Career Strategy for MBA Applicants

Transcription

1 Career Strategy for MBA Applicants Presented by Practice MBA Hosted by Accepted.com Ivan Kerbel CEO and Founder, Practice LLC 1501 E. Madison Street, Suite 400 Seattle, WA (USA) Tel Fax Website: LinkedIn:

2 First on the agenda Assume that you ve been admitted to business school!! What will you do next with regard to your academic preparation, professional development, 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. Merely showing up for school, assuming that you are prepared to excel in every performance domain, can be risky.

3 Make an effort to expand the school year All aspects of your readiness for business school are relevant to your MBA career strategy because they influence the availability of your one most scarce resource time. Hence, take any / all elements of business school that are not unique to that learning environment and acquire those skills and knowledge in advance. But let s focus first on career planning

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 (family, friends, undergraduate professors) 3. Interact with future peers, colleagues, and mentors (classmates, faculty, administrative staff, alumni, employers) 4. Research your options and MBA roles with respect to industry, function, and organization(s) 5. Understand the MBA recruiting calendar and hiring process for #4 6. Understand employers MBA talent management model 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 job searching (résumés, interview prep, coffee chats) in order to compete successfully 10. Create a story of how you fit in with a specific employer Why me? Why now? Why this particular opportunity?

5 Additional factors: Create a solution for the next phase of your life and career, not for eternity Be ruthless and disciplined about how you allocate your time and energy Understand whether marketplace for your target companies / 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, Dean s List) and extracurricular opportunities (club leadership, conference management, student government, new initiatives) 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 intl. students) Manage the employer relationship (for sponsored students) View every situation from the perspective of the other party

6 Consider 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 to network more broadly) the goal is to leverage the last few months of relative personal liberty before you encounter the considerable performance demands of b-school

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

8 Manage your overall transition, as you research pre-orientation programs Academic readiness: Hard skills and software facility (quant analytics, financial modeling via Excel) Familiarity with concepts and themes in academic verticals (Accounting, Finance) Ability to conduct research and analyze financial data (CapitalIQ) Professional readiness: Expertise and direct knowledge relevant to a day in the life for each 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 Interpersonal effectiveness (listening and communicating skills, empathy, project management and teaming) Personal effectiveness (time management, organization, positive psychology)

9 Ivan Kerbel bio Ivan Kerbel is a former higher education administrator, management consultant, and Wharton 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, ) He has also worked for elease Financial Services, an Idealab!-incubated Silicon Valley start-up, for General Electric s Litigation and Legal Policy office, and for a molecular medicine and life sciences publication, The FASEB Journal Ivan holds a joint MBA from The Wharton School and MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University (2005) He was also a Fulbright Scholar, earning an MLitt with Distinction from The University of Auckland in New Zealand (1999), and graduated with a BA in History from Yale University (1996)

10 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 and share your contact

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