Five Years to B-School: The First Year

(page 2 of 3)

For starters, especially at this early stage of your career, you want all the help you can get to succeed and carve out a career path that will earn you one great gig after another. Besides needing the help of your mentors, you'll also need great people who know you well and can vouch for your strengths and achievements in MBA recommendation letters.

The right mentor is someone who is a few years older than you and has a job you covet. You can approach potential mentors either in person, by e-mail, or with a phone call, briefly explaining that you were hoping to snag a few moments to pick their brains about their job. Tell them you'd like to set up a quick meeting to discuss how they ended up taking on their role, what their job entails on a daily basis, and any tips they might have for you. Accommodate their schedule; they're doing you a favor. In the end, you should be able to use their career paths as a guide for your own.

Don't think the process ends when your meeting does. You have to keep up with these contacts and develop real relationships with them. The relationship goes two ways. You also have to contribute and help them. "You get what you give," says Abraham. In fact, you might even consider mentoring those who are younger than you by offering advice on the job search and looking over résumés.

Getting to know people is the hard part. You don't have to limit yourself to the team with which you always work. Look around the cafeteria at work, sign up for professional organizations, and get involved with any conferences or special meetings your company offers. Consider talking to people outside of your function in jobs that might interest you to make sure you know what job you'd like to be doing in the future. Many people earn their MBA because they want to change fields or functions altogether. That's O.K. The important thing is that in five years, when you write that application, you know exactly what you want to do. Now is the time to start making those decisions—and talking to others will help you make informed ones.

Get Involved

The office is not the only place you should be getting acquainted with new people. You should also be getting involved in community service and activities that ignite your passion outside of work. While it's true that business schools want to see a track record of service, it's also healthy for you to have a life that is well rounded and full. In those first days after graduating from college, you might feel down or closed off from the world. Essentially, you are a freshman again—and getting involved will give you a renewed sense of self and some purpose.

Consider this your chance to act on your passions. Think about what you really enjoy doing and choose a relevant activity. You don't have to be involved in a 100 organizations, but you should truly be involved in the activities you choose.

These extracurricular activities, besides being fun for you, offer an opportunity for you to show off your passion and personality to admissions committees. "Schools want something substantive, not a list," says Dan Poston, the assistant dean for the Masters Program at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. He adds that you should be able to enthusiastically discuss your participation in these activities during admission and job interviews.

Tutoring and Habitat for Humanity are not the only kinds of activities that admissions committees will find appealing, so don't feel limited. Shrum says he wrote half his application essays about his involvement in an improvisational comedy troupe. The important thing is that you take on responsibility and leadership in any of the groups you join. The good news is that if you're starting to get involved five years away from the MBA, then you are ahead of much of the competition, who often wait until the last minute to perform a few deeds in order to have something to write about.