Question from a Listener re: Work Experience before B-School

Every once in a while, we get questions from our listeners asking for personal b-school advice. We try our best to answer them all, and sometimes we post the really good questions on our site. We recently received the following question from a listener and we thought it might be relevant for many others too.

Question: I had work experience of 2 years before college. Then I decided to go to undergrad and I''m graduating this year. I''m planning on going straight to MBA. Would my work experience count?

The question of work experience frequently comes up, especially with the younger applicants who want to accelerate their career early. This is becoming more common, especially for women who want to be able to have a successful career and family life while they are still young.

Most business schools generally say they want applicants with at least 3-5 years of work experience before enrolling. Typically, it doesn't matter what type of work experience you have - just that you have experienced the "real world." I remember I asked this question to a recruiter - he told me that an applicant could have been a bus driver for three years and they would still consider that valuable work experience for business school.

Needless to say, this doesn't mean that applicants with fewer (or no) years of experience can't get in. There are ways to make your application stand out to show admissions counselors you are ready for the challenge of business school. We've produced a couple of podcasts about advice for younger applicants. Here are a few key excerpts that I think will help:

Advice for Younger Applicants

Because the main issue for young candidates is lack of professional experience, Laurie Stewart, Executive Director of MBA Admissions, The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, says the other components of the application should be emphasized. “As one example, if someone has less experience then their academic profile really needs to be strong. Their essays need to really make sense for why their interested in a MBA degree. And I think a candidate as they have an opportunity for an interview has to also really present themselves in a way that shows us that they can sell themselves and it’s obvious that they’re going to contribute and participate in the learning environment.”

Presenting a strong case in your application means you’ll have to have very clear goals. Paul Bodine, senior editor at Accepted.com and author of “Great Application Essays for Business School”, says this could be one challenge for young applicants. “You won’t have had the work experience that helps you decide what your goals are and why you need the MBA. I mean a lot of people use the MBA to make a career change because they’ve discovered that in the career track they chose in college, it wasn’t for them. So if you’re applying right out of college, you haven’t had the work experience that’s helped you decide that that’s not what you want to do and figure out what you really want to do. So maybe they’re going into the MBA not really knowing why they want that MBA. Maybe their goal choice is not as you know tested yet.”

Leadership potential is a crucial quality for young applicants and it can be a bit more challenging to show when you haven’t had a lot of experiences but it can be done says Laurie Stewart, “There are other ways that students with less experience can show leadership. One obvious place is in their involvement on the campus or within the community. And we see great examples of the aptitude for leadership and the impact that less experienced candidates are making and that’s a really good indicator for those kinds of skills over the long term.”

Joining clubs or community organizations can be a good place to find experiences but Paul Bodine says make sure you do more than just be involved. “There has to be some sort of sense that you are demonstrating unusual leadership and by that I mean you know you’re not just for example involved heavily in extracurricular but you are in leadership roles. You know, you’re the class president or you’re the editor and chief of the school newspaper or you know maybe you started a business of your own during the summer you know painting houses or IT consulting or something, I mean those would be indications that you are not a typical applicant, that you’re getting out of the gate fast as it were. And there are other you know less dramatic ways of demonstrating that a typical lesson, you know one could be for example during a summer internship you were given responsibilities kind of above your pay grade as it were and you can talk about those but I think leadership is really the key word there and you can’t just say you are an officer in a club or something like that, you’ve also kind of got to show that that leadership translated into impact so you’ve got to have some stories showing how you’ve changed things. But you’ve got to have that kind of material there I think to have a chance.”

The Best Time to Go For Your MBA: Is Sooner Better Than Later?

Thomas Caleel, Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at The Wharton School, on the other hand, says the extra-young MBA students can bring a fresh, different perspective. “They are eager to learn. They study very hard, and they do contribute to the discussion. It’s a different contribution than someone who can raise their hand and say, ‘Well, I’ve started three businesses,’ or ‘I ran sales for IBM in Beijing for two years.’ They bring an enthusiasm and a fresh perspective. And some of them also bring some interesting summer experience. So to me, it’s a component of diversity within the classroom. It’s a diversity of opinion; it’s a diversity of perspective. And they are integrated very well into our cohort system. Their opinions are valued. They are valuable members of the community. They actually do quite well. And also, life is changing. If you look at college graduates these days, they’ve done a lot more with their lives than college graduates may have done 10, 15 years ago. They are doing real internships. They’re traveling the world. They’re starting businesses while they’re in school. They’re building and leading organizations on campus. So these are our bright, focused, energetic students. They’re not spending their summer on the beach having fun which is a great way to spend the summer, by the way. But they’re actually doing things; they’re trying to make a difference. So why not bring them up and add that diverse opinion to the class?”

