Five Kellogg MBA students face up to the economic realities
May 5th 2009 From Economist.com
Over the course of one week, Which MBA? followed the fortunes of five MBA students from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, graduating into one of the toughest jobs markets in memory.
Day one: Daianna
Last summer, The Economist called business schools “ports in a storm,” (see article) such was the surge in applications from prospective students seeking to ride out the recession. Almost a year on, students have seen an economy that looked bad when they first applied grow much, much worse. As the spring term comes to an end, rumour has it that nearly half of my fellow MBAs are still without summer internships or full-time offers. Fierce headwinds face us as we sail back out into the world.
Whatever the initial motives for enrolling, few go to business school without the belief that an MBA will put them on a fast-track to bigger and better things upon graduation. That’s certainly what I had in mind when I left my job, salary and friends to move to Chicago to pursue a two-year, full-time MBA at Kellogg. I wanted to expand my business skills at a top-ranked school in order to change from a career primarily at non-profit organisations to a more traditional role at a prominent company in the private sector.
I began classes in autumn with an open mind about potential career paths. Within a couple of weeks, the recruiters descended in droves. Regardless of what they might say, no company presentation, coffee chat or reception is truly “non-evaluative”, so in order to impress, students must quickly become passionate about a particular industry or function. Like many of my classmates, and business school students the world over, I developed an affinity for consulting.
The bright, friendly associates and partners spoke of intense personal development, exposure to senior executives and generous compensation. And because they fancied themselves recession-proof, many firms projected hiring plans equal to those from the previous year.
But it was not to be. Despite hours and hours of networking—I used Excel more often for tracking contacts than I did for finance class—and intense preparation for the elaborate, multi-stage interview process, firms were ultimately extremely conservative in their hiring and it was difficult to get them to see past my “non-traditional” background. I quickly overcame the disappointment, though—I knew I was far from alone.
Then, a marketing class made all the difference. It made me think about my personal brand—the unique attributes that set me apart from the pack. Before business school, I spent years advising companies on environmental sustainability, a task that gave me enormous personal and professional satisfaction. I stepped back to reflect on what truly motivates me, as many other students are doing as the well-worn finance and consulting paths lose their lustre. I now see an opportunity to combine my existing skills with what I am learning at the world’s top marketing school to carve out a position in the emerging field of sustainable brand strategy. In many cases, I’m trying to sell companies on something they don’t yet know they need, and relying heavily on my professional network to unearth positions that will never appear on any business school’s job board.
It is exciting, exhilarating and exhausting. Agility, resilience and seeking opportunities in adversity are often themes that feature in the cases we study in class; they are also proving important to the job hunt. This voyage won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing usually is.
Day two: Reeves
The conventional wisdom is that business school is not the place to “find yourself.” Throughout the recruiting process, you need a story: where you’ve been, what you hope to gain at school and how this will help you achieve those future goals. This can be difficult when you come from an unconventional background.
After graduating from West Point, I spent seven years as an Army officer, including time in Iraq and South Korea, flying the UH60 Black Hawk helicopter. With no corporate experience, it was a challenge to identify what career path would best suit my skill sets. So I scripted a story and passionately stuck to that script until I was accepted at Kellogg. Deep down, I thought that getting into a top business school would be the most difficult part; figuring out what I’d do afterwards was not as much of a concern.
When recruitment started, consulting looked promising. It would allow me to be industry and functionally agnostic; it would expose me to multiple industries; I would work with many bright minds; and, given the recession, it offered some of the most handsome compensation packages going. I jumped in with both feet. I was the first-year director of the consulting club and acted as a project leader for a pro-bono consulting team that worked with a local business. I went to as many recruiting events and information sessions as my schedule could handle. I hit case preparations with focus and intensity.
But after the dust settled, I ended up without a summer job offer. Looking back, I made two mistakes. First, I underestimated how deep the recession would be, and how it would affect the number of offers and profile of successful candidates. Fewer positions led firms to take fewer risks on career switchers. The second mistake was focus—both on consulting exclusively and on only a handful of firms in particular.
Having regrouped and refocused, I find myself pursuing a very different path. More directly leveraging my previous military experience, I am now speaking with aerospace and defence companies. Although it has taken a while to come to this conclusion, I am excited and optimistic about the possibilities that lie ahead. Switching careers is difficult enough at the best of times, but add in the recession and this now has to be my best chance of finding a great job.
