Download Words of Advice from Recent MBA Grads on Getting in & Succeeding After Graduation Podcast 8.78 MB 25:33 Min

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If you’re going for a MBA program right now or about to chances are you would like words of advice on some aspect, getting in, getting the interview, getting through the tough spots. I’m Diana Jordan with MBA Podcaster and in this show we will get advice from MBA grads like Chad Troutwine, the co-founder and co-owner of Veritas Prep and Veritas MBA, “The happiest most successful MBA student can even distinguish themselves by developing a reputation among their classmates for being selfless and hardworking. Those two traits will serve anyone well in a MBA program.” And Andrea Wenner the Executive Director of Out to Play who created playgrounds for New York City kids while still in the MBA program at Colombia, “It was interesting to me how helpful the alumni network was which I’m not sure that I really anticipated before I went to school.” Roy Young is a Chief Revenue Author and the co-author of Marketing Champions, “You have to find a purpose and you have to find something that you’re going to enjoy doing.” Marquis Parker is a recent MBA grad from Stanford, now a first year associate at McKinsey & Company and he writes a blog to give other MBA students advice, “Set high goals for yourself. You set low goals you’ll finally meet them all and eventually get bored. If you’re always setting higher and higher goals it gives you something to aspire to.” And we’re hear from Bob Harding the Senior Vice President at Pacific Continental Bank who went on a wild adventure with his MBA colleagues from George Fox University, “We spent three days out in a remote fortress called ‘Areeawoo’ where we were able to see nature and take lots of hikes and do team building projects out in the actually Amazon jungle 30 minutes up the river in a remote location.”

Let’s start out with Chad Troutwine the high achiever who confounded Veritas, one thing I heard was that you struggled a little bit in school at first and then something shifted, if that’s true what happened for you? “Yeah that is true, I’ve always done well on standardized examines, I score in the 99 percentile in everything from the ACT and SAT to the LSAT and the GMAT but at different points in my academic career, I failed to meet my own expectations for what my grades should be like and that was certainly the case in my first semester at Yale. Yale has a modified version of pass/fail so it wasn’t that I was in danger of failing out but they also offer distinctions to students in the top percent of any particular class and as I recall I didn’t get a single distinction my first semester. I certainly wasn’t heartbroken about it. I was surrounded by some of the brightest students that I had ever met during my entire academic career and I certainly wasn’t so arrogant to think that I deserved top grades across the board. But I redoubled my efforts and was able to I think earn seven class distinctions out of my twenty classes at Yale before I graduated. And part of the reason that I was able to do that was a very specific shift in the way I approached my course work and to some extend it’s a reflection of my ability to select classes that played to my strengths in my second year. When students are in college at the undergraduate level it is great advice for almost everyone to be as well-rounded as possible when selecting courses, I just don’t think that anyone is well served by sticking to just one subject area for example. For me, I went into my MBA program thinking that the fact that I as an attorney had already gone through a rigorous program, I usually had done well on any essay based course work and I’d done very very well on the GMAT that that alone would be enough for me to simply put in a sort of standard amount of time and be rewarded with a good grade. For MBA students who are interested in getting good grades I can say this MBA programs are very quantitative maybe much more so than people would be lead to believe by simply reviewing the catalogues or looking at the material online. If you are, if a student is uncomfortable with math, the manipulation of numbers, the MBA program can be an excruciating experience. That doesn’t mean that it’s not rewarding for those people who aren’t naturally gifted with numbers, in fact it’s quite the opposite, it can be a real revelation and an incredibly satisfying experience for people who don’t have a deep quantitative background to grasp and understand all of these new tools. It really opens up a whole new world even for people who aren’t interested in pursuing a career that will have them manipulating numbers in some way as their sort of day to day responsibility.”

The competition can be tough, “I underestimated how hard some of my classmates really worked, but I really underestimated the depth of their background. When someone starts a MBA program they will be surrounded by people who have been working as investment bankers, people at top consultancies for the last several years. Much of the work will be very easy for those students. For those of us who came from very different kind of career path, in my case it was as an entrepreneur and real estate developer I was all of the sudden surrounded by people who had a leg up on me and my other classmates. We had to work a little bit harder to compensate for it but it can be done.”

Bob Harding the Senior VP at Pacific Continental Bank has some advice; what words of advice would you have for a student in any MBA program? “If you’re thinking about getting your MBA, do it. I think the most difficult part is to make the commitment and get the program started. Once you’re in then the benefit is to nurture and build your team, these are going to be contacts that you’re going to utilize through numerous jobs and numerous personal situations for the rest of your life so learn and understand your MBA students.”

