Top 5 MBA, Can't Get A Job

No sane person graduating from HBS, SGSB, Kellogg, Wharton, or Booth would be posting on Letsrun asking for serious career advice.

Either way, if you're already graduated you might be in some trouble.

Some time ago as an undergrad at one of those institutions, my microeconomics professor (who also taught courses in the BSchool) point blank told the class that none of us would gain any hard skills from an MBA program.

He said that if we ever pursued MBAs, it would either be because our companies were paying for us to do so and would increase our salaries after completion, or because we had been hit hard by a major crash and needed to network our way back into the financial industry.

If you didn't build the necessary connections and meet the right people through the course of the program, having the credential won't be as much help as you'd think, especially without much (any?) quantitative coursework behind you.

That being said, 7/10 on the troll job. You got 5 pages worth of bites which is always impressive.

Sheesh, THANK YOU. Two things:

1) Very very few companies (maybe 3?) have asked me about whether or not I got a return offer. I've tried to deflect the question when I walk people through my resume by simply stating that I learned a lot from my internship, realized CPG wasn't for me, blah blah, and I'm interviewing here because I see it as a good opportunity to better use skills x, y, z. Like you said, companies are probably assuming that I didn't get an offer. If they're not directly asking this or voicing concern, any advice on how I can communicate to them that I'm not a risky hire?

2) You guessed correctly that I struck out on consulting. I would attribute the failure to not casting a wide enough net, not networking enough, and not getting to enough final rounds during my first year. There were a lot of OCR tech companies that I never bothered with because I was so focused on consulting recruiting at the time. At this point, how can I make it clear that I'm not reaching out to them at this point because they're my Plan F? I also wanted to wait things out for just-in-time-hiring so that I could target some mid-sized companies

MBA Fail wrote:

I just graduated from a top 5 MBA program and I can't get a job! I've been job hunting for the entire year, been getting first and second round interviews, and nothing has worked out. I've done mock interviews with career services, and they've told me my interview skills are fine and my resume is fine.

What are some MBA jobs that are easy to get but have a decent career path?

My background: English major from a top 5 school, Teach for America, a couple years consulting for a no-name company, then business school. I interned at a CPG company over the summer and hated it (no return offer).

Zero people who finished a top MBA would have any of these questions.

Glad to help. Had lots of classmates put in tight spots by the financial crisis back in 2007/2008, who had to scramble in the same way you are after offers were rescinded or otherwise disappeared. To answer your questions:

1) Unfortunately signalling plays a large role in MBA recruiting. Can't tell you the number of times I sat on the hiring committee for my school at my consulting firm where someone asked some variation of, "If he interned at McKinsey, why isn't he going back? He must have been no offered." You need to be proactive to make sure that question is asked and answered with you in the room. In your interviews, when your answering the "walk me through your resume" question, be sure to tell them how your internship made you realize CPG wasn't for you. Then immediately follow that up with why whatever you are interview for is for you. You need to convince them that you are in the room with them intentionally, not because you have no other options.

2) The best way to show an employer that they are not Plan F is to show them you know a ton about them and their industry. This isn't consulting or banking where they are just hiring an IQ and are willing to train you. You need to demonstrate a real desire to work in their industry and for their company. Before any interview be prepared with several concrete examples of actions you have taken / will take to get your foot in the door in that industry. Tell them about alumni at similar companies you've spoken with, other interviews in the industry you're taking, relevant classes and projects & case competitions, etc. These things will indicate you are serious. The more niche the industry, the better this will work.

2b) The closer the role your interviewing is to your pre-MBA background the easier the case will be to make. Look hard for any connections to your past career you can find. If you got into a top MBA, your previous job had to have been at least somewhat interesting and/or selective. You mentioned TFA, so maybe approach some of the smaller, for-profit educational consulting companies?

Getting Old wrote:

1) Unfortunately signalling plays a large role in MBA recruiting. Can't tell you the number of times I sat on the hiring committee for my school at my consulting firm where someone asked some variation of, "If he interned at McKinsey, why isn't he going back? He must have been no offered." You need to be proactive to make sure that question is asked and answered with you in the room. In your interviews, when your answering the "walk me through your resume" question, be sure to tell them how your internship made you realize CPG wasn't for you. Then immediately follow that up with why whatever you are interview for is for you. You need to convince them that you are in the room with them intentionally, not because you have no other options.

This is sage advice. You need to find a way to wash the stink of failure off of yourself.

Again, thanks for the advice. I have a feeling that the fact that nothing about my MBA recruiting has gone according to plan is somehow showing when I interview. Since I've been out of consulting recruiting, a lot of the interviews have been very non-technical with mostly straightforward softball questions. I'm guessing that what's going wrong has to do with concerns that aren't being addressed, which isn't giving me the chance to proactively address them.

