The magic carpet ride is coming to end. For the past year and a half of school I've cried, laughed, partied, studied, and worked. I've even cried, laughed, and partied while studying and working. There have been countless problem sets, case studies, midterm and final exams, networking events, and job interviews. Along the way I have also managed to live a little. My daughter celebrated her second birthday last fall, my wife and I welcomed our first son into the world this past January, and last spring I watched proudly as my youngest brother collected his high school diploma and marched off to college. And so the circle begins – maybe in another decade my brother will embark on his own MBA journey. If and when he does, my only hope for him would be that he enjoy the experience as much as I did. My time at Tepper has been all that I hoped for and much more.
One of the biggest reasons almost anyone submits to the financial and emotional pain of two years of grueling MBA schoolwork with no pay is to land a great job with an even better pay grade. However, I came to Tepper with no preconceived ideas about becoming a managing director at a bulge bracket bank or senior partner at a global consultancy immediately after graduating. Therefore, I found a way to savor my classroom experiences and more importantly, my classmates, along the way. My willingness to explore courses and career options throughout my first year that exposed me to variety of choices eventually led to a summer internship in commercial banking.
I found that I enjoyed the collegial commercial banking environment and the sense of fulfillment that came from providing such an integral service to the community. I left my summer internship with a plan to pursue a full-time position within the field. I narrowed my search to three regional banks, all with strong national reputations, and two global conglomerates with footprints throughout the country.
Perhaps the toughest aspect of my job search process was making my final decision. One of my offers was to remain in Pittsburgh and work in real estate finance for the bank with which I'd completed my summer internship. Another offer was to work in my hometown, Washington, D.C., in the business banking unit of a well-respected institution looking to penetrate one of the most competitive commercial banking markets in the country. The offer I eventually accepted was with Bank of America's (BAC) Commercial Real Estate Banking group as a member of a newly created global MBA leadership program. Along with twenty other MBA students from programs across the country, I will be a member of Bank of America's inaugural class of employees hired for specific functional groups but given broad exposure to a range of the bank's different executive positions. The fact that Bank of America made such a concerted effort to recruit, train, and eventually empower the individuals they hope will be the bank's future leaders spoke volumes about their commitment to our success.
Traditionally, investment and commercial banks recruit and sign their incoming MBA hires during the fall before those hires graduate from school. My class schedule during the first semester this past fall was much more manageable than at the same juncture during my first year at Tepper, so I had plenty of time to work through the entire job search process. Tepper's career services department did a great job of organizing recruiting companies' on-campus presentation and interview schedules, so all of my first round interviews took place on our campus. Each of my final round interviews were at the respective companies' offices. My office visits were not quite as over the top as the trips some Wall Street-bound classmates enjoyed. Still, they provided a welcome break from the doldrums of school. Among other perks, my wife and I got to enjoy an NFL game from one of the bank's luxury boxes and I was treated to a five-course meal with C-level executives by another. All pretty cool stuff, though none of it made my decision process any easier.
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| Enjoying classmate Dan Dolsky's wedding (l-r: Jeff Baker, Tom Neal, Noah Oshry, Malcolm Johnson, Andrew Beebe) |
I made my final decision in late December. I did so after considering my family's needs, the strengths of each organization, the location of each position, and my opportunities for personal growth and career advancement. One of the most important lessons I've learned at Tepper has been to seek out challenges at every turn and stretch my capacity whenever possible. I chose to join Bank of America because it is a large yet growth-oriented company with a broad range of career tracks and a real commitment to its employees and the communities they serve. It is a dynamic organization that will allow me to make a meaningful contribution in a real growth area. What is more, the group I will be joining is based in Los Angeles, and my wife's hometown is in neighboring Orange County. Living in Southern California will be a major factor in my children's perspectives on society, something that is extremely important to my wife and me. The opportunity to live and work in a city where our children can experience a diverse, big-city environment in such close proximity to their extended family was too good to pass up.I was relieved to have made my post-graduate career decision prior to the Christmas break from school. My wife was nearing the end of her pregnancy and my relatively early decision allowed us to spend the holidays preparing for our new arrival. She delivered our son Luke in early January, a few days too late to claim a tax deduction for the previous fiscal year (something I never would have thought of before my Financial Accounting class at Tepper, by the way).
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