Let’s face it.  Everyone has at least one gap on their resume and at least one skill set to develop.  Whether you’re an Art History major applying to business school or a b-school grad managing supply chain logistics for the first time, knowing how to identify your shortcomings and fill the holes is a critical skill on the path to professional fulfillment. 

SWOT Team

It should go without saying that you have to be your own advocate when it comes to career development.  While many companies have some type of development process— particularly for high potential employees— at the end of the day the responsibility is yours and yours alone.

The first step in actively managing your career is to identify your ultimate goal.  Do you want to be a general manager with P&L responsibility, an independent consultant with strong work/life balance, or do you want to run the whole show and wear the title CEO? 

With your dream destination successfully entered into your GPS, the next step is to select your preferred route.  Take a page from a consultant’s handbook and start with a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  Typically used for evaluating a company’s current state, this framework can also be a valuable tool for self-evaluation.  Ask yourself:

• What skills do I currently bring to the table? 
• What skills do I need in order to reach my professional goals?
• Are there opportunities that exist within my current company or outside of the organization where I can develop the necessary skills? 
• What potential obstacles could impede my progress?

Once you’ve identified your strengths and weaknesses, the true work of personal and professional development begins.  Fortunately, there are multiple paths from which to choose as you travel towards your ultimate goal.   

On the job training

One of the best ways to develop new skills is on the job training.  However for many, the vulnerability that comes from going outside their “power alley” can be a challenge.  In this situation, finding new opportunities at your current company is usually the best option.  Assuming you have already established yourself as a competent and dependable person, colleagues are more likely to give you a chance and provide ongoing support.

Graduate School

Another way to round out your resume and build credentials is the more traditional path of graduate school.  For many companies, an MBA or a graduate degree in a related field is a signal that you are committed to career advancement.  For working professionals, online graduate degree programs such as those offered by Kaplan University (including an MBA or Masters of Science in Management) provide a flexible and credible way to position yourself for ongoing success.

Certification and continuing education classes

If you’re considering business school but are concerned that your Art History or English degree will be of little value in the required finance courses, continuing education classes can be a smart way to fill the gaps.  Local college and online courses are readily available and usually offered at times that appeal to working professionals.  Not only does this type of coursework demonstrate commitment and aptitude to admissions offices, but it can also build confidence and pave the way for a more successful first year of business school. 

Certification and continuing education classes can also be valuable to b-school grads.  After receiving a diploma, graduates also receive new and greater responsibilities—many of which are not taught in the classroom.  While business schools do a great job teaching frameworks and critical thinking, sometimes you just need practical instruction in areas like Six Sigma and project management.  Online courses like those offered by Kaplan Continuing Education tend to provide the greatest flexibility for working professionals. 

Mentorship

While some organizations have formal mentor programs, the responsibility of finding and maintaining a mentor relationship usually falls on the mentee. 

First, find someone whom you admire professionally and schedule some time to meet with them.  Have a clear idea of what you hope to learn and suggest some guidelines for the relationship.  For example, would they be willing to meet quarterly?  Can you call them if a more urgent question arises?  Like any relationship, successful mentorships develop over time and are always based on honest and clear communications. 

Finally, while you may feel like you have nothing to offer in exchange for your mentor’s time and advice, remember that mentors most often help as a way to give back.  Never underestimate the power of a sincere thank you. 

As you take charge of your career, remember that career management is an ongoing process.  Be clear on your destination but at the same time, be open to the many paths that can lead you there.  You never know where the next opportunity lies. 

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Thanks to Kaplan for this article. MBA Podcaster  listeners receive 10% off all Kaplan GMAT courses by using the code MBAPOD10 at kaptest.com/mbapodcaster

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by guest author, Amanda Albright Turner

 Amanda is a freelance writer and communications consultant who works with companies of all sizes to develop targeted strategic communications.  Prior to working for herself, Amanda was the director of Corporate Communications for Baxter International, a $10 billion healthcare company.  Amanda holds a Master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University and a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Communications from Vanderbilt University. 

The experts we talked to agreed that the first semester of your MBA is not the time to be scrambling to understand the basic concepts. They also said in this very competitive landscape, MBA applicants need to do everything they can to not only to prepare for the MBA coursework, but also to convince admissions committees that they are ready to take it on.

Adult extension divisions of universities are a great first stop in your search for the best places to get the coursework you need to get into and succeed in your MBA program. University of California Berkeley Extension program director Keith Gatto recommends students take something like the Business Studies Certificate Program his institution offers. “I’d have that on my application to to prove to the committee that I can do post-baccalaureate work,” Gatto said.

The School of Continuing Education at Columbia University also offers a Business Studies Certificate program. The Director of Business Programs there, Charissa Asbury, said her program is really geared toward potential MBA applicants who may have practical experience working in business, but don’t have a strong academic background in the subject matter they might encounter in business school. “These students are looking for ways to enhance their applications,” Asbury said.

