Navigating towards your professional career after the MBA?
When talking to many MBA students, one observation strikes us. Some of them see their first job as their final destination, rather than the start of a long career. Yes…a journey that will last several years and whose destination (the end point in your professional journey) will be decades in the future. It’s that simple and also by law of life.
But that feeling to which we refer makes some sense. Many planned after college to work for a few years, apply for graduate school, eventually attend the business school of their choice, then get an internship and then land a job.
What seems to a 19-year-old to be a very long and arduous process (more than 10 years) culminates in finding a job that can often double or triple his income. However, their first job places them at the top of a first mountain, although it will not be the last, rather, it is the beginning, which also corresponds to when this young professional encounters his first obstacles.
To understand how to think about a career journey, let’s see what Debra Bass, president of Johnson & Johnson’s Global Baby Franchise Organization, has to say about it, who has designed an interesting journey from Procter and Gamble to Johnson & Johnson, after earning her MBA from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Management.
The usefulness of the thoughts that Debra leaves us on how to focus your professional career is interesting:
– “Your career is a framework and not a ladder. In reality, there is never just one path to achieving your career aspirations. There is no need to put pressure on yourself to choose the “right” path.
– “But it starts with a destination. It’s important to think of your career as a journey with a North Star destination point, one that can guide you toward a vision of your future but allows you to take multiple different paths to get there. While your North Star doesn’t need to be hard and fast at 28, it should provide you with a direction in which to move.”
– “You must be intentional. While many paths can help you reach your North Star, there is a difference between wandering and making intentional career decisions. You want to have a purpose in your journey and make sure that you make career decisions with a solid foundation.”
– “The first job should be a big step in the right direction. While there are many paths to your career destination, your first job is disproportionately important. It sets you on a specific path. While you can change your path, it’s much harder to do so after your first job than it is after your MBA. Ideally, you want your first job to set you on a path in the general direction of your destiny.”
In her case, Debra knew that she wanted to develop a career in consumer marketing. The first stop on her career journey had to be a top-tier CPG company. Let’s clarify that CPG corresponds to the expression “Consumer Packaged Goods” (Packaged Consumer Goods) and the main difference with retail companies is that CPG companies manufacture, market and sell all kinds of products to retail companies and they are in charge of to sell those products to end customers in their stores.
P&G was the best company from a training and reputation perspective, so it was the most logical choice to help her move toward her goal.
Debra also indicates other issues that you have to take into account and describes them very eloquently, as follows:
– You must keep your eyes open to develop and stretch new muscles
What is it referring to? Because one of the most intentional reasons for leaving a company is to want to start growing, learning and developing new skills. This includes both expanding your toolkit and learning how to build a muscle (we’re pretty cool with the picture of muscle) in adaptation and agility. Because the moment you move to a new company, you may have the opportunity to learn about: new types of consumers, a new business model, a new company culture, new systems/processes, and even a new way of thinking about the company. functional competence. In other words, agility in the muscles (which means agility in the understanding and experimentation of all the tasks that are done).
After P&G, he had the opportunity to go to Bristol Myers Squibb. While the job was still in consumer marketing, it gave her the opportunity to develop a competency in patient engagement. Still she was feeling that she was heading towards her North Star, but she veered from a direct path. But this was a move with a purpose that helped him develop competencies through a number of different factors. One path would have been to stay at P&G forever, but to strengthen her muscles to adapt to the “new,” she had to take a different fork in the road.
– Don’t be afraid to take risks. Related to the previous point, staying at P&G could have been a safe choice.
But specifically she wanted to understand different business models. That required taking a chance and leaving P&G. When you stay focused on your destination, you may have to take risks along the way. However, and this is for the young, don’t move for the sake of moving. A degree of continuity is important to many recruiting firms.
