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Wake Forest
Editor’s Note: To help you make the transition from the working world to graduate business school, Bloomberg Businessweek is launching a new series about how to prepare for an MBA program. The series—this is the fifth and final installment—will provide tips from experts and business school insiders, including administrators, students, and alumni, about how to do everything from making ends meet without a salary to setting career goals for achieving your dream job after graduation.
Let’s face facts. In their admissions essays, full-time MBA students might write elaborate career plans that spell out the next five years of their lives, yet most will end up doing something else entirely. Many change their minds a dozen times before enrolling in an MBA program. There is no question that choosing a career sooner rather than later will give students a jump start over competitors who might be scrambling in the fall to adjust to school while they choose whether to attend recruiting and networking events with bankers or consultants, brand managers, or startup gurus.
That’s why it can really pay to weigh one’s options before school begins. “Some people simply don’t know what they want to do,” says Jack Oakes, assistant dean for career development at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “Be open and get to know a variety of different people with MBAs to see what your options are.”
Indeed, those who want to succeed in the internship and job search should spend the weeks that lead up to the first day of classes deciding exactly what they would like to do in the next chapter of their career—and what they need to do to get there. Here is a step-by-step guide for incoming MBA students on how to spend the summer finding themselves and their calling:
1. Explore Options
The first step for MBA students in deciding what they want to be when they grow up is to consider the different options they face. In the summer before business school begins, most MBA programs give incoming students access to Vault and WetFeet, online career sites that provide job descriptions and further information on different industries and functions. Many career-services administrators also suggest that students talk to colleagues from their pre-MBA employers who are in roles to which they aspire.
Business schools such as Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management put students in touch with alumni through Facebook and LinkedIn so they can begin networking and asking questions about particular career paths. Finally, students should match job descriptions and the qualities employers are seeking for those positions with their own needs and wants, says Oakes, who adds that sites such as Monster.com provide plenty of opportunities to pursue this kind of investigation. Attending job fairs and conferences is an additional way to see what kind of opportunities are available and intriguing, says Meenakshi Sharma, interim director of the Career Management Office at Weatherhead.
Sometimes exploring options means coming to grips with restrictions. For international students, who frequently encounter lending and visa restrictions along the path to B-school, there is an extra step. “We have them learn about the legal aspects of working in the United States,” says Sharma. “They must know their limitations before they arrive.” Learning about these limits can help international students zero in on more feasible opportunities from the start and encourages them to build networks in appropriate countries.
2. Assess Yourself
Many top MBA programs ask incoming students to complete self-assessment tests such as CareerLeader, which is a product of Harvard Business School, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, in the weeks before classes start. The purpose of these tests is to determine a person’s strengths, weaknesses, and personality types; the results can help students figure out which transferable skills they have and how best to present themselves to potential employers. Most important, the tests give students a better idea of which industries and functions are a good fit for them.