Day three: Eddie
My job search began some 18 years ago when I saw Patrick Ewing, centre for my beloved New York Knicks, battle Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the NBA playoffs. I was 10 years old and hoped I could someday play professional basketball. Little did I realise that I would get the chance this summer—not as a player, but as a businessman.
The journey began when I was admitted to Kellogg more than a year ago. I thought business school could help me make the change from engineering to the world of marketing. More ambitiously, I hoped to find work in the sports business, a notoriously difficult industry to break into but one that seemed to offer a happy marriage between my professional and personal interests.
As the autumn quarter tipped off, I found myself inundated with company information sessions, networking nights, professional school club events and informational interviews with second-year students fresh from their summer internships. The career choices seemed plentiful but, as we all now know, the actual opportunities would become scarcer by the day.
I remember a specific workshop run by the school’s career management department that focused on conducting “independent” (off-campus) job searches. The counsellor asked attendees to start the session by writing down what our ideal job the following summer would be. I wrote “marketing strategy for a major sports entity.”
For the next six months, I dug and clawed through as many resources as possible to learn more about relevant roles within the sports industry. I subscribed to weekly industry reports and emailed at least 50 alumni and contacts of contacts. I set up phone calls with people who were second- and third-degree connections on LinkedIn, reached out to professors—at Kellogg and beyond—who specialised in sports research and, of course, scoured the employment and client-work history of my classmates. Some contacts were great, some were “one and done” encounters and others were non-responsive. My determination grew as the job market contracted; after all I had a genuine personal interest and investment in what I was seeking.
In March, I caught my break. A marketing and business operations role at the NBA found its way to me and I successfully navigated through the recruiting process. Eight months ago I didn’t even know that this department and role existed, but diligence and an unwavering focus on the sort of job, and industry, that would make me happiest ultimately landed me the dream summer internship. There was no established roadmap to guide me on how to do this, but rather only instinct and determination. I hope my story can motivate other current, or future, MBA students to follow their passions before anything else, regardless of the economic climate.
Day four: Jorge
An MBA at Kellogg is exhausting; in a good way. From the first day on campus, I have been busy attending classes, writing papers, listening to speakers, leading clubs and student organisations, participating in events, networking, studying, occasionally spending time with my wife and, of course, recruiting. While the experience has been incredibly interesting and enriching, the recruiting process has turned from what was supposed to be a smooth and fun career transition—as it was for fellow Spaniards who previously went to Kellogg—into a challenging quest for El Dorado: a job offer.
I came to Kellogg to jump from consulting to a business leadership programme at a big player in the retail, consumer goods or manufacturing industries in the US. I wanted to set off on the path to becoming a successful strategic thinker in a general management position.
Despite my efforts and several on-campus interviews, I wasn’t lucky enough to get one of these highly sought-after positions. The setbacks made me rethink my strategy. Were there aspects of my background story I could work on? Should I have done more informal interviews during the recruiting process? Some of the other hurdles I faced were pure externalities—namely, the recession and my being a foreigner.
Instead of taking a completely new direction and defining myself as a career switcher, I am now trying to leverage my previous experience when looking for positions that nonetheless are aligned with my long-term goals. For example, I have been interviewing with a non-profit environmental organisation about managing a project for a big American retailer. Something way off my radar months ago, this is the sort of opportunity that would allow me to grow into my desired professional direction while still taking advantage of my previous experience as a consultant and engineer.
During the recruiting process I have learned the importance of being flexible, quick and open. I have also learned that, unlike in the recent past, an MBA looking for opportunities to do something completely new, with no previous experience in an industry, may be chasing a mirage.
Day five: Sultan
After nearly five years at a Fortune 100 technology company, I left for Kellogg in order to take a big leap forward in my career. My goal was to get a top-class education, work for a few more years in the US and then return home to the Middle East to join the family business.
Despite the subsequent drop in the Dow, my goals remain the same, though the execution has changed. Now, instead of spending a few years here to gain more work experience, I will head home soon after graduation this summer. Opportunities for international students have diminished dramatically in the US, especially for those seeking work in the financial services after conditions attached to the bank bailouts altered the rules for hiring foreign workers.
I spent last summer working as an intern at a venture capital firm. This too was not in my original plan—I focused much of my energy on getting an investment banking position on Wall Street. That didn’t work out, but I picked up the venture-capital offer along the way. It ended up being a great experience, and the guidance I received from mentors at the firm was priceless. I wasn’t sure banking was for me, but I gave it shot. The summer internship convinced me, heading into my second year at school, to pursue what I’m truly passionate about.