– It is important to know when you are on a path that will take you to your destination and when not
Risk taking means that you may not always make the right decision. It is almost impossible at 28 years old to know where you fit best. Fit largely determines long-term success and it takes time to learn where you fit in and where you don’t. It’s okay not to fit in everywhere. The key is knowing when you’ve made a career decision that won’t help you get to your destination.
– When you don’t stay well, you must react quickly
As she made intentional career decisions, she made a couple of stops at companies where she realized she wasn’t a good fit. The key was that she quickly made the changes. Part of the learning process is finding out which culture brings out the best in you. Over time, you’ll get better at it. (That’s the value of experience.)
– Over time, you must be willing to adjust your destiny, but you must always keep a pole star (the goal you have set for yourself)
Throughout your career, you will develop competencies and a brand; discarding it to start over can be costly.
– Importance of mentors, sponsors and advocates
She says that she has had the right mentoring and sponsorship to help her become self-aware along the way. The reason why she was able to come back to JNJ was because she had a sponsor who was willing to defend her. Many people today are focused on gaining 10,000 Facebook friends, but in reality, these are the few people who can be honest with you and provide direct feedback, encouragement, support, and mentoring. Be sure to assemble a small but valuable network of mentors and advisors along your journey.
How an MBA can lead to a career change
Some MBA graduates say business school transformed their career and led them to a new dream job.
The variations in the type of studies and the diversities that are presented depending on where the MBA is done, can leave experiences that greatly facilitate business development and teamwork in any company from any country and culture. For example, in the specific case of Asia, the Westerners who arrive get used to dealing with ethnic and age-diverse business people. But in general, in any country, MBA students have access to a wide variety of experiential learning opportunities that allow them to try different types of business roles, plus of course multiculturalism.
It is known that an MBA is like a springboard that propels you, sometimes you want to or not, to make a change in your career. If this is your case, we tell you that you are not alone.
Economic changes have led to an increase in the quantity and quality of job options for MBA graduates.
“There are very few people who go into business school wanting to do the same (referring to how MBA students often use business school to catapult themselves into a job unlike any they’ve ever had) because otherwise, They wouldn’t have quit their job to begin with,” says Alexander Lowry, executive director of the Master of Science in Financial Analysis program at Gordon, University of Massachusetts. “It’s a huge opportunity cost.”
It is frequent to change sectors
“Changing industries, roles, or both is one of the most common reasons students decide to pursue an MBA,” says Stephen Rakas, executive director of the Masters Career Center at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business in Pennsylvania. “It’s a well-known and broad-based credential.”
One question that MBA candidates often ask is how to find the right business school. According to admissions consultant Barbara Coward, founder of MBA 360 Admissions Consulting, MBA graduates often enter fields that are radically different from the areas they worked in before business school.
“I have so many examples that attest to the power of this title for complete career reinvention: a Peace Corps volunteer pivoting into management consulting. A teacher transitioning to big tech. A veteran entering capital “A venture capitalist. An accountant who transitions to sports marketing. A financial analyst who becomes an entrepreneur. There is no other title that provides the launch pad to so many different possibilities for charting your next career path. It’s incredibly empowering.”
The MBA helps make the transition
MBA graduates who changed careers say business school helped them transition into a new industry.
How an MBA can help you discover a passion
Satish Selvanathan spent six years trading mortgage-backed debt in the investment banking industry in the years leading up to the Great Recession stemming from the 2008-2009 International Financial Crisis.
In 2006, he realized that the banking and financial sector in general would not be the same for much longer. He felt that he had lost touch with the reality of owning or operating a business. Mortgage-backed debt (one of the fundamental reasons that unleashed the 2008 Crisis) was a product created by statistical models and was not something to him that he could feel, touch or relate to.
He decided to enter business school in the hope that an MBA would lead to a fulfilling career. Today he is the CEO of Premium Vegetable Oils, where he makes strategic and investment decisions on behalf of the business.
He says the Columbia Business School MBA program taught him how to analyze and improve companies and helped him find his true calling: reviving troubled companies.