Certainly, these extra-young MBA applicants have to be extraordinary. Even though they may not have your typical work experience, they’ve gained experience nonetheless. Wharton’s Thomas Caleel: “If we have an applicant, for example, that’s maybe written a book and gotten that published. That’s tremendous experience. Could you classify that as work experience? Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe they’ve started an undergraduate women-in-business organization and grown that to 600 people over in their time in undergrad. That’s real leadership. As in with all of our candidates, we’re looking for an ability to take a risk. We’re looking for people who are not afraid to do things they’re passionate about and really make a difference. So that’s why there is no formula. Is two years of investment banking critical? It depends on the person. Is two years in the Peace Corps advantageous? It depends on the person.”

Brit Dewey, Managing Director of Admissions at Harvard Business School, says the extra-young candidates will have to meet the same standards as the older ones. “The two things we’re looking for in our process are academic ability, and in that way, someone applying right out of a college is no different from someone applying four years out. We’re going to try to assess your undergraduate transcript, how well you’ve done on the GMAT; kind of the rigor, the analytical, the intellectual, the quantitative rigor of your work. Obviously, with people who’ve been out in the work force, we think about what you’ve been doing on the job in a way that we don’t have that chance with the college senior. But they’ve had several internships and then we’re looking for leadership potential. So for the person who’s been working for a while or for the person who’s applying right out of college, the board starts considering from the time you set foot on an undergraduate campus: What options have you had? What opportunities have you pursued and why? What experiences have you had—either in formal roles or informal roles as a leader? What have you done? What have you learned from these experiences? Frankly, we have to relatively gauge the opportunities that a college senior has had as opposed to what a ten-year-out person has had. But what we’re looking for is potential.”

We hope that helps you understand how to make your application stand out as a younger applicant! As usual, we're always available to chat via Facebook and Twitter! Good luck!

Last Minute Applicants: Step 1 to a Successful Late Round Three Application

Maybe you’ve been busy at work.  Maybe you’ve been busy at home.  For whatever reason, you’ve missed the round one and two deadlines at the business schools that you’ve been considering.  You’re trying to decide whether you should apply in round three or wait until next year.  I’ve been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show titled “Last Minute Applicants: How to Submit a Successful Late Round Three Application.”  In the podcast, we’ll explore some of the different attitudes schools have toward round three as well as give advice on how to navigate the waters and complete your application on time. I’ll be keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.

You’ve heard time and again that round three applications are problematic.  The school might wonder why you are going to business school - maybe you’re unemployed, maybe you don’t like your job and you want out, maybe you want to be a part of the lucrative financial industry. The schools are going to wonder if you’ve got your act together. They’re going to wonder why it took you so long to get your application together.  They’re going to wonder if you can multi-task and survive business school with obligations to classes, clubs, recruiting and networking.  Or they might wonder if you’re their number one choice.  None of these questions are good questions for schools to be asking.  So is all hope lost?  Nope.

Kofi Kankam is the Co-founder and Director of Admit Advantage, an admissions consulting firm.  He says the first thing that you should do is a bit counter-intuitive, “Acknowledge your late application and focus on the positive attributes.”

And he gave some great examples.

“Try to focus on highlighting the parts of the school - courses, students, club, etc...-  that might really resonate with you.  You really have to emphasize the fit in this instance.  You can use reasons such as saying ‘you want to take the time to submit your best application because you know the school is selective and that would have included a re-take of the GMAT.’... You wanted to take time to make sure you were ready to apply.  It’s a huge decision and process to go through the applications sequence as it is. Every school is going to ask why you want to get an MBA but also why you want to get it now. A student indicating that her/she took that question seriously... will potentially resonate with admissions officers.  Candidates can also indicate that they needed to focus job project which precluded them to do enough heavy research to submit a strong application.”

Kofi said that round three candidates should use the optional essay to explain some of the things that he mentioned.

Learn more of what Kofi and the other guests have to say about round three applications in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:

• Jedd Gold, alumni of UCLA’s Anderson School of Business, applied after April 1 deadline;
• Soojin Kwon Koh, Director of Admissions for the Ross School at the University of Michigan;
• Graham Richmond, Co-founder and Director, Clear Admit;
• Alex Sevilla  Assistant Dean & Director,   Hough Graduate School of Business, Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida; and
• Robert Wagner, Interim Director Graduate Admissions Babson College, F.W. Olin School of Business.

DEALS and DISCOUNTS for MBA Applicants and Students

If you've been receiving to our newsletters for a while, you've probably benefited already from all the great deals on GMAT test prep classes, admissions consultations and job search sites. If you misplaced some of those discount codes and want to finally take advantage of them, here is a complete list of all the discounts offered exclusively for the MBA Podcaster community.