People who have been accepted to MBA programs also take Continuing Education business courses at Columbia to better prepare for the first year in an MBA program. Yet another group of students may be considering going for an MBA but have a less-than-stellar GPAs. As UC Berkeley Extension’s Keith Gatto mentioned, for this group, getting a Business Studies certificate can be a great way to show schools that they can handle the rigors of an MBA program.

Columbia’s Asbury said students who get the Business Studies certificate and then go into an MBA program have reported back that they were relieved to have had that coursework done before entering the first year of their MBA. “With the exception of some of the higher-level math classes, our coursework is pretty close to what you could expect in your first year,” Asbury said.

If the coursework is so close to the real thing, is the credit earned in prep courses transferable to MBA programs? Not at Columbia, said Asbery.

“As a general policy at the top-ranked schools such as Columbia, they do not accept credit from anywhere,” she said. “If you take a business class from Harvard’s Graduate School of Business, they will not give you credit for it. You can take an excemption exam so you pass out of a class.”

Nevertheless, Asbery said that doesn’t diminish the value of taking prep courses in her program before your MBA.

“If you can sucessfully complete a very demanding series of graduate courses from what’s basically a world-class university, it makes an impression. How can it not?” she said.

Where can a student go to learn the advanced mathematics they may need to succeed on both the GMAT and in business school? People coming from liberal arts or non-business backgrounds, or folks who have been out of school a while and may just be a bit rusty on their quadratic equations seek out someone like Dr. Dale Maeder. At UCLA Extension, Maeder teaches math courses for the MBA-minded — courses like Mathematics for Management and Business Applications of Calculus.

“Getting some business-applied mathematics coursework under your belt can help you beef up both your MBA application and your ability to tackle tough statistical analysis or other practical business problems,” he said.

Maeder’s not trying to train the next Albert Einstein, but his courses, and others like them, can make math make sense for the MBA-bound.

Let’s touch base with a student with a non-business background who went through pre-MBA coursework and went on to get her MBA. Meena Putatunda, a 2005 Vanderbilt University Biomedical Engineering graduate, seemed poised for a career in just that. But after a post-baccalaureate year doing glaucoma research in Vanderbilt University’s medical center, Putatunda realized she wanted a “more people-facing career”. She simultaneously applied for an MBA and for a unique summer intensive business institute specifically for undergrads and recent grads with non-business backgrounds, Vanderbilt’s Accelerator program.

“I think a pre-business school program is a great way to actually see if a person even wants to enter the business world at all,” she said.

Putatanda said the Accelerator program gave her a bit of real-world business experience. Students from a variety of work and academic backgrounds come together to solve real-life business problems in the Accelerator program. Putatunda’s group was charged with coming up with a sure-fire plan to market the Dodge Caliber to millenials — not exactly what Putatunda had been doing up to that point in her life. The students in Accelarator are not doing this work in an academic vacuum. “We had to present our plan to a team of executives,” Putatunda said. After the Accelerator program, many students got to work with Dodge on further refining the marketing campaign. “It was the real deal,” Putatunda said.

On top of 100 hours of MBA-prep coursework, students did five main business projects. Putatunda said the coursework, plus the teamwork, plus the contacts she made with the professors and working professionals in the business world, prepared her very well for her MBA program. And with her non-business background, having an Accelerator acceptance on her resume (she hadn’t taken the summer course yet when her MBA applications were due) probably didn’t hurt her applications, either.

Another advantage to this type of program for non-business grads, Putatunda said, is experience learning how to problem-solve in a business setting. “In engineering, problems are cut-and-dried, numeric,” she said. “In business, you have to understand psychology to target solutions to clients.” Putatunda said she learned to use the skills she had and apply them in a different way.

Putatunda earned her MBA from Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Business in 2008 with a Health Care & Operations concentration. She’s currently working for McKesson Provider Technologies as an Implementation Consultant.

Do MBA prep programs actually get people into business school? Both Asbery and Keith Gatto of UC Berkeley Extension don’t track their students after courses are over, however they have noted that more and more candidates are striving to set themselves apart from the crowd and many are relying on courses such as theirs to help boost their applications to the admission’s committees.

To listen to the full podcast show on this topic click here:

Preparing for an MBA: Classes To Take Before Applying to or Attending Business School

• Charissa Asbery, Director of Business Programs at Columbia University School of Continuing Education
• Keith Gatto, Program Director, UC Berkeley Extension, which offers online pre-MBA classes and a Certificate in Management program
• Dale W. Maeder, PhD Instructor with UCLA Extension specializing in mathematics, problem solving, and analytical/critical reasoning skill development
• Meena Putatanda, Former student in Vanderbilt University’s Accelerator Program, currently Implementation Consultant for McKesson Provider Technologies

This show is sponsored by: ManhattanGMAT. MBA Podcaster listeners will receive a $100 discount on Manhattan GMAT programs by using the code “Podcaster” when enrolling for a complete course. Visit manhattangmat.com/mbapodcaster to enroll and receive your discount.