“Business school was very meaningful to me, because I fell in love with a subject, which later turned into a beautiful career,” he says.
How having an MBA on your resume affects your career prospects
How an MBA can inspire creativity and open up possibilities.
When Shelly Sahi applied to the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, she was a business analyst at Ford Motor Company and was eager to learn more about business strategy so she could contribute to those discussions at her company.
But during her MBA program, Sahi found that the idea of starting a business excited her. She decided to use her background in materials science to build a cosmetics company. Her long-standing interest in the industry stemmed from years she spent mixing foundations and lipsticks designed for people of European descent to match her North Indian complexion.
“In the back of my mind, I always knew that I wanted to be in the world of fashion, luxury goods, and beauty, but this was my chance to explore if I could do this,” she says.
Sahi visited the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies in Ross to seek advice from its faculty and resident entrepreneurs. She says they encouraged her and gave her vital guidance on how to execute her vision. They also talked to Sahi about possible funding sources and connected her with alumni who are successful entrepreneurs, she says.
Sahi is the CEO and founder of SAHI Cosmetics, which she says probably wouldn’t have happened without the support of her business school.
“It’s hard to be a single founder, so if you can put yourself among other entrepreneurs and brainstorm ideas, it will really help you succeed,” she says.
How an MBA can facilitate self-discovery and accelerate a career change
Career adviser Jeff Magnuson says business school was a turning point.
“I didn’t think I’d change majors until I got into business school,” says Magnuson, a 2011 MBA graduate of the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill.
Prior to business school, Magnuson spent eight years working on Wall Street, including five years at Goldman Sachs Group. He decided to switch to marketing his first year in business school, a change of heart that came after a trip where he and other students attended information sessions with Wall Street employers.
“It was all very positive, and everyone was very helpful, but I knew in my heart that this was it,” he says. “I didn’t want to go back. Eight years was enough.”
Magnuson says the business school provides a unique opportunity for career exploration. “It’s basically like getting to a point on the road where you can choose one of eight directions to enter.”
Deciding Between an Online or On-Campus MBA Program
Why an MBA helps career changers. MBA students have access to a wide variety of experiential learning opportunities that allow them to try different kinds of business roles, explains Shaifali Aggarwal, who received her MBA from Harvard Business School and is founder and CEO of the consulting firm of admissions Ivy Groupe. She states that “for example, both summer internships and internships within the semester are a risk-free way for companies to screen students (i.e. potential future full-time employees seeking a career transition), as well as for students to determine if the industry and job role are right for them.
She also argues that there may be opportunities built into the curriculum that allow students to apply theory to practice, such as partnering with a company to solve a problem; such experiences strengthen students’ abilities and can even be closely related to what a student wants to do in the future, which in turn can facilitate a career change.
Another interesting experience is that of Alison French, Indiana University Kelley School of Business MBA alumnus and CEO of healthcare technology company Emerged Inc., who stated that “an MBA provides the perfect platform for people looking to change their industry or job role as it broadens their understanding of what contributes to business success.”
The interconnection of different business units
Completing an MBA means you’re no longer thinking about your job in a silo; instead, you are connecting the dots between the interdependencies of different business units within an organization or in relation to other companies.
Business school experts say business schools are designed to make it easy to explore careers.
MBA programs generally include a variety of courses and provide a wide range of extracurricular activities. Reputable business schools tend to have strong job placement rates across multiple industries, and those schools often attract an eclectic mix of corporate recruiters.
How Career Changers Should Choose an MBA Program
When evaluating the quality of a business school, career changers should find out if the school supports student and alumni job seekers by asking recent graduates if the school’s career counselors provided valuable guidance. It is also prudent for a prospective MBA student to look for job placement statistics from a school within her preferred business sector.
Find a school that allows them to develop their skills in areas in which they have a significant interest
Prospective MBA students who see school as an opportunity for personal transformation should look for a school that allows them to develop their skills in areas in which they have significant interest but lack work experience, suggests marketing professor Michal Strahilevitz. .