Test Prep

•Kaplan: 10% off every one of Kaplan's GMAT comprehensive options, use the code MBAPOD10

•ManhattanGMAT: $100 off sitewide & any class, use the discount code PODCASTER

•Veritas Prep: $150 off sitewide & any class or admission consulting package, use the discount code POD150

Admission Consulting

•Accepted.com: $25 off MBA essay editing, application advising or interview preparation, use code MBAPODCASTER

•Free Initial Evaluation from: Expartus, Master Admissions, mbaMission, The MBA Admissions Studio, The MBA Exchange, Admit Advantage

Others

•Doostang.com: Access to jobs database starting at $9.95 mbapodcaster.doostang.com

•MBA Math: $10 off online pre-MBA quantitative math course, use code MBAPOD3G

•Zoom Interviews: 10% off any interview assistance video package, use the code MBAPODCASTER

New Kaplan GMAT Course

The folks over at Kaplan are making great strides to improve their GMAT course. I got the opportunity to participate in a webinar giving me a sneak preview at what changes they are making to the program. This was especially cool for me since I actually took a Kaplan GMAT course a few years ago (twice, actually). Needless to say, it’s a totally different program than the one I took!

One of the biggest changes they are making is to their online system. First of all, it’s completely redesigned and now very visually appealing and user-friendly. Taking advantage of the power of social networking, Kaplan has created their own online community where you can connect with other pre-MBA students. It’s good practice for all the networking you’ll be doing in business school. Also, on the online system, students can watch courses on demand (in case you miss a day), attend live online events and track your course progress. Your personalized center also gives you recommended next steps based on your scores using a technology called Smart Reports. You can also ask questions to your GMAT instructor through the new interface.

As far as the practice tests go, each student takes eight practice computer adaptive tests (CATs) throughout the course. Before, some of those tests you would have to take at home. Now, Kaplan students have the option to go to an official Pearson GMAT testing center to take any of those CATs to get an official test day experience. Honestly, there is nothing better than that. I remember I took a handful of practice tests both at home and in the classroom, but I had no idea what to expect on my actual test day. Had I had the opportunity to experience a real Pearson testing center, I probably wouldn’t have been so nervous!

If you are like me, the quant section is the hardest part of the GMAT. If only I were taking the GMAT now, I definitely would have signed up for Kaplan’s new math refresher course. Students enrolled in a GMAT course can purchase Math Refresher for $299. They receive three 2.5 hour sessions that strictly cover the hard math stuff plus two hours of private tutoring. For students not enrolled in a Kaplan GMAT course, Math Refresher retails for $499. (Note, we’ve also got a new video from MBA PodTV coming out full of tips on mastering the quant section on the GMAT. It will be live on our YouTube page soon!)

The best part about this new Kaplan GMAT course is that it’s the same price as before! So if you were already planning on taking a Kaplan GMAT course, you’re in luck. All these new upgrades are yours, as long as you signed up no earlier than Jan. 21. AND REMEMBER: MBA Podcaster listeners get 10% off Kaplan’s GMAT courses. Use the code MBAPOD10 when registering.

Check out kaplangmat.com to see all the fancy new upgrades yourself. Good luck!

The MBA Tour is Bringing Business Schools to YOU!

Still planning to apply to business school this year to start Fall 2010? One way to get an edge is to meet face to face with the admissions directors that will be reviewing your application! The MBA Tour gives you that opportunity. Over the next few weeks they are traveling all over the globe bringing the top business school representatives together to provide advice and networking opportunities. Here is a quick overview of their upcoming event calendar:

Jan. 21 - MOSCOW

Jan. 23 - DUSSELDORF

Feb. 6 - NEW YORK

Feb. XX - WASHINGTON DC (Cancelled due to extreme weather conditions! Contact alyssa@thembatour.com with any concerns.)

Click on the location nearest you to see a full agenda and list of participating business schools. And if you go, we'd love to hear about your experience in the comments section!

Getting Your Employer to Fund Your MBA - What You Owe Your Company

Getting an MBA is not cheap - between tuition and living expenses, the bills can run up to $100,000. Wouldn’t it be great if you could find someone to pay for your MBA? One place to look is your employer or potential employer. Many companies have tuition reimbursement programs, fellowships and other means to finance their employees MBAs. I’ve been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show titled “Getting Your Employer to Fund Your MBA.” In the podcast, we’ll explore a variety of situations including people who work for companies who have existing programs for funding MBA’s and those whose companies don’t. Some of the questions we’ll address:

     Why would a company fund your MBA?
     Does it make a difference if you work at a small company or a large company?
     Do economic hard times mean that continued education benefits are going by the wayside?

I’ll be asking these questions and more of my guests and keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.

One of the issues that came up with almost everyone I talked to is that while employers will pay for your MBA, there are often strings attached.

Yoichi N. works in the financial industry, so would like to keep his company and last name private. He goes to school part-time and works full-time. His company has a few programs that will pay for MBA’s, but employees need to have one year invested in the company before they are eligible.

“For anyone that works full time, they basically have what they call tuition reimbursement. It has to be an MBA program or some type of accreditation. The company will pay up to 90% or $10,000 whichever is less.”

And Yoichi must keep up his grades.

