Ask Jon Frank- P69-Q&A:WHY MBA? 7 OVERLOOKED REASONS TO GET AN MBA

JonFrank

My friends,

Today we will discuss a topic near and dear to my heart: REAL ESTATE.  As many of you know, in addition to running , I am also a very active real estate investor, developer, and manager.  After graduating from HBS, I worked at Trammell Crow Residential, ING, and others doing RE stuff.  And we often get emails from friends on these boards, asking whether to go for a Masters in Real Estate versus an MBA.  And frankly, I have very strong feelings about the matter.  So today, for all our real estate junkies out there, I will offer up our first annual "Top five reasons to get an MBA--not a Masters in Real Estate."  And as usual, I would appreciate a marketing person emailing me offline and helping me come up with a more zippy name...

: )

1) Picture yourself raising money. The guys who may be financing your real estate ventures may not know much about advanced degrees, real estate programs, "the fact that Stanford is harder to get into than HBS" etc.  But I'll tell ya what they DO know: "Harvard Business School."  "Wharton."  "MBA."  A well-renowned MBA amounts to instant respect.  And in the fund raising world, sometimes that is the most valuable currency around.

2) You dont actually know what you wanna do. I know you are certain that you will be doing real estate when you grow up.  But what if someone comes along, and offers you something else that you cant refuse?  What if, say, you wanna launch part deux?  WHO KNOWS what youre gonna be doing in your life in 20 years.  But Ill promise you one thing--no matter what it is, you will get mileage out of your MBA as you do it.

3) Real estate is actually easy. You dont need to go to school to learn it.  You will learn everything you need to on the job anyway.  You should go back to school for the OPPOSITE reason--not to learn more about real estate, which you will learn about for the rest of your life after school--but to learn about the OTHER stuff.  How will I market my new company.  How will I raise funds when I launch my new development company.  How can I lead a team, once I have my own venture.  THAT is the stuff you actually need to go to school to learn.  Not "how do I calculate an IRR on a real estate investment..."

4) Meet OTHER people--outside real estate.  This is key, both for personal and for professional reasons.  art of why business school is so great, is that you will meet amazing people.  An entrepreneur from Argentina.  A McKinsey consultant from Mumbai.  A record executive from LA.  You want to meet these people--to expand your horizons, both as friends (how cool is it to get to know amazing, creative people) and as possible partners (youre the real estate guy--these dudes become your finance guys.  Contacts.)  EXPAND your horizons, people--thats the best and most valuable part about business school

5) Getting jobs is easier.  Can you imagine being in a program with 150 people, all in Boston, looking for the exact same job?  Maybe some folks would prefer finance to development, or Boston to Providence or NYC.  But...still.  It is VERY hard to get jobs, when you are surrounded by people with your exact background.  Now, imagine that youre at Stanford GSB.  Even Cornell.  How many real estate folks will be there in your class, do you think?  Ten?  Twenty?  Spread across the country, when job season comes along--you will get a job.  Much, much, much less competition.  And that is pretty important, wouldnt you say?

Hope this helps, gang.  Get an MBA--its the only game in town.

Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hey gang, Jon Frank here, your friendly neighborhood MBA consultant and relationship advisor.
Lets talk about relationships, shall we?
A client just emailed me, asking what bschool will mean for his relationship (with his girlfriend.) "How hard will it be to do a long distance relationship?"
First, some disclaimers. When it comes to relationships, I am NO expert (as my dismal track record will indicate). So all I can describe is what I saw while at HBS (where I graduated in 2005). And the answer is...when you get to school gang, you will be busy. BUSY. YOU WILL BE BUSY. Busier than you have ever been, most likely. The first semester at school is going to be among the busiest time of your life. This is why so many long distance (or otherwise tenuous) relationships do not last while one person is at bschool. It is VERY hard to maintain relationships while you are working til 3AM every night, and up for study group at 730AM every morning. Right? Right.
Is it possible? Of course it is, and many will do it. But ask any of em--that sh*t is HARD to pull off.
Now. This is of course not relationship advice. Yall need to do what you need to do--pop the question, dont pop the question, bring him/her with ya to school or dont. But whatever you do, dont kid yourself. Once you get to school gang, all your time will be BOOKED. Solid. At the very least prepare your significant other for that fact. There is no way around it.
And proceed with caution.

Jon Frank

simonwalker

Thanks Frank, great job here. you've brought some fresh thoughts and insights to us.
i was wondering what do you think of those applicants with pure entrepreneurship experience? i have been with the company I founded for three years directly upon graduation from college, got some good stories during these years. the monthly revenue of the firm is stabilized at around 40W RMB now(kinda in a bottleneck). I am currently facing a dillemma of choosing from applying B-schools and go to another large corporation in the same industry as my start-up. (middle-level manager). what do you think?

My concern is without large corporation experience, will schools question my professional ability? pretty rare to see someone enter a school without 'real work experience'(excluding stanford)another issue is the recommendation, my only option are partners if I stick here. if i take the offer from the big company, I can't see myself applying until 1.5 years later otherwise the rush may not seem reasonable.
Academic wise: undergraduate in China, master in top canadian schools, decent GPA, decent GMAT.
would be highly appreciative if you can offer some advice.

JonFrank

Thanks Frank, great job here. you've brought some fresh thoughts and insights to us.
i was wondering what do you think of those applicants with pure entrepreneurship experience? i have been with the company I founded for three years directly upon graduation from college, got some good stories during these years. the monthly revenue of the firm is stabilized at around 40W RMB now(kinda in a bottleneck). I am currently facing a dillemma of choosing from applying B-schools and go to another large corporation in the same industry as my start-up. (middle-level manager). what do you think?

