big because they were good gatekeepers. They made it big because they got in early before others caught wind. Again, if you're banking on glory, status or even just a huge financial windfall, don't count on it if you're this late in the game. By the time you make partner, People Magazine would've moved onto something else much sexier, trendier and more lucrative - you'll be yesterday's news by the time you've made it. All the press, accolades, and money that showered the partners today will be on some other industry by the time you've climbed the ladder. The folks who generate the enormous windfall have one thing in common -- they get in early. Whether it's real estate, stocks, art collections, or even careers - they managed to stay ahead of the uninformed masses. It's not about being smart, educated, pedigreed, or rich - it's about being early. Most of the personal wealth amassed by Google staff isn't concentrated in the Stanford MBA alums - most of it goes to those who were there in Google's early stages - from the CEO all the way down to the customer service rep. In most cases, the early birds have the largest piece of the pie in any venture. Buy low, sell high. MBAs who are part of the herd mentality unfortunately tend to buy high and sell low. So what is The Next Big Thing? It could be healthcare. International porn. Or it could be all about Eastern Europe, China and India (note to international students, and particularly the Indians who seem to be the most adverse to repatriating compared to other internationals -- if you believed this, is there any reason why you need to be an H1B indentured servant post-MBA, rather than being the early bird entrepreneur back home -- as an aside, the few folks who are going back now will likely reap greater rewards long-term than any H1B employee ever will who believes "someday I'll go back"; mark my word on this). Personally, I have no idea what the Next Big Thing is nor do I really care. And you probably don't. That's the point. You're chasing your own tail if you do. It's not about trying to time the market or to play market contrarian with your career. It's simply about being brutally honest with yourself about what it is you enjoy doing, and sticking to it. Because everything will have it's day in the sun if you enjoy the job enough to stick through the tough times. Who knows, maybe even insurance or accounting may be The Next Big Thing... stranger things have happened. And if you're too risk averse that you have to stick with what appears to be safe, then don't expect much - greater returns come with greater risk.
With an expected increase in applicants to the top MBA programs coupled with a far tighter job market, the next few years for MBAs is going to be tough. It'll be harder to get in, and it'll be harder to get the jobs that they want. However, this isn't the first time it's ever happened. And it certainly won't be the last. Every time the current crop of folks will say "this time, it's different" -- those who've been through multiple cycles know otherwise. The circumstances may change, but it's been that way since the dawn of time -- there will be good times, and there will be bad times, and neither last forever. So here is some food for thought. Be pragmatic. You may not get the dream job you want. Frankly, even during boom times, it's hard to get your dream job, especially if you're career switching and need to convince a company that "even though I don't have direct relevant experience, I ...." It's just hard to get a good job, period. Know what and what not to settle for. This will vary by individual. Some of my classmates in the aftermath of the dot-com bust in 2001 and post 9/11 took whatever job they could get (just anything) because they couldn't bear not being employed and needed the money badly. And they turned out all right. Others were more willing to hold out -- some as long as a year and a half to get the job they wanted (and they turned out all right). The most important thing is to know that everyone has a different threshhold -- and to AVOID getting sucked into whatever peer pressure you may be facing (i.e. "all my friends are holding out, so I should do the same" or "all my friends are settling, so I should do the same"). It's your life, your money, your obligations, your priorities. From a practical standpoint, it comes down to how much risk you're willing to take to hold out, vs settling for whatever it is you have. How long are you prepared (mentally and financially) to survive without a job post-MBA to get the job you want? There are many paths to the same goal. For example, if you really really want to work in some specific sector in finance, you don't need to necessarily start there right after b-school (although the direct path is usually the preferred route). In a bad job market, you may have to be prepared to reach your goal EVENTUALLY rather than IMMEDIATELY. And if it's really what you want to do, it really shouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things whether you get there now, or get there later through some circuitous route. There is no template or formula. It seems like so many MBAs are too keen to search for some template or formula to follow whatever it is they want, rather than THINKING FOR THEMSELVES. MBA students (and applicants) seem to be so prone to herd mentality, like they need constant reaffirmation for the choices they make by