In June, I will leave Kellogg smarter, better connected and eager to make a difference in the world. The recession may have delayed some of my fellow students’ dreams, but these are only temporary setbacks. If there is one thing that classes have taught me, it’s to learn from adversity and always remain focused on the long term. I will re-enter the work force more confident, knowledgeable and—in these turbulent times—humble.
MBA students -Not all bad
Jun 29th 2009 From Economist.com
Despite the negative press, many MBA students remain a force for good
THERE is something about MBAs and the schools that train them which brings out the ire in otherwise mild-mannered people. Long before the economic crisis put them in the spotlight, students and providers were being held to account—and often found wanting—by self-appointed judges.
Five years ago Henry Mintzberg (see article), a business professor at McGill University in Canada, led the charge with his claim that top schools such as Harvard Business School (HBS) were obsessed with numbers and were undermining the value of management by trying to turn it into a science. Lately he has been joined by Philip Delves Broughton, who graduated from HBS in 2006 and promptly wrote “What They Teach You at Harvard Business School” (see review), a damning account of his time there. His criticism has turned Mr Delves Broughton into business education’s public enemy number one and helped legitimise a trend to blame schools and their alumni for many of the world’s present economic woes.
Of course, it hasn’t helped that several of the chief executives cited as architects of the downturn, including Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers, Andy Hornby of HBOS and Rick Wagoner of General Motors, all have MBAs from top schools. But are all MBAs really as villainous as Mr Delves Broughton describes? It is perhaps no coincidence that many of those he calls “Masters of Disasters” graduated in the 1970s. Arguably the moral compass of a new generation of MBAs, coupled with business schools' new-found commitment to teaching ethics, will avoid a repeat of their mistakes.
And maybe the good-guy MBAs—for they do exist—need to shout a bit louder. Take, for example, Jason Chuei, a young British veterinary surgeon, currently studying for an MBA at Melbourne Business School in Australia. After travelling extensively in developing countries and seeing the poor state of animal welfare in many of them, he turned his back on a potential high-paying job in the corporate world for a career in the non-profit sector. His aim is to set up a global veterinary charity and he sees the MBA as a way of developing the managerial skills and the international network of contacts he will need to make that happen.
Stephen Thornhill, an MBA from Warwick Business School in the UK, is working with an NGO in rural Malawi to develop a programme to stop the transmission of HIV from mothers to children and has raised $250,000 in funding for the venture. Meanwhile, MBAs from ESADE in Spain are working on social development projects covering such areas as recycling, the rehabilitation of the disabled, water decontamination and solar energy.
Messrs Chuei and Thornhill hardly fit the Gordon-Gekko mould. And they are hardly alone. Witness the volunteer work of a group of students from Baylor University in Texas. While Jeff Skilling, former CEO of Enron and a Harvard MBA, serves a 24-year term at a federal prison for fraud, the current Baylor class have just won an award for their mentoring work with prison inmates in the Prison Entrepreneurship Programme, an initiative started in 2004 by Catherine Rohr, a former Wall Street investor and MBA graduate from the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School.
There are even signs of new thinking at Harvard. There, second year students have devised a pledge to act ethically in future business dealings, which they want fellow classmates to sign (see article). Some on campus have dismissed the pledge as empty rhetoric, but the protagonists are pleased to have signed up over half the class of nearly 900, and have since attracted signatories from other schools. (Cynics might wonder just what the other half intend to do after graduation that puts them off making the promise of good behaviour; imagine if only half of the Harvard Medical School’s doctors agreed to take the Hippocratic Oath.)
In any case, given that the average age of a Harvard MBA student is 27, is it too late to start trying to instil a sense of ethics once they are on the course? One institution that takes this view is Berkeley's Haas School. Peter Johnson, the school’s director of admissions, believes that the best approach is to look for applicants who are not only smart, accomplished and ambitious but who also reflect the solid ethical values of the programme. “We tend to weed out those whose only goal is access to the corporate jet and lucrative stock options,” he says. “It’s OK to make money, we just want our students to understand how to do it responsibly.” The weeding-out process appears to work. This year more than 70 Haas students are working on development plans in emerging economies whilst others are taking part in consulting projects for non-profit organisations in a programme jointly run by the school and McKinsey & Co, a consultancy.
However, while their response to criticism has been commendably fast, business schools are also open to the accusation of acting faddishly. To win over their detractors they will need to prove that their commitment to ethics and sustainable business is not just a public relations act, but for sound commercial and social reasons. Perhaps then one day, people may even warm to them.
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发表于 2009-7-20 17:10:00
