MBA Career Strategy Primer

Transcription

1 MBA Career Strategy Primer Presented by Practice MBA Ivan Kerbel CEO, Practice LLC and The Practice MBA Summer Forum 1501 E. Madison Street, Suite 400 Seattle, WA (USA) Tel Fax Website: LinkedIn: 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 1

2 First on the agenda Assume that you ve just been admitted to business school! What will you do next with regard to your professional development goals, academic preparation, networking and social opportunities, travel and personal growth? Having a pre-matriculation strategy is a critical component of making sure that your transition to business school is smooth and that the first few months on the job go well. Improving / shifting your baseline MBA readiness as well as clearing your mind and having fun will allow you to maximize your use of time and leverage the unique resources of business school itself. 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 2

3 Make an effort to expand the front end of the school year All aspects of your preparedness for business school academic, professional, and social are relevant to your MBA career strategy because they influence the availability of your most scarce resource: time. Acquire any / all elements of business school (e.g. financial modeling via Excel) that are not unique to that learning environment in advance. That being said, let s focus on career planning 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 3

4 Components of the MBA job search 1. Conduct career self-assessment (integrate Myers-Briggs, Career Leader, etc.) 2. Interact with current and past peers, colleagues, and mentors (including family, friends, undergraduate professors) 3. Interact with future peers, colleagues, and mentors (including classmates, faculty, administrative staff, MBA alumni, employers) 4. Research your options and MBA roles with respect to target industry, function, and organization(s) 5. Understand the MBA recruiting calendar and hiring process for #4 6. Understand employers MBA talent management models for #4 7. Identify your school s particular strengths (research centers, new venture initiation programs, corporate relationships, geographic advantage, etc.) 8. Stay up to date with marketplace trends, business research 9. Master the tools of the MBA job search (résumés, interview prep, coffee chats) 10. Begin to create a story of how you fit in with a specific employer Why me? Why now? Why this particular opportunity? 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 4

5 Additional factors to consider Create a solution for the next phase of your life and career, not for eternity Be ruthless and disciplined about how you plan to allocate your time and energy Understand whether the marketplace for your target companies / job opportunities is on-campus or requires an independent search Employ school holidays and long weekends strategically for job search-related travel and networking Leverage academic curriculum (T.A. opportunities, independent study projects, Dean s List) and extracurricular opportunities (club leadership, conference management, case competitions) to enhance job search Decide whether to pursue entrepreneurship Avoid the MBA herd mentality Undertake a two-country job search (for international students) Become an expert on sponsorship and work visa rules (for international students) Manage your current employer relationship (for sponsored students) View every situation from the perspective of the other party 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 5

6 Consider your options prior to starting business school Join professional associations and conferences: Forté Foundation, National Black MBA Assoc., Net Impact, NSHMBA, Reaching Out Industry-specific trade groups, associations, journals, blogs, MBA clubs Participate in pre-mba corporate-sponsored programs: Understand implications of participation, commitment (see examples next slide) Pursue individual / custom pre-mba internships: Self-directed search, personal relationships, entry into new field Take on language and culture transition / immersion process: Self-directed, or via The Practice MBA Summer Forum Register for pre-orientation training programs, individual skills-building modules (online or otherwise), and travel opportunities: Mix of corporate, educational, and social opportunities (decide whether to focus exclusively on your own MBA program or network more broadly) Leverage the last few months of relative personal liberty you have before you encounter the considerable performance demands and time crunch of b-school 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 6

7 The (non-exhaustive) ecosystem of pre-mba enrichment activities A.T. Kearney Consulting Boot Camp Bain Consulting Pre-MBA Summer Program Bank of America Merrill Lynch Diversity MBA Fellowship ChaseDream Pre-MBA Career Forum Citi Pre-MBA Fellowship Consortium for Graduate Study in Management (OP) Credit Suisse MBA Explorer Program Coursera Deloitte Consulting Immersion Program Forté Fellowship Forté Foundation Forums Fullbridge Program generalassemb.ly GMAC Essential Prep Goldman Sachs MBA Camp Google Student Veterans Summit Harvard Business School Press - Online Courses HBS Summer Venture in Management Program J.P. Morgan MBA Early Advantage Khan Academy Lynda.com Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) MBA IQ MBA JumpStart Diversity Forums MBA Math McKinsey Emerging MBA Scholars Military to Business (MtB) Middlebury College MiddCORE Morgan Stanley MBA Early Insights Program Procter & Gamble Marketing MBA Summer Camp Stanford Summer Institute for General Management Telestrat Pre-MBA Prep Course The Practice MBA Summer Forum Toigo MBA Fellowship Training The Street Tuck Business Bridge Program Udacity Udemy Wall Street Prep 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 7

8 Manage your overall transition as you research pre-orientation programs Academic readiness: Hard skills and software facility (quant work, analytics) Familiarity with concepts and themes in academic verticals (Accounting, Finance) Ability to conduct research and analyze financial data (e.g., via CapitalIQ) Professional readiness: Expertise and direct knowledge relevant to a day in the life for each target industry and function Understanding of relevant marketplace trends and impact on MBA recruiting Number of friends, professional contacts, and sponsors in desired field Social / extracurricular readiness: Cultural understanding, adherence to social norms, informal and formal etiquette Personal effectiveness (time management, organization, positive psychology) Interpersonal effectiveness (listening and communicating skills, project management, teaming) 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 8

9 The Practice MBA Summer Forum in the News: Heading to Business School? An Essential Pre-MBA Strategy to Hit the Ground Running Forbes (May 29 th, 2013) Extra Help for Foreign M.B.A.s Wall Street Journal (February 6 th, 2013) A Pre-MBA Boot Camp For New Admits Poets & Quants (January 30 th, 2013) For more information, please visit 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 9

10 Ivan Kerbel biography Ivan Kerbel is a former higher education administrator, management consultant, and Wharton MBA alumnus. He founded Practice LLC in Prior to starting Practice LLC and the Practice MBA Summer Forum, Ivan served as: Director, Career Development Office, Yale School of Management ( ) Sr. Associate Director, UPenn Wharton MBA Career Management ( ) Associate, Katzenbach Partners (organizational design consulting firm, ) Ivan holds a joint MBA from The Wharton School and MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University (2005), an MLitt with Distinction from The University of Auckland (1999), and a BA in History from Yale (1996) 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 10

11 Join us in Seattle! 12/2/ Practice MBA / Practice LLC 11