“So if you’re strong in finance and accounting, but feel like you need marketing skills to climb the corporate ladder and land a job you’re excited about, an MBA with a marketing focus makes sense,” said Strahilevitz, who teaches at St. Mary’s College of California School of Economics and Business Administration.
“If you’re working in marketing with a strong background in content creation and communication, but want to get up to speed in analytics, an MBA with a concentration in analytics will make you much more marketable,” she says. “Finally, if you’re currently stuck in a desk job that doesn’t offer any room for growth or promotion, an MBA with whatever focus excites you can open the doors to an area where you’ll shine inside and out.”
How to transition to a new career from an MBA
If you’re wondering why an MBA is the answer, keep in mind that throughout an MBA program, change is a constant that students can count on. In addition, when returning to a business school, for the more experienced students who decided to have a formative experience, one of the most profound changes they experience also involves their careers. In fact, changing jobs and industries is one of the main reasons people seek an MBA.
A 2015 report from the Association of International Graduate Admission Consultants found that 20% of men and women hoped to start a business after earning their MBA. And, in 2012, 70% of MBA students indicated they planned to change majors, according to a survey conducted by Veritas Prep, a provider of GMAT preparation services.
Stephanie Grant is one of those students, except she changed course before I even got her MBA. Thanks to dual business programs at Florida Atlantic University, she went from teaching chemistry to working as an analyst for a hedge fund. “I wanted to go into finance, but I didn’t know how I was going to get there,” says Grant, who completed FAU’s Financial Analyst Program and later completed her Executive MBA.
For her, the FAU program opened the door to the world of finance and her EMBA will further broaden her perspectives. Along with her education, Grant credits Dr. Rainford Knight, who heads FAU’s FA program, as the catalyst that made her new career possible. Knight brings executives into the classroom, which gave Grant an insight into the different opportunities that awaited her and ultimately helped her choose the right path.
Knight says the MBA allows for big career changes because of its versatility. “The MBA touches on different business disciplines,” says Knight. “As a result, it prepares the student to better adapt to a new job or a new career.”
Also, there is no single type of MBA. At FAU, options range from an Executive MBA, which prepares graduates for leadership roles, to an MBA in Sports Management. A popular track, the Master of Business Administration in Hospitality, provides students with entry into one of South Florida’s most popular and fastest growing industries. (In Florida alone, close to 100 million tourists visit annually.) “For every 85 to 100 additional visitors, one direct or indirect tourism and hospitality job is created in the state,” says Dr. Peter Ricci, clinical associate professor and director of FAU’s Hospitality Management programs.
But FAU’s MBA program is beneficial even if a student does not have a clear idea of the change they hope to achieve. Erci Moisa, who graduated from FAU with an EMBA in 2012 and a Financial Analyst degree in 2013, knew he wanted out of the IT world, but not much else. However, after his first semester, the pieces began to fall into place. “That’s when I said, ‘Wow.’ The gap that he was trying to close, the satisfaction, it was all there.”
Moisa entered the field of healthcare finance, a specialized discipline within another booming industry in South Florida. One way he was able to make such a major change smoothly was by drawing on his past experience and knowledge. Although he did not want to work in IT, he learned that his previous career could complement his new education, which helped bolster his confidence.
“I had a skill set that allowed me to transfer careers,” he says. “You have to know about healthcare law, but you also have to know how to work with the numbers. That’s where my computer science background came in, and combining all of that with finance is perfect.”
Like Grant, Moisa says Knight was a crucial figure in the transition of his career. “Dr. Knight has a way of teaching where he takes an article from The Wall Street Journal and asks, ‘How does this apply?’ He’s a fantastic teacher and the one who had a definite influence on what I’m doing.”
Moisa and Grant are just two of many FAU alumni who say the university’s programs do more than prepare students to change careers or move into new professional roles—they help make it happen.