“When I started, they said [they required a] ‘B’ average, but they’ve actually lowered their requirements to a ‘C.’ If you don’t get anything better than a ‘C’, you’re not going to get reimbursed for that class. But in a graduate school program... getting a ‘B’ is not very hard, so it’s a fair deal for being reimbursed and you actually learn something from it.”

The 90%/$10,000 tuition reimbursement doesn’t require any back end commitment. Yoichi says his company has another program.

“They will pay the full amount if you commit at least 3 years after, but I’m not sure if I want to commit 3 more years to my company.”

Other people I talked to are taking advantage of a full-ride to B-school. Karla Krause worked for Dell for four years before she enrolled in the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program with full backing from Dell.

“I knew by accepting Dell’s sponsorship I am contractually obligated to go back, but I wouldn’t have signed the contract had I not wanted to go back to Dell. I definitely had a great experience at Dell in the 4 years prior to coming here. Dell’s been great to me and I’m excited to go back, but I am contractually obligated. I could pay back the sponsorship contribution and choose to go somewhere else, but I’m planning to go back to Dell.”

Take away: assess your situation, what your opportunities post-MBA will look like and what your company will require you to commit to and you can decide on what program is appropriate for you.

Learn more of what Yoichi N., Karla Krause and the other guests have to say about company-financed MBAs in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:

• Lynda Boman, principal, Boman Accounting Group, who will address what you need to know for your tax return if your company pays for your MBA;
• John Gianvittorio, manager at Raytheon and student UCLA Anderson School, who says that the economy hasn’t affected Raytheon’s decision to fund MBA’s;
• Jay, small tech business owner, who will talk about what it would take for him to sponsor an employee;
• Yvon Le Renard, executive at Alcatel (a French telecommunications firm) and student at Kellog-Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Executive MBA program, who gives the best argument in support of your case for company funding;
• Jennifer Powers, Manager of Marketing and Business Development for the City of Brampton, in Ontario, Canada, who will discuss why she decided to fund her MBA herself; and
• Nicole, a financial services executive and student at a top 10 school, who will lay out the best way to have your company fund your MBA.

Staying Fit During the MBA Program

This blog post was influenced by one of our listeners! We received a question asking: "How do you stay fit while working toward an MBA after all those demanding hours?" It's definitely true that getting your MBA demands a lot of your time. That's why time management is such an important skill to master.

Since Mia and I are both currently in our MBA programs, we both gave our two cents:

Mia's response:

"It's really hard! I gained 17 pounds so far during the MBA program. I try to schedule work-outs into my calendar, but inevitably something always come up. Not to mention, that there are a plethora of opportinities to eat unhealthy food and drink alcohol. I'm hoping to squeeze in work-out sessions next semester!"

My response:

"I don't have time to feed myself! Just kidding! ;) Being extremely busy with school, group projects, club meetings and networking mixers forces me to be better at time management. That way, I can also make time to work out and have a social life."

Once you get into a regular routine exercising at least a couple times per week, it becomes much easier to maintain that lifestyle. Even if you only work out for 20 minutes, that's okay!

Lastly, if you just can't seem to get away from your books, check out 5 quick exercises you can do at your desk. Those include things like side stretches, butt squeezes and leg lifts. Any type of movement counts!

Getting Your Employer to Fund Your MBA: Making The Argument

With tuition costs for MBA programs in the tens of thousands, if not reaching ten 10,000’s - (trick question), wouldn’t it be great if someone else paid for your MBA? If you don’t have a sugar daddy or mamma, maybe your employer has a tuition reimbursement program. If your employer doesn’t have a tuition reimbursement program, is hope lost? Not necessarily. I’ve been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show titled “Getting Your Employer to Fund Your MBA.” In the podcast, we’ll explore a variety of situations including people who work for companies that have existing programs for funding MBA’s and those whose companies don’t. Some of the questions we’ll address:

   Why would a company fund your MBA and how can you make it happen?
   Does it make a difference if you work at a small company or a large company?
   Do economic hard times mean that continued education benefits are going by the wayside?
   There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so what will having your employer pay for your MBA cost you - if it’s not money?

I’ll be asking these questions and more of my guests and keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.

If your company doesn’t have an institutionalized program, what’s the best way to go about convincing your boss that the company should pay for your MBA. I spoke with Nicole, a financial services executive who went to a top 10 school, for my last blog post and she had more insight to add for this posting. (That’s not her real name, but she asked to remain anonymous because she works for a large company that doesn’t have an institutionalized program that funds MBA students.)

Nicole says that the first thing you should do is pretty obvious - do really good work. She continues…

“The second thing is to provide the structure for them, let them know what it would look like, frame it for them in the context of what competing institutions, or even in terms of what alternative types of organizations, do. In my case, they had no idea how this stuff works, or that it even existed. It’s kind of amazing for a company that big to not know about this stuff, but it’s not well known. And the third piece [of advice] is being really clear on what you would want to do when you came back and the value you would add after that.... [Be] able to say here’s why I’m going, here’s what I’m going to learn, and here’s how I will be more valuable and this is specifically the type of role or the track I want to be on afterwards, so that they understand, [that] this makes sense to invest in and they’ll be someone I can plug into a particular role or path when they come back.”

