Gaining Insight from Internships

If you're not a career switcher, B-school may not seem essential. But it will bring job interviews, and the internship is valuable

by Brian Glenn

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Brian Glenn
MIT Sloan
MBA Class of 2008

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Some argue that an MBA is just a piece of paper, and an expensive one at that. For any career switcher, it can provide a bridge from one career or role to a new one. For those of us who are not career switchers, but rather are trying to rise within the competitive ranks of the industry we worked in prior to B-school, it offers networking opportunities and, more important, a "try before you buy" opportunity via the summer internship.

After all, when you take a job, as much as the firm plans to pay you, you are buying into that firm—not necessarily financially, but you are committing your time and post-MBA reputation to that firm. With luck, both sides of the table will see a great fit and you'll spend years, maybe decades, with your employer. If you don't make it for multiple decades at your first post-MBA employer, maybe it will be for selfish reasons (namely, early retirement).

During my quick stint in the asset management industry, working for a $10B firm located in New Jersey, I learned quite a bit. First—and I've confirmed this with some other classmates—firms in this business thrive on original, unbiased research. I spent the first few weeks of my internship calling industry participants. I found myself speaking with representatives of the Tennessee Valley Authority, regional ISOs (independent system operators), investor-owned utilities, and competitors in Europe and Asia, all to gain a better understanding of spending on electricity transmission infrastructure.

Taking the Interest Home

As I drove down the Garden State Parkway every weekend, en route to the "shore," I found myself looking skyward through my front windshield at various overhead transmission lines, guessing the kilovolt transmission capacity based on the types of towers that suspend them.

I wasn't interested in wooden telephone-pole style power lines; I was looking at the major high-voltage transmission backbones, transmitting in the range of 500kV to 750kV. It probably sounds kind of nutty, but when you read about a big project connecting West Virginia to New Jersey, then see a major right-of-way with tower construction, it's going to pique your interest. By the end of the summer, I had to make calls on both the debt and equity for a major player in that industry.

Getting A Hit

My particular summer employer was a heavy recruiter of MBAs. All were analysts, even if they came from the industry, previously filtered through a Northeast MBA program. On the other hand, a classmate of mine found that his summer employer preferred experienced analysts, whether they had an MBA or not. With a full year of business school under my belt, and recognizing I'm not a career switcher, I'll argue that the MBA experience doesn't seem to make me that much more qualified.

Sure, I've learned a bit more about business strategy and finance theory, and even a few cool new tricks on Excel. I can possibly speak a little more intelligently about the economics and valuation of a business. More important, though, it gets me interview opportunities—and swinging at enough pitches will yield the right job opportunity.

Glenn is a member of MIT Sloan's MBA class of 2008.