MBA2 already?

And so my first year of business school is over. I can’t believe how fast it has gone by. Overall, this was a tremendous experience, filled with ups and downs. In the end, I concluded what I knew all along: I (along with my friends) made the right decision to attend b-school right after undergrad. I felt like a sponge during the entire school year, just soaking up as much information as possible. Eventually I was able to secure my “dream” summer internship in a bulge-bracket bank, within its investment management division.

Keeping Up

One aspect of business school that I really think is crucial to success is being literate on current events in the business world. As a Young MBA candidate or applicant, it is never too soon to start this. Let me share with you a few anecdotes and tips.

Owen always sends us updates on the faculty’s research, and a ticker at the bottom of our web page features a particular professor. A quick polling of my friends tells me that not many people read this, but they’re actually really helpful in giving you conversation topics when meeting new people. On a recent flight to Dallas, I was seated next to the manager of a hedge fund.

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:

Considering Sport Management?

I am too. I have done some research on career prospects for MBA’s in the sport field. Let me start this by saying, the rest of this isn’t pretty. Careers in sports are hard to come by without experience. I’ll start this off with a quote that an MBA professor told me: “Some people know they want to work in sports get here. A lot of those same people realize they would rather have a high paying job and good seats.”

Building a Network: Baby Steps

When everyone’s talking about “building a network,” it can be very intimidating to think that you are starting from the ground up. Since most of our friends are in entry-level positions and we have never held jobs, we are relying mainly on our parents and their friends to comprise our beginning network. This can be a valuable starting point for some, but expanding from this point is challenging, regardless.

I want to walk you through some pointers that have helped me reach out to extremely helpful professionals (Owen alumni and not)! The more prepared you

MBA Internship Search

It is arguably the single most important element of one’s MBA education…that highly coveted summer internship. It is now mid-January, and the MBA internship hunt is in full force. It is indeed true: a hunt. Thousands of intelligent, determined, and highly-ambitious MBAs all over the world are hunting down for the “perfect” summer internship. The stakes are very high, since landing the right summer internship is crucial in terms of future employment for an MBA student. Why? It is simply a matter of economics: supply and demand.