Yvon Le Renard is in the part-time executive MBA program at Kellogg / Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He convinced his company Alcatel to pay for his MBA with very specific and solid arguments for his boss about how an MBA will broaden what Le Renard can do for the company.

“The industry is changing drastically. The telecomm industry used to be run by North American and European companies. This is no longer true, so there will be a lot of Chinese competition, here in these regions [Asia]. The second reason is that most of the research and development used to be done in North America and Europe internally, which is no longer true. We’re doing a lot of R&D in these regions, we’re doing a lot of external innovations and R&D as well. And this is an area that I really wanted to understand well. How you can grow externally by partnerships, acquisitions and not only internally and how you can drive and change your company from European centric to Asian centric, where the growth is going to be in the next five years.”

Learn more of what Nicole, Yvon and the other guests have to say about company-financed MBAs in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:

• Lynda Boman, principal, Boman Accounting Group, who will address what you need to know for your tax return if your company pays for your MBA;
• John Gianvittorio, manager at Raytheon and student UCLA Anderson School, who says that the economy hasn’t affected Raytheon’s decision to fund MBA’s;
• Jay, small tech business owner, who will talk about what it would take for him to sponsor an employee;
• Karla Krause, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will talk about Dell’s fellowship program;
• Jennifer Powers, Manager of Marketing and Business Development for the City of Brampton, in Ontario, Canada, who will discuss why she decided to fund her MBA herself;
• Nicole, a financial services executive and student at a top 10 school, who will lay out the best way to have your company fund your MBA; and
• YoichiN, a financial services manager and MBA student, who will discuss what he owes his company in return for tuition reimbursement.

Employer-Funded MBA: What's In It For Your Company

Let’s face it, getting an MBA is not cheap.  Wouldn’t it be great if the MBA-tuition fairy granted your wish and paid for your MBA?  So how do you summon such a fairy?  It turns out that it might not be that hard.  I’ve been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show titled “Getting Your Employer to Support Fund Your MBA.”  The answer is very company specific.  In the podcast, we’ll explore a variety of situations including people who work for companies who have existing programs for funding MBA’s and those whose companies don’t. Some of the questions we’ll address:  

Why would a company fund your MBA?

Does it make a difference if you work at a small company or a large company?

Do economic hard times mean that continued education benefits are going by the wayside?

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so what will having your employer pay for your MBA cost you - if it’s not money?

I’ll be asking these questions and more of my guests and keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.

One of the first people I talked with was Nicole, a financial services executive who went to a top 10 school.  That’s not her real name, but she asked to remain anonymous because she works for a large company that doesn’t have an institutionalized program that funds MBA students. 

In her case, her company offered to pay for her MBA because they wanted to hold onto her.

“It’s not something they offered; it’s something that I floated as a possibility to my boss indirectly.  I guess once I tendered my resignation and let them know that I got into the school that I wanted to, that I was going to leave, they said well what if... we were to pay.  My immediate boss said what type of a contract, what do you have in mind, what does it look like, what does it cost, how have you seen it done in other firms - make us a proposal because we’re open to it.”

When I asked Nicole why her company offered to pay, her answer was brief.  “I did good work and we had a good relationship.”

She must have done REALLY good work and had a really good relationship with her boss. But it is not uncommon, especially at higher levels for companies use tuition reimbursement as a benefit to hold onto good talent.

Learn more of what Nicole and the other guests have to say about company-financed MBAs in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:

• Lynda Boman, principal, Boman Accounting Group, who will address what you need to know for your tax return if your company pays for your MBA;
• John Gianvittorio, manager at Raytheon and student UCLA Anderson School, who says that the economy hasn’t affected Raytheon’s decision to fund MBA’s;
• Jay, small tech business owner, who will talk about what it would take for him to sponsor an employee;
• Karla Krause, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will talk about Dell’s fellowship program;
• Yvon Le Renard, executive at Alcatel (a French telecommunications firm) and student at Kellog-Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Executive MBA program, who gives the best argument in support of your case for company funding;
• Jennifer Powers, Manager of Marketing and Business Development for the City of Brampton, in Ontario, Canada, who will discuss why she decided to fund her MBA herself; and
• YoichiN, a financial services manager and MBA student, who will discuss what he owes his company in return for tuition reimbursement.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arghmonkey/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

First Friday Freebies

First Friday Freebies

Here at MBA Podcaster we like to reward loyalty. If you haven’t noticed, we give away a lot of cool stuff to our listeners and fans – business books, gift cards, iPods, one-on-ones with admissions consultants – we’ve got a lot to go around. Now we want to make it easy for you to win. All you have to do is be an active member of our online community. We have pages on all the major social networks because we love chatting with you and hearing about your personal MBA application process. Your comments on our Facebook wall, Twitter page, YouTube videos, LinkedIn group and our blog are all ways we love to hear from you.