And some times you go way outside the box. Tell me about the Amazon Connection so we see how that all fits in, “Well at George Fox I was working with the management there to look at international exchange programs and we decided to settle in Brazil, we had a passion for the Brazil market and so we were the first international exchange students that went over to Camp Venus for a week long exchange program built great relationships, learned a lot and I was able to take 13 of the MBA students and extend our trip to the Amazon region of Brazil and on to Rio de Janeiro for an extra week so we had a fantastic two week team building, learning experience where the relationships and the depth of intimacy getting to know other aspirations and desires is absolutely fantastic.”

So were you out in the wilderness and what kind of, “Yeah.” Okay so tell me about that, “We spent three days out in a remote fortress called Areeawoo where were able to see nature and take lots of hikes and do team building projects out in the actual Amazon jungle 30 minutes up the river in a remote location and I think some of the monkeys and the snakes and the bats and the bees and we did a lot of excursions on little boats and we caught piranhas and we caught a crocodile and we went deep into the rainforest and learned how to survive off the land and it was just a fascinating time to see a part of the world that you know we could read about but to do it with our teammates that we had known each other at that point for about 16 months it’s a great idea, I suggest any programs offer an international exchange option that is a must do.”

That is amazing it sounds so extreme, tell me about that, “One thing that I loved about the MBA groups, they’re all a-type, successful, outgoing people and we sat down as a group and decided let’s do something extreme. Let’s see the world, but not through the eyes of a tourist so we planned this as a group and decided to do it in terms of the lowest amenities and to see the actual natives in their environment and not just do a service level tour. And so let the just sitting together for a month and planning it and that’s what we came up with was a three day Amazon trip coupled with a seven day trip across the country to Rio de Janeiro and that was all planned by the students.”

So how did this extreme adventure impact your MBA skills in real life afterward? “We were able to see so much more being outside of the country for two weeks and listening to the views of the Brazilians, it opened up our minds, it opened up our minds to increase our focus and I saw that in a lot of my cohort just really seeing the world from a different perspective for the first time.”

What I’m sitting here thinking is, you’ve been surrounded by monkeys and piranhas and all of those kind of extreme animals you find in that kind of adventure and now you’re working in a bank, that’s about 180 degrees, “Well you know, bankers are conservative and I’m a little bit of an odd banker, I enjoy to have fun and I enjoy outdoors and activities and that’s what I think about the banking industry, it’s an absolute gold mine for opportunities. It’s not the old suit and tie banking world that it was maybe 10-15 years ago with the changes in the mergers, financial institutions now need to look at niche marketing.”

For an entirely different perspective let’s turn to Andrea Wenner who sensed a need for inner city kids to have playgrounds and worked through her MBA program to create Out to Play. She’s identified 225 sites; a total of 15 playgrounds will be finished by the summer of 2007. Basically you have married what you learned in your MBA program with a dream of yours, right? “Yeah I would say so. I think I applied a lot of the skills that I have learned there and used the coursework and the extracurricular program to help me develop a business plan and to reach out to people in the business community and get feedback on it and get help in getting it launched and go with it really.”

So what words of advice would you have for people in the MBA program no matter where they may be who might have an inkling of an idea and want to see it to ferwishin? “Especially at Colombia and I’m sure it’s true of many other schools there are a lot of resources available to you and you should really take advantage of those as much as possible. There are people that you can talk to just about your idea to get a sense of whether its viable and could be successful and then there are people that can help you take the initial step to get it off the ground and I think that while you’re there it’s really an unusual environment and you should make the most of it because once you’re out those resources won’t be as readily available.”

How did you even know where to start, Andrea? “I had a fair amount of guidance from my professors at Colombia who you know when I initially presented the idea they helped me to think about some other ways of going about it and they helped put me in touch with different people that they knew of that could you know may have been involved in the more endeavors and I just started talking to people and I did a lot of research, I created a plan and then once I was pretty confident in the plan itself then I started to talk to people about it and figure out how I wanted to modify it and move forward. The business plan provided a great kind of a road map of what I was doing and helped me to solidify my thoughts and ideas that were you know previously kind of just floating around in my head.”

It sounds as though there’s some lessons buried in your endeavor here too. First of all sense that there’s a need and then decide it. I read some where that you actually appeal to an organization that usually deals with for profit and enterprises and you were able to excite them about? “Yes. Yeah I think that there are a lot lessons in it, I mean I think of the biggest things for me was just you know you have this business plan and you have this so-called road map but nothing follows that plan exactly and you have to be willing to power through whatever set backs might arise and be flexible with the plan when doors get shut you got to figure out ways to open up new doors if you’re going to continue on.”

That sense of fortitude did you learn that in school or did it come in your hardwire? “I came within my hardwire to be honest with you though the school environment definitely enhances that to some extent, you know I was in a class that were also launching their own businesses so that sense of community and encouragement from other people that were going through the same struggles as I was certainly very very helpful and really encouraging.”

