Labels:
Career Development
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MBA
Series content:
Career Development 101: Choosing a Post-MBA Company
My MBA journey at Duke Fuqua came to a close in 2015. During
those 2 years I’ve written a lot of content on my thoughts on the MBA and the
admissions process with a lens from my experience at Duke, and I feel this blog
has pretty robust content on that. Prospective students and current students
alike should find the content useful and the feedback I’ve gotten from readers
reflects this.
Now that I’m done, I want to shift the content of my blog to more
general post-MBA career development and leadership, since this is what I’m
currently going through right now.
I’d like to start this new chapter of the blog with a series
called Career Development 101. These blog posts will cover the basics on career
development tailored specifically to the post-MBA experience. Prospective
students should still feel comfortable in reaching out to me with questions on
the Duke MBA as I enjoy giving back to the program and I’m always happy to talk
about Fuqua.
Series content:
1)
Choosing a Post-MBA Company (this post)
You can find all the posts to the series here.
Choosing a company to work for after an MBA is never easy, but is front-of-mind for every MBA student. Essentially, the MBA is a two-year recruiting process. There are two major times when an MBA student needs to consider companies – before the internship and before graduation for full time. Let’s start with the basics.
Choosing a company to work for after an MBA is never easy, but is front-of-mind for every MBA student. Essentially, the MBA is a two-year recruiting process. There are two major times when an MBA student needs to consider companies – before the internship and before graduation for full time. Let’s start with the basics.
People First
It is my firm belief that when choosing a company,
evaluating the people in that company is the most crucial thing to do. Do the
people that the company sends or who you interact with impress you? Are they in
roles that you envision yourself being in? Do they have qualities or traits
that resonate with you and inspire you?
These are the questions that I asked and it has been very
helpful for me in the decision process. It’s also the framework I used when
mentoring the first year students during my time in the Duke MBA program. Why
are people so important? It tells you about the company’s culture, and most
importantly, what qualities the company looks for in developing its leaders.
When you start in your first role fresh out of the MBA, you
need a lot of help from the people in the company to do your job well – this
includes your manager and mentors, but also the people in your extended team
and various other business units. Therefore, how well you do is a direct
reflection of the company’s culture and its people.
Prior to the MBA, our work
was mostly about individual contribution and personal drive. I’ve noticed that in
the corporate world post-MBA, it’s more about relationship management and
motivating others – or in other words, leadership.
The qualities the company looks for in developing its
leaders is also important. Looking back, I was only impressed with the leaders
in a handful of companies that I interacted on campus. Keep in mind that I have
a very particular kind of leader I want myself to become, so this is extremely
subjective and biased – you will have your own set of qualities that may
impress you.
I chose the company that had the leaders that impressed me the
most, and who I genuinely reflected and envisioned myself becoming in the
future. I’ve never looked back since.
Industry Growth and Company Cycle
As a post-MBA guy or gal, you are limited by how the industry
you are in is doing. In other words, if you join a stagnant or declining
industry, there’s only so much you can do and the opportunities for you to
develop yourself may be limited.
It’s essential to evaluate the industry
carefully and figure out if this is a good industry to be in after the MBA. In
MBA programs you’ll learn about the major industries in classes, and this is
sort of a no-brainer, but I wanted to keep it here for completeness.
Another thing to consider is the cycle that the company is
in. Bigger, stable companies go through cycles of growth and decline (think
Fortune 500) and this is completely normal. In an ideal world, you would want
to choose a company that is in its growth phase. Opportunities for development
will be more abundant and there will be more resources available.
MBA hiring is
a huge investment by companies so you could assume that most companies that
recruit at your school is growing. I’d still take the step to do a deep dive in
the companies you’re considering to see if you believe in the company’s vision
and growth strategy.
Also, you’re inevitably going to be asked in your interview
the standard “Why Industry?” and “Why Company?” questions, so definitely do your
homework on this. It’s good for not only killing the interview, but also for your
own benefit when you decide which company to work for after the MBA.
MBA Leadership Development Programs
The company you choose to work for should have a robust
leadership development program for its MBA hires. This does not necessarily
mean that the program is a rotational program (more on this later). However,
you do need to make sure that the company is putting resources into developing
its MBA talent and that you will get the experiences and exposure to senior
leaders that you need.
The top consulting firms and banks generally do this
very well, but for corporate roles students may need to do a bit more
investigating since their programs may vary.
Now regarding whether the MBA program is rotational or not –
this is a personal decision. One pro of a rotational program is the certainty
that you will get exposed to many roles. It also strongly implies that the
company is putting their resources into developing future leaders, and not just
hiring MBAs to execute.
However, one con with rotational programs is that each
rotation may not be sufficient time to truly learn about that role, and when
people know you’ll be leaving in 6 months, the experience may not be as robust.
Another con is that rotational programs are somewhat rigid, whereas in a
non-rotational program you can choose roles that fit into your career
development timing.
Regardless of the program, you just need to make sure the
program has a history of developing leaders and that it truly is a leadership
development program.
Things that don’t matter
MBA recruiting is a little different than non-MBA recruiting – things are highly standardized. The first thing that doesn’t matter in my opinion is
your salary and bonus. Look, MBA recruiters know their competition and will
give you a very competitive package. If you think your salary is low, it may be
because of geography, as some cities have higher costs of living than others.
Industry and function are also important, as consulting firms and banks have
some of the best compensation packages and benefits for MBA grads.
Ultimately
as an MBA you need to think long term. If Company A has really good people, is
in a growing industry, and has a strong leadership development program but has
$10k less in starting salary than Company B that doesn’t have these things –
I’d go with Company A for sure.
Remember, things that matter to me may not matter to you,
and vice versa. Think about your own personal and professional development
needs. Is being in an urban setting important to you? Is having to travel or not
having to travel a deal breaker? Is compensation a driving factor? These are
all things to consider – but fundamentally I would recommend folks to think
about their long term goals.
I wrote a post about this in my first Advice to First YearMBAs post, and I’d like to echo it here: Figure out what you want to do long
term (10-20 years later), and make the right decision in your first post-MBA
role to be closer in achieving that goal.
If you can do that, you can start
filtering out things that don’t matter to you and have a laser focus on the
things that do.
Read the other posts in my series, Career Development 101.
Read the other posts in my series, Career Development 101.
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