constantly benchmarking the actions and choices of others. When many of your fellow MBAs act like sheep, it's easy to just fall in line if you're not aware that they're just being sheep and looking to you to figure out what to do. Be aware of the convention, but don't feel bound by it. Forge your own path. It's not that fragile. As alluded to in (2), most if not all the MBAs I knew from various schools who graduated in '01 turned out all right. Likewise, the 2009, 2010 and 2011 grads will turn out all right - the first few years post-MBA may be a tumultuous and stressful time for many, but in the end it'll be fine - short of armageddon (but then, it wouldn't really matter for any of us if that were the case, now would it?). The direction of your whole life doesn't hinge on whether you get the interview with a particular firm, or whether you make $X or anything else that may seem to cause an MBA to get an unnecessary ulcer. Yes, it can be stressful if you have loans to pay back, and being unemployed sucks, but adding phantom stakes of how this will impact your life long-term only makes it worse. You are getting an MBA (or just graduated with one) to work a desk job at a company -- nothing of real consequence is going to happen to you if it doesn't quite work out. And if it's a matter of survival, no one is going to laugh at you if you have to live with your parents (it's been done by quite a few grads from top schools in the last crash of '01). You're not shut out of some uber-prestigious job because you've had to take your old pre-MBA job to make ends meet, or to work part-time at Starbucks. Yes, it can be trying, it can be tough -- but you'll come out such times a stronger and more wiser person -- wiser about who you are and what you *really* want. And when you've finally been able to strip away the mystique or prestige or whatever it is you've ascribed to whatever career path you so coveted, you'll see that WORK IS WORK. Most people (even those who may have seemed to reach their childhood dreams) aren't exactly thrilled about having to work - but they do the best they can. Some of you may know that careers aren't linear. Life isn't linear. Things happen to you that will change your world forever, causing you to start over. Or you will make that choice. You will more likely go from one career path to another completely unrelated career path -- and do that a couple of times for the rest of your life. This isn't your parent's generation where you work up the ranks as the "company man" or there's clear "exit strategy" for job XYZ which then leads to job ABC and so forth. Lawyers go back to med school. Equity research analysts quit and join a rock band. Many walk away from corporate life to start a mom 'n pop business, with some only to come back to corporate life. Others become full-time parents. A life's work these days is becoming a random series of careers - and in the workplace, a revolving door of newcomers coming in and veterans leaving. That's why there isn't some 10-step plan for getting a job in a tough job market (or any job market), other than keeping your expectations realistic. And most importantly, like many things -- NOT getting what you want can lead to other more wonderful things you never would've even discovered otherwise -- if you're willing to see it that way. As vague as it may sound, you want to be as focused as you can, but open to other things along the way as well - it's a difficult but worthwhile balance to strive for as you enter b-school this fall (or if you're applying to b-school, a good way to get a head start on this before half the MBAs start jumping off the cliff in panic and fear). For many applicants, getting that prestigious name on their resume is one of the many reasons why they want an MBA from a top school. But does the brand of your MBA really matter? Like many aspects of b-school, admissions, recruiting, etc. -- it all depends. In essence, the pedigree of your education matters more the less experienced (read: younger) you are. It matters if you're looking to work in specific industries like management consulting and banking - where these firms do most of their recruiting at select schools. If you're in your early to mid-20s and you're not particularly sure about what you want to do post-MBA, then going to the school with the best overall reputation is likely your best bet. But if you're pretty sure about what you want to do and it doesn't involve investment banking or management consulting, then you want to focus far more on the specific strengths or geographic location of the school. Also, if you're in your 30s and beyond, you already have an extensive body of work that employers will look at no matter how hard you try to run away from it. Of course, there's a difference in opportunities between say an online degree and Darden, but there's not really going to be a huge difference for you whether you got to Darden, Kellogg, or Stanford -- because as a seasoned professional, you will be judged on your entire body of work. In fact, depending on your circumstance, it may not even matter whether you go to a top30 vs. a top16 school. Pedigree matters for kids because they don't have much else. Experience matters for adults - even if such prior experience is not related to your current career aspirations. And other than banking or consulting, just about every other industry values experience above all. |