Chad Troutwine what secrets did you discover as you went from MBA student to life? “I don’t know that I’ve uncovered any real secrets but I know I can summarize what I saw, the traits and characteristics I saw in the happiest, most successful student. They tended to distinguish themselves by developing a reputation among their classmates for being selfless and hard working. Those two traits will serve anyone well in a MBA program. But also I found that most of the people who seemed to enjoy their program the most, impressed others were those that were well-rounded, had a good sense of humor about the whole thing, didn’t take themselves too seriously and it’s not a coincidence those same students enjoyed themselves the most and also landed the plum job. So it’s really a kind of a holistic approach I think to getting the most out of a MBA program.”

Roy Young, Coauthor of Marketing Champions, is there a way to particularly distinguish from ones colleagues while in school, a lot of it’s team work but then there’s also a sense of how good are your grades and what can you do to really improve your product, “My philosophy about employing people and also about valuing people in a organization has been simplified over the years and now my thoughts is there are two kinds of workers; there are what I call workers and the other categories is creators. I’m always looking for creators, I always want people who are not just doing a job but understand that their value is based on the value they create inside the business. I think that anyone who is entering business school has to go to business school with that view. That is to say to learn how they can become a great creator of value to any business or business that they’re targeting.”

Marquis Parker, now at McKinsey & Company keeps a blog going to guide other MBA students. What about the day-to-day stuff? What are your words of advice on how to handle that attitude, planning, focus? “Honestly I think it’s not to let you get yourself from the end goal because when you’re in business school there is a, there are a ton of things that you can get involved in whether it’s socially or organizations within school and you know they just, there are a lot of different commitments that can pull at you and I think one of the most important things is just to remember why you are in school. So you can take advantage of some of those things that some might call distractions but don’t let that take you away from the track that you’re in when you matriculated. So you go to class, do your readings, participate, learn as much as you can, do your due diligence on your job hunt, once you’ve found the right job don’t rest on your laurels keep on building up the source of experience and knowledge that you need to be able to do well once you get out into the real world because it’s a whole different situation once you walk across the stage and get your diploma. You know the real world comes back and it comes back really quickly.”

Chad Troutwine of Veritas, “In terms of some of the specifics for people who are pursuing, they think they got an idea of their dream job and they want to pursue it; first do as much research as possible and that includes talking to others who have landed your version of your dream job before you. Any top MBA program will have a career development office that can be instrumental in that process, it can help immensely. Also do everything that you can do to get into the best MBA program possible. When I say best, that’s the best for you and that’s a combination of the rankings, geography, the kinds of school that would nurture and foster your dreams as it were. Diligently prepare for the job by not only learning as much as possible about the job but preparing for the interview. We had candidates in my MBA program who were probably indistinguishable from some of the other members of the class say one thing they nailed the job interview. Students should not take that part of the process lightly, they should call up everything that they have inside and find that fire in the belly, have it kind of pour out of them honestly and let that passion for their dream job come through in the interview. And be flexible not only in terms of you know industry and career but maybe vocation, again that dream job is always evolving.”

Chad has always been dedicated to the entrepreneurial path and as a broad view of what that upbeat and gay spirit can create, “I just want people to know that are interested in a career path like mine already had a lot of degrees, already very happy in my entrepreneurial career path a MBA program can be a wonderful to learn new skills, to develop networks and to maybe find out ways to tape into larger pools of money and equity and institutional dollars the kinds of things that can help an entrepreneur take a small idea and create something very very big. The future entrepreneur would be very well served to consider a MBA as the right kind of opportunity, a way to step out of the business world for a couple of years but to learn skills and develop relationships that will last a lifetime.”

Turning to our bank vice present, Bob Harding, would you call this your dream job? “Yes. Absolutely, absolutely I feel empowered to create an environment that clients want to come into the bank and employees want to work here.” Wow, so did you have this job before you got your MBA? “No. I received this job six months after starting the MBA program as a direct result of my confidence and the curriculum allowed me to develop a job description and I was able to meet with the management of the bank and implement some of those changes. So the MBA program got me started thinking about an ideal job and it gave me the confidence and the skills needed to be a better leader and guide the company through a growth strategy.” So there’s got to be some words of wisdom there for other MBA candidates; what would you tell them? “When you’re doing your projects, your case studies in your MBA work find out where your passion is at. Is your passion in leading? Is it a passion in assisting with non-profits? Is your passion in financial management? Go toward your passion and your job success will follow. That’s the advice that I give is go to your passion. In the MBA program your passions will come out. Is it being a leader? It is crunching numbers? Is it underwriting loans? It is acquisitions and mergers? And guide yourself to a job that uses those skills as opposed to just doing something that maybe has better benefits or a higher salary.”