The first Friday of each month, we will randomly choose one person that has left us a comment or question on one of our social networks to win the prize of the month. Every time you post a comment or question, your name will be entered into a raffle for that month. So the more times you interact with us online, the better your chances are of winning! The winner will be contacted via the social network he/she used. (Note: If you leave a comment on our blog, please leave your email or Twitter name so we can contact you in case you win).

To review, here are the ways you can win First Friday Freebies:

Facebook: Write on our wall, discussion board or write a review on the Reviews tab. You must be a fan of MBA Podcaster on Facebook to win.

www.facebook.com/MBAPodcaster

Twitter: Send us a message through an @ reply, retweet us, or suggest @MBAPodcaster on #FollowFriday. You must be following @MBAPodcaster on Twitter to win.

www.twitter.com/MBAPodcaster

YouTube: Leave a comment and rate one of our videos or leave a comment on our channel. You must be subscribed to our YouTube channel to win.

www.youtube.com/MBAPodcaster

LinkedIn: Participate in one of our group discussions or start a new one. You must be part of the MBA Podcaster LinkedIn group to win.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1916644&trk=anet_ug_hm

Our Blog: Comment on one of our blog posts from the month.

www.mbapodcaster.com/blog

If you have questions about First Friday Freebies, please email info@mbapodcaster.com for clarification. Good luck and we look forward to chatting with you online!

Top Business School Stories of 2009

As 2009 draws to a close, let's go back and reminisce about the craziness the business school world encountered this year. As you could have guessed, the most popular business school headlines surrounded the economic recession and its affect on MBA applicants, students and graduates. A recent article in BusinessWeek highlights the top 10 business school stories of 2009. We'd like to summarize the top five of them for you here and point you to our dedicated shows on some of these topics.

1. The Job Market (dun dun dun!): The No. 1 concern this year for current MBAs, applicants, and recent grads was the job market. Students worried about finding internships and jobs after graduation, applicants wondered if joining the ranks of the unemployed to enroll in an MBA program was a good idea, and newly minted BBAs and MBAs wondered if their post-B-school jobs would hold up.

Our shows on this topic include:

• MBA Salaries in the Current Economic Climate
• MBA Admissions and the New World Order
• The Current Economic Environment: What it Means for MBA Applicants and Students

2. Loan Crisis: International students who planned to study at U.S. business schools had to scramble to find a student loan provider in 2009, when many of the loan programs they had used to fund their education disappeared.

For more on this, check out:

• Financing your MBA: Start Planning Now so You Can Live Easier When School Starts

3. MBA's: Public Enemy #1? Were B-schools responsible for the global economic crisis? It's a question that has consumed much of the B-school world for the better part of a year.

4. GRE vs. GMAT: For years, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) had a virtual monopoly over the admission testing arena at business schools. But now, there are approximately 285 business schools that allow students to submit the GRE in lieu of the GMAT exam.

For more about the GRE and GMAT, listen to:

• GMAT Not Required: Which B-Schools are Removing the GMAT Requirement from Admissions Criteria?

5. The Best Part-Time B-Schools: It was an interesting year to survey part-time and executive MBA students. For many prospective students, the thought of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a graduate business degree was frightening. For those already enrolled, fear of job loss and waning corporate support added stress to already intense business programs. When the economy rights itself, interest in part-time and executive MBA programs is expected to rebound.

For more about part-time programs, check out:

• Part Time vs. Full Time: Which Program is Right for You?
• Part Time MBA and Your Career
• The Executive MBA
• Real Life and an MBA

To read the rest of the top business school stories from 2009, check out the BusinessWeek article here. As we head into 2010, we'll be sure to blog about the hottest business school topics hitting the news stands. We will also continue to produce podcasts and videocasts on topics of business school interest in 2010. If there's a topic you are dying to know more about, tell us in the comments section!

Happy New Year!

HBS 3rd semester done! Hello Vacation!

Hello MBA Podcaster.com community!

I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the Holiday Season! I can't believe I just finished my 3rd semester at HBS. Only one more semester stands between me and graduation, and I can't tell you how SAD I am. The past 3 semesters have been amazing. Truly life altering. I am absolutely not the person I was when I entered business school at the age of 25. It feels like only yesterday I was scrambling to put together my application for Harvard. I was a wreck, and I only wish that when I was applying to B-School I had access to the resources we try to provide you at MBApodcaster.com and specifically on MBA Pod TV.

HBS is a place where I have the opportunity to chase my passions, engage in debates with smart and opinionated people, and socialize with some of the best professors in the world. I am truly blessed. Okay, enough of the mushy stuff though! I thought it would be fun to share with you, my top 10 fun moments from HBS 2009 (in no specific order).


