Important Questions

While we enjoy our “Spring Break” at Vanderbilt, it has been great to take some time off from school, do a little bit of traveling, and actually reading a book for my own pleasure (rather than for a class). During this time, I kept receiving a number of e-mails from many current & prospective b-school students. In particular, Lauren from Duke University brought up a few important points which I wanted to address in this post. So, here it goes:

• Will you get all that you should out of your b-school education with no real-world experience?

Absolutely yes. As I had written in one of my earlier posts; some classes at b-school require more class interaction than others because of the nature of those courses; and some students actually do talk about their past work experiences before making their claims as if to add credibility to their opinions. However, I believe that your work experience can work for and against you. It can enable you to draw from your past experiences and add significant value to class discussions; but it can also keep you from being open to new ways of creating solutions because you might have preset notions on various business operations. In the end, your experience is not what makes your claims worth listening to; it’s the claims themselves. As long as you can intelligently articulate various business solutions, you will have no problems.

• How well will you fit in with classmates and fellow alumni who are five to ten years older than you?

I truly believe that the single most important element of your MBA experience is NOT the education, but rather the personal network you build at your b-school. My current classmates and tight-knit alumni have been the greatest resource for me so far. When you need a quick tutoring in one of your classes, your classmates will be your ultimate destination, and when you need to start sending out those networking e-mails for your summer internship, your school’s alumni will be your best chance! That being said, I can confidently say that I have never had any problems of relating to fellow classmates and alumni who are much older than me. I believe that it is all about how you carry & present yourself. You might be 23 years old instead of 27, but you can easily make up for those few years with your intelligence, your due-diligence, your maturity level, and even the way you dress. Remember, if you act like a teenager, they will treat you like one. But if you act like a professional and command that respect, you can be sure that it will be given to you.

• Will you get the most out of your school’s career placement services?

This is a tricky subject. The answer is “it depends.” You need to note that most b-school career services are mostly geared towards “traditional” MBA students. They mostly contain Associate-level positions which favor more experienced students. (As a Young MBA, we all have the education of an Associate, but the experience of an Analyst). That being said, it all depends on you. I can give a recent example from my own internship search. After a long and rough interview process, I was fortunate enough to land multiple offers from bulge-bracket banks as a Summer Associate (my good friend Colleen was able to do the same). These positions were posted with Vanderbilt’s MBA Career Management Services. However, I can say that I was not interviewed for many other positions purely because my resume did not have enough work experience on it. Please read my post about the MBA internship search for more information.