Most companies are looking for MBAs with hard core verifiable work experience relevant to the position...people who went back to school after a couple years of working. Even the prestigious F50 employers will hire MBAs for entry level positions, were you will be working along side people with less impressive academic backgrounds. What they will do is fast track you after year. This is kind of like a tryout and with in 2-3 years, you will be in the position you want directly out of school. A lot of companies in the NE were there are lot of MBAs have been burnt by 24 year old MBA who just aren't ready for the stress, responsibility and soft skills required to 80K+ type job.

I should know because I have hired a ton of young MBAs.

Gramps wrote:

What's a CpG company?

Maybe you need a badge like CFP or CFA and yeah, start on the bottom.

Please do not include CFA and CFP in the same sentence or thought.

Galloud wrote:

Gramps wrote:

What's a CpG company?

Maybe you need a badge like CFP or CFA and yeah, start on the bottom.

Please do not include CFA and CFP in the same sentence or thought.

Oh, please tell us how someone out of school knows which path to chose? In your world are CFAs and CFPs born that way?

TrackCoach wrote:

I should know because I have hired a ton of young MBAs.

Sure, track coaches hire "a ton of young MBAs".

My random thoughts;

1) You are unwilling to accept a job that you will feel is beneath you. Take a chance on an opportunity.

2) You come across as someone who comes across as pompous - not confident.

3) How many days off did you ask for in the interview. A planned destination wedding, the previously booked cruise, and the golf outing to CA in the fall with you dad and grandfather. If you did - you have no shot.

4) Stop telling everyone how smart you are and what you deserve. Yes you did, you just did not know it.

Good luck - Success is not defined by what you are willing to do, but what you are willing to give up.

Me Know wrote:

My random thoughts;

1) You are unwilling to accept a job that you will feel is beneath you. Take a chance on an opportunity.

2) You come across as someone who comes across as pompous - not confident.

3) How many days off did you ask for in the interview. A planned destination wedding, the previously booked cruise, and the golf outing to CA in the fall with you dad and grandfather. If you did - you have no shot.

4) Stop telling everyone how smart you are and what you deserve. Yes you did, you just did not know it.

Good luck - Success is not defined by what you are willing to do, but what you are willing to give up.

What job was I unwilling to accept that was beneath me?

I doubt that but its possible. If you are getting 1st and 2nd round interviews, it's like a performance or personality issue. The filtering of "does this person have relevant skills and enough relevant work experience" takes place at the resume screening level. However, if that is the issue or if the interviewing company thinks you are lacking a skillset, typically they will ask targeted questions about that in the interview, with the hopes that you'll quell those concerns. Given your work and educational experience I assume your quant skills are probably garbage and you haven't been able to prove otherwise in interviews.

My advice, If you've only interviewing with consulting firms, is to go outside of consulting. Consulting is incredibly competitive, especially with the top 15-20 firms. op US consulting firms receive 1000s of apps from graduating MBAs from top programs for only handful of positions.

If you're set on consulting try a firm that specializes in some niche type of consulting like healthcare, or maybe something related to CPG if that's you're background. You should also interview in less popular offices so stay away from SF. My year there were only 1-2 positions available at the big 3 firms in the SF office.

I will say its really odd that you've received multiple 2nd round, in office interviews, but no job offers. That's like really bad luck. At that stage you're odds of getting a job are usually 1 in 2 or 1 in 3. Are you really bad at written cases?

This is really great, exhaustive advice. You should send this person a bottle of wine.

/End of thread

No whine. No end of thread.

The consulting ship sailed a long time ago dude! I'm not focusing on consulting anymore.

Re: my quant skills: they were good enough to get me through a consulting job pre-MBA that involved a lot of data analysis. I definitely wasn't where I needed to be compared to my classmates last year for internships, but I got interview invitations from all of the top firms. Full time was a different game because I didn't do an internship that could provide evidence that my quant skills would be better this time around. After my internship, I prepped my ass off but got very few consulting interview invitations. I blew it when I interviewed for internships.

Cares aren't stopping me from getting offers at this point because none of the jobs I'm interviewing have cases. Any other ideas what the problem could be?

Also, any thoughts on how/if it's worth trying to go into sales post-MBA?

Right answer. An MBA is worthless without plain old nepotism.

Another millennial sadsack. Unemployment rate is the lowest in over a decade, take what you can get and forget about making over $100k with no real experience.

Gramps wrote:

Another millennial sadsack. Unemployment rate is the lowest in over a decade, take what you can get and forget about making over $100k with no real experience.

Agreed. English majors DO NOT make $100k out of college.