Mia's 2009 Top 10 B-School Moments
1.)HBS Show
Every year HBS puts on a student-run theatrical production. The actors are HBS students who work tirelessly to showcase their singing and dancing abilities. This year my best friend, Kristen, was the lead actress. It was amazing to watch her dedicate her 2nd semester to an HBS activity that meant a lot to her, and it was even more amazing to watch the show!

2.) Traveling to Morocco
During spring break, instead of tanning on the beach, I joined 35 or so other HBS students to the northern tip of Africa. One of my favorite movies is Casablanca, and I always wanted to visit Morocco. Truly an amazing country.

3.) Ekta!
I participated in the school-wide Ekta South Asian Culture Show. I walked the catwalk in the Indian Fashion Show with my little sister (who is a 1st year at HBS) and danced in bhangra (for the first time)! Dancing bhangra was a blast because my mother was in the crowd and we won the bhangra dance-off against the 1st year HBS students.

4.) Section dinners
Having dinner with some of the coolest people in my section and having people over my apartment for Mia's Pizza Night!

5.) Having Jack Welch just sitting like a student in Skydeck.

6.) Investment Management! I took this class last semester and loved every guest that came to speak to us (at HBS we learn through cases, and each case protagonist usually came to class). I had the opportunity to listen to the master of value investing, Seth Klarman. Seth is the President of the Cambridge-based Baupost Group, which he formed 24 years ago upon graduation from HBS. He is a genius! I also had the opportunity to hear from the CEO of Dimensional Fund Advisors, Partners from Maverick Capital, Eric Rosenfeld--founding employee of Long Term Capital Management, and many others!

7.) Interviewing the CEO of BlackRock, Robert Kapito, for my column in the Harbus, Money with Mia. Asking him about the current state of the economy, and talking to him about how BGI has been so successful at growing its iShares business.

8.) Meeting my boyfriend in Oktoberfest in Munich.

9.) Serving as Board Trustee for Harbus Foundation, the U.S.'s only MBA-student run endowment. I help to oversee $1.1 mm that goes to non-profit organizations in the Boston area focused on education, literacy, and journalism. I love working with these organizations and helping them with their strategic planning and also providing grants to make their growth initiatives come true.

10.)THE PEOPLE! I always thought you go to college to find your bridesmaids. While that is true, I am very lucky that I found a few here in B-School. The people are truly what made my 3 semesters here amazing. I am thankful for each and every person I have met through a social event, case discussion, or Spangler lounge session.

As you can see, I had a great 2009 at HBS. While each MBA student experiences different events and encounters, one thing is for sure--we will never forget them!

I wish everyone best of luck with HBS Round 2 applications. If you have any questions, please send them to me via Facebook or through the comments section.

Take care,
Mia Saini
MBA PodTV Video Host

MBA's for Engineers? Definitely. And You've Got a Choice

Some of you - those of the engineering ilk - have asked us whether or not an MBA make sense. To answer the question, I’ve been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show. Rest assured - the answer is yes. In the podcast, we’ll explore why that is as well as many other questions such as:

What are schools looking for from an engineer to be admitted and then succeed in business school?
What should applicants with engineering backgrounds emphasize on their applications?
How do schools look upon applicants with low verbal scores, but strong quant scores?

I’ll be asking these questions of my guests and keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.


Engineers have more than one graduate degree option. Engineers can get a regular MBA or because of their technical background they can apply to a dual MBA-Masters in Engineering program. Not surprising, one of the best of those dual programs can be found at M.I.T. and the Sloan School of Management.


I spoke with Don Rosenfield, the director of the dual-degree M.I.T. Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program about the ingredients for a successful application to either program. Rosenfield says that M.I.T. looks for academic performance and achievement and leadership qualities for both their regular MBA programs and the specialized LGO program.


Academic performance is self explanatory. Rosenfield says for leadership qualities, M.I.T. looks for the following:

“Ability to work in teams, ability to work with ambiguous data - you look for things like can they deal with difficult situations. Do they have independence of thoughts and action?”

The LGO requires that a student have a commitment to operations, for example, how do you make decisions about outsourcing, supply chains and capacity management. Rosenfield says they look at what the applicant has done since he or she graduated from undergrad.

“What kinds of jobs, what kinds of issues they’ve worked on - they don’t necessarily have to be working directly in operations or manufacturing, but they have to show in their interviews and their essays that they are very interested in that area.”

Learn more of what Rosenfield and the other guests have to say about MBA engineers in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:

• Beth Flye, assistant dean and director of admissions and financial aid, Kellogg School of Management, who will talk about what engineers need to know when applying to business school;
• Betsy Massar, Founder and CEO of Master Admissions, who explains which schools like engineers and why;
• Margo Villadelgado, student, Kellogg School of Management, who will share her experiences as an engineering student crossing over to the business world;
• Iker Marcaide, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will talk about why he chose to take the path he did and where he expects it to lead; and
• Karla Krause, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who talks about the benefits work experience brings to an MBA.