My concern is without large corporation experience, will schools question my professional ability? pretty rare to see someone enter a school without 'real work experience'(excluding stanford)another issue is the recommendation, my only option are partners if I stick here. if i take the offer from the big company, I can't see myself applying until 1.5 years later otherwise the rush may not seem reasonable.
Academic wise: undergraduate in China, master in top canadian schools, decent GPA, decent GMAT.
would be highly appreciative if you can offer some advice.

-- by 会员 simonwalker (2011/3/20 11:48:58)

Hello my friend, always happy to offer up some feedback.  The first thing is that while you would be well-advised to get some “real” work experience, you don’t need it.  We work with clients every year (including from China and India) who will get in with purely their entrepreneurial background.  So is it harder?  Yes, of course it is.  But it IS possible.

If you can afford to wait 1.5 years (as long as you wont be in your mid thirties by the time you have spent those years) then it would improve your odds.  But you don’t absolutely NEED that experience.  It would just be helpful.  Hope this makes sense—let me know how we can help!

Jon Frank

simonwalker

Thanks Frank, great job here. you've brought some fresh thoughts and insights to us.
i was wondering what do you think of those applicants with pure entrepreneurship experience? i have been with the company I founded for three years directly upon graduation from college, got some good stories during these years. the monthly revenue of the firm is stabilized at around 40W RMB now(kinda in a bottleneck). I am currently facing a dillemma of choosing from applying B-schools and go to another large corporation in the same industry as my start-up. (middle-level manager). what do you think?

My concern is without large corporation experience, will schools question my professional ability? pretty rare to see someone enter a school without 'real work experience'(excluding stanford)another issue is the recommendation, my only option are partners if I stick here. if i take the offer from the big company, I can't see myself applying until 1.5 years later otherwise the rush may not seem reasonable.
Academic wise: undergraduate in China, master in top canadian schools, decent GPA, decent GMAT.
would be highly appreciative if you can offer some advice.

-- by 会员 simonwalker (2011/3/20 11:48:58)

Hello my friend, always happy to offer up some feedback.  The first thing is that while you would be well-advised to get some “real” work experience, you don’t need it.  We work with clients every year (including from China and India) who will get in with purely their entrepreneurial background.  So is it harder?  Yes, of course it is.  But it IS possible.

If you can afford to wait 1.5 years (as long as you wont be in your mid thirties by the time you have spent those years) then it would improve your odds.  But you don’t absolutely NEED that experience.  It would just be helpful.  Hope this makes sense—let me know how we can help!

Jon Frank

-- by 会员 JonFrank (2011/3/24 19:31:46)

thanks Frank, age is not a problem for me, still in middle 20s. So you were saying that entrepreneurship+corporation gives better chance than pure entrepreneurship? are there any particular reasons why pure entrepreneurs were not favored? what are those shools that are more entrepreneur-friendly?

gelukkig

XXX

chengya

Hi Jon,

I am now in the waiting list of Duke in Round 2 (Health Care Management Program).  Could you please tell me how much hope I still have to be accepted? What I should do now to pursue it? If I still have a little bit hope, I will take whatever it takes to do it.

My background: MD, PhD ( USA degree).  Have two years experience as  cardiologist. Couples years research and management experience in American biotech (startup) and pharmaceutical industries (currently in Covance).

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much.

Chengya

JonFrank

Hi Jon, If I believe my relationship/break up with my ex influenced me a lot, can I mention  this in my essay?

-- by 会员 gelukkig (2011/3/25 5:06:21)

Hey there—the answer is that…there is a chance that this could be appropriate.  Off-hand it sounds a bit unprofessional—but in the event that you can make it sound as though you learned a lot, and as though it was a very mature relationship, then YES it can work.  Remember, it doesn’t really matter what you write about, so long as you describe some meaningful LEARNINGS along the way.  So if you have the learning to talk about, then yes, you might be able to make this work.  Good luck!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hi Jon,

I am now in the waiting list of Duke in Round 2 (Health Care Management Program).  Could you please tell me how much hope I still have to be accepted? What I should do now to pursue it? If I still have a little bit hope, I will take whatever it takes to do it.

My background: MD, PhD ( USA degree).  Have two years experience as  cardiologist. Couples years research and management experience in American biotech (startup) and pharmaceutical industries (currently in Covance).

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much.

Chengya

-- by 会员 chengya (2011/3/26 7:00:40)

Hey there!  It is great that you’ve made some good progress—hopefully we can help here.  There are three ways to improve your chances on the waitlist:

1)      Submit an additional letter of recommendation.  (LOR).  Do you have someone whom you haven’t asked yet? Perhaps someone who can speak to a different aspect of your application?  Even someone connected to the program would go a long way.
2)      Visit.  While this is difficult from overseas, this is one way to improve your chances.  It is always great to help adcoms put a face behind the name.  Send em an email, and say that you are headed there to visit, and you’d love to “pop your head in and introduce yourself.”  If you can pull it off, that’s a great plan.
3)      An additional essay/letter.  Is there anything that you haven’t captured yet in your application?  Anything new or cool or interesting that you have done, worth updating them on?  Hope so—write a letter!  Tell them how interested you are in the program, and that you have achieved a great deal SINCE submitting your app.

If you do all these three things, you will maximize your chances of breaking through the waitlist…


           Hope this helps, and good luck to you!


Jon Frank

Knockoff

haha, my dear Jon, since when you tap into marriage counseling?