Andrea Wenner has created playgrounds for kids where there was nothing. What are your best ideas for achieving what you want in life post-MBA? “You have to have a clear sense in knowing what you want first of all and not getting caught up in what everybody else might be doing or I guess to some extent in what the degree might be able to get you in terms of salary or position or whatever the case may be because in some cases that really might not be what is going to make you happy. So figuring out, having a clear sense of what it is you want and then using people that you’ve met and your friends and the network that is available to you to get to that place.”

Roy Young the coauthor of Marketing Champions has a creative way of conceptualizing Andrea’s thoughts. What advice do you have for students then who are in the middle of the program perhaps in terms of these ideas that you have? “Well I think they ought to start writing their story book. I think they ought to start writing the story of how they become business owners. When I say create your own stories try to write up a narrative of your work so for example when you’re thinking about your resume and you’re thinking about updating your resume what is the story that you are telling around each of the experiences that you had. So yes you’ve done x y and z at particular organization for one year or two years what is the story around that experience? How did it transform you? How did it transform the organization? What did you learn? What of that learning can you bring to another organization? So I think you’re sort of writing the screen play of your professional life.”

Bob Harding, on your day to day stuff what are your words of advice for how to handle that? Is it attitude? Is it planning? Is it focus? “Doing the right thing and having fun and enjoying what you’re doing. There’s too many people who don’t enjoy what they do and it shows. And I say the same to my employees, if you’re not passionate and enjoy your job it’s going to show. So my advice is to find something that you enjoy and do it because life is too short to not be enjoying everyday. And don’t sweat the small stuff, look at the big picture.”

Marquis Parker, what are your best ideas for achieving what you want post-MBA? “Set high goals for yourself, you set low goals you’ll finally meet them all and eventually get bored. If you’re always setting higher and higher goals it gives you something else to aspire to. Getting into business school, applying for a MBA and finishing it that’s a high hurdle. The kind of people that go off and pursue a MBA are people who aspire to do big things, people who want to achieve because they continue to set lofty goals for yourself, take advantage of the networks that are around you because anyone who has gone to undergrad has their undergrad network, you’ve got your b-school network, the people you meet at industry functions, or company events, or different organizations you never know when you’ll be able to help someone else and when someone else would be able to help you. And there’ve been many instances when I’ve been able to connect people in my network for no benefit of my own but just to help them and I get a lot of value out of that as well. I know this may sound kind of cheesy but just treat people right, business is a relationship environment and if you do something wrong chances are that will not be forgotten and it can have very bad effects in your career as you move on through time so I definitely recommend treating people right in whatever situation you’re in even if it’s a bad situation, say you’re in a company and you didn’t enjoy what you did at least try and maintain the friendships and the relationships that you had because you never know when you will need to lean on those people for something else.”

Andrea Wenner, what’s your best hope for your project? “My best hope is that in about six years time that we will have completed all of the playgrounds that need renovation in New York City and wrap up the program, at least in New York.” What stage are you at right now? “We finished our first site last summer and we are building 14 more this spring and summer.” What does that do for you? “It’s exciting. The first one was really amazing seeing the kids when they first ran out to it was a great sense of accomplishment and really a nice reward and now we’ve got these next 14 and schools are very excited about them and students are very excited and I think these ones are going to be progressively better and better. We’ve refined our design process and a lot of creative ideas in this next grouping of them so it’s exciting.”

Bob Harding, what do you hope students take away from your experiences during the classroom times and then after? “The most important part of the MBA is the team work and the contacts that you make because you go in depth with these people. You know these people better than your spouse or your boss for this two year period and cherish that and utilize that because these are people that will answer your questions and help you solve your lifelong problems and we have gone from our group from loss of life, to family, to giving life, to job changes and we’ve been there to support each other. So my advice is to grow relationships and spend time investing because it will reap rewards in the future. And get a view of the world outside of your current circle, do the international exchange, focus internationally and be open to adjust your views.”

Marquis Parker wraps it up. What is your best hope for MBA students and graduates as they get into their post-MBA life? “There’s a large investment of time, effort, blood sweat, tears and money that goes into the MBA experience so my hope is that people put in the time to get the most out of their time in business school and then that they get the most out of it afterward. That they try to do as much as they can, that they try to help as many people as they can. You’re in a good position when you come out of business school and you have a chance to do a lot of things that a lot folks don’t have so I just hope you will take advantage of that.”

And Roy Young, what are your best ideas for achieving what you want in life post-MBA? “You have to find a purpose and you have to find something that you’re going to enjoy doing. Once again it’s cliché but it’s going to make you more effective at what you’re doing, it’s also something that gives you purpose, is going to make you happy.”

For more information, advice and to register for your bi-weekly MBA Podcast visit mbapodcaster.com. I’m Diana Jordan with MBA Podcaster, thanks for listening.