Updated! Listen to the full show here.

MBA's for Engineers? A Student's Perspective, Part II

Listeners with engineering backgrounds often write to us wanting to know how candidates like them fare in the application process, what can help set them apart from their fellow engineer applicants, what their degree options are, and what career opportunities will an MBA open up to them. We’ll address all of these issues (and more) in an upcoming podcast.

Today, I spoke with two current MBA students from the MIT Leaders for Global Operations program who were both engineers before coming back to campus and who are both using their MBA to expand their careers beyond the traditional engineering track. They both agreed that their MBAs will enable them to diversify their skills so that they can rise higher in their careers than they would have been able to if they had stayed purely with engineering. They talked about what they were looking to learn in graduate school and how that would help their career.

Karla Krause worked for Dell for four years in various roles including production scheduling, capacity planning and outsourcing before she enrolled in Sloan. Her MBA will give her the skills necessary to have a more complete picture of Dell’s business strategy.

“I’m planning to go back to Dell in a supply chain related function. I’ve been in some parts of the supply chain, but I haven’t done much with the outbound or logistics, the back end portion... That is, once the product leaves the manufacturing facility or the distribution center, how does it get to the end customer? What’s the optimal network and which vendors do you need to involve there? What are the implications? Where can you become more efficient or save money once the product is made to getting it to the end customer?”

Iker Marcaide worked as a consultant before enrolling in the MBA program and he was looking to deepen his knowledge of operational excellence. Which is...

“To put it simply, it’s how you design not only processes to minimize wastes, but also how can you effectively reach the outputs you desire in an organization by making it highly efficient and effective.”

Both of the students recommend graduate school to engineers who want to round out their skill sets and experiences beyond their background in order to expand their career opportunities.
Krause is going to advance in her company and Marcaide is going to become an entrepreneur.

“I found a very interesting optimization problem that we can apply to financial services. So I’m actually going to take the start-up or entrepreneurial route of applying operations management to a non-traditional problem in financial services.”

Learn more of what the students and the other guests have to say about MBA engineers in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:

• Margo Villadelgado, student, Kellogg School of Management, who will share her experiences as an engineering student crossing over to the business world.
• Beth Flye, assistant dean and director of admissions and financial aid, Kellogg School of Management, who will talk about what engineers need to know when applying to business school;
• Don Rosenfield, director of the dual-degree MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will and talk about the specialized nature of MIT’s program and what it takes to succeed; and
• Betsy Massar, Founder and CEO of Master Admissions, who explains which schools like engineers and why.

Updated! listen to the full show here.

MBA's for Engineers? A Student's Perspective, Part I.

We often get the question ‘does an MBA make sense for engineers?’ To answer the question, I’ve been working on an upcoming MBA Podcaster show. I spoke to several students about their experiences. What are schools looking for from an engineer to be admitted and then succeed in business school? What should applicants with engineering backgrounds emphasize on their applications? Which are the graduate degree options for engineers? What’s the career track if you get an MBA versus just stay in engineering? I’ll be asking these questions of my guests and keeping you posted along the way with blog updates.

Margo Villadelgado is studying for an MBA and Masters in Engineering Management at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. She has an undergraduate degree in systems engineering and economics from the University of Virginia. When she graduated she consulted, mostly in IT. She has some really good advice for engineering students (that can apply to other students as well) who might want to go to business school.

“Really think what it is that you want to do after business school, both immediately and in the future. And really look at what skills you have and what areas you need to fill in and what the business school can do for you. Do some self assessment to make the most of your two years at any business school.”

Villadelgado took her own advice. She knew what she wanted her future career path to look like and that was to rise up in a product-based company. As an engineer she had good quantitative skills, but needed to round out her skill set, so she decided to get an MBA.

“I had a good understanding on how products are developed, but what I really wanted understand how to manage... everything from the marketing side of things to the operations side to how you keep a product-based company running.”

So she’s been able to prioritize the many opportunities and courses in order to get the most out of her two years.

Learn more of what the students and the other guests have to say about MBA engineers in our upcoming show that will be in a couple of weeks. Other guests on the show include:

• Iker Marcaide, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will talk about why he chose to take the path he did and where he expects it to lead;
• Karla Krause, student, MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who talks about the benefits work experience brings to an MBA;
• Beth Flye, assistant dean and director of admissions and financial aid, Kellogg School of Management, who will talk about what engineers need to know when applying to business school;
• Don Rosenfield, director of the dual-degree MIT Leaders for Global Operations program, who will and talk about the specialized nature of MIT’s program and what it takes to succeed; and
• Betsy Massar, Founder and CEO of Master Admissions, who explains which schools like engineers and why.

Updated! Listen to the new show here.