Work Experience: What is Most Valuable?

Posted by: Geoff Gloeckler on June 1, 2011

Reader JoshD asks: “If you were, hypothetically, in the position of having to turn down a very strong applicant because of a lack of work experience, what would you recommend the applicant do to improve his/her prospects to reapply in, say, two years? *To elaborate, what sort of employment would you recommend the applicant pursue and not pursue? It seems clear that it should be related to the applicants goals post-MBA, but if the applicant decided to spend two-years in Asia working with the Peace Corps on economic development or, perhaps, spent two years simply teaching English in China while developing fluency in Chinese, would you consider the applicant adequately prepared or would you feel that, though they were more qualified, they lacked the more relevant (maybe industry-specific) work experience you would prefer them to acquire. Thanks!”

We went to Tepper Dean Bob Dammon for the answer:

Click here to visit Tepper’s undergraduate profile.

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