Ready for a career change? How an MBA degree could help
When Adriana Bokel Herde began her postgraduate MBA degree, she was working in human resources at one of the largest health care companies in the United States. A year after graduating, she jumped into an executive position at a startup.
“Getting the MBA from her can be a vehicle for change,” says Bokel Herde. “It is gaining the confidence to be bolder. You have that differentiator.”
Giving way to start-ups
Bokel Herde enrolled in a hybrid online MBA program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2015. While she was in school, the then-HR professional adapted her degree to focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. . And after graduating in 2017, Bokel Herde’s experiences at Sloan inspired her to leap into executive roles at fast-growing and start-up companies. She today serves as the director of people at Pegasystems, an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Bokel Herde’s experience highlights the many ways an online MBA degree can lead a professional to further her current career path or move from the industrial or service sector in which she works entirely. Like Bokel Herde, many professionals seeking an online MBA find that the flexible format allows them to progress in their industry while gaining practical skills, such as strategic thinking, communication skills, and versatility, to qualify for promotion or transition to a new one. career.
High level of satisfaction of MBA postgraduates
Approximately 76% of MBA graduates are satisfied with their career progress, according to a Graduate Management Admission Council survey. The survey, conducted in 2018, is widely referenced within the business school community.
As MBA graduates gain more work experience, they tend to move up to higher job levels, according to the survey. Of those surveyed, 49% of recent graduates, who completed their degrees in 2016 or 2017, were in mid-level positions, while 23% were already working in higher-level positions.
“You meet people in your program who open up new opportunities for you. They also start companies or hire other people they met through the MBA program,” says Bokel Herde. “It’s that network component.”
Online MBAs serve professionals looking to grow in various industries
In general, MBA graduates flock to sectors such as finance, consulting, technology, accounting, and industrial products and services after completing their degree. MBA programs that typically incorporate at least some type of online component see 14% to 16% of graduates entering the technology industry and 11% to 12% working in healthcare. At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, part-time MBA graduates are more likely to enter finance and consulting positions, according to data from a survey of alumni.
Business school administrators say that both technology and healthcare offer considerable growth opportunities for MBA professionals.
Online and traditional MBA programs can serve professionals looking to switch to a new industry or transition into a leadership role, according to Walter Davis, faculty director of MBA programs and professor of management at the School of Business Administration from the University of Mississippi.
“We see a lot of healthcare professionals, from doctors to nurses, who have an interest in healthcare administration and see value in this type of degree,” Davis says.
Many professionals with degrees and experience in marketing, financial management and project management make up a large percentage of MBA students at Ole Miss, Davis says. But there is a growing cohort of students with backgrounds in the military, engineering, and other fields unrelated to business management.
“We see a lot of students who don’t have a traditional business background wanting to pursue a business degree,” Davis says. “It can be a very good fit for someone with specialized experience, maybe other than business. But they want to move on or move up within their organization. This is your chance to do it.”
Online MBAs often lead to career changes, career advancement
While online MBAs are gaining popularity with all applicants, the flexibility of online programs generally appeals to an established professional. The average online MBA student is typically in their late twenties to mid-thirties and holds a full-time position.
MBA-level students are often eager to enter the job market or make a career change, says Lorna Patches, executive director of the Career Resource Center at the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics. She has experience managing relationships with Fortune 100 companies and often works with students to ensure their MBA experience sets them up for career success.
With an increase in online MBA programs, Patches says, prospective MBA students should do their research to find an accredited program that works for their individual needs and is accredited. The three main accreditation agencies for MBA programs are the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Business Schools (AACSB), the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), and the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE).
“You want to be able to tap into a strong network of alumni and students, and you want to have great people helping you learn throughout the program,” Patches says. “Find a program with a curriculum that meets your needs. If you are interested in health care, there is a program for that. If you’re interested in focusing on supply chain management, find a program that fits that.”