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.
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.”
Labels: work experience, younger MBA applicants









