Top 5 MBA, Can't Get A Job

Job market is better than 08-09, but the glut of jobs on the market are either min. wage or just-barely making it jobs (28-40k), or call center/service jobs.

The really good jobs are internal and network-y, even morseo than other jobs.

A lot of companies will post jobs already knowing who they want but have to post due to EEOC requirements.

My g/f is trying to get a teaching job and she is working toward her MA in reading and still can't get into the big districts in Cbus, but she doesn't want to work in City League schools (aka Cbus public schools).

The key is to either know someone or be related to someone powerful.

Even if you don't get a job, they don't even send you a rejection letter anymore! They just ghost people.

I went back to school at 40 to get an MBA from a top 25 school. I did it because I was in the corporate world that valued the degree, and partially to stay competitive with younger people who could be hired for less money. I did this after working in public accounting and the corporate world for years, also am a CPA. The problem I saw was, many of the younger students thought they could hop into the program with a history, English, film studies, etc. degree and get an MBA and go take the business world by storm. Keep in mind, few of them had any actual business experience other than their entry level job, yet expected to graduate with a highly visible job in marketing or finance. you have to keep the dream alive I guess, in order to justify spending a fortune for the program and to justify the effort......Anyway, I think most people don't understand that most jobs in business aren't so much about what you know as they are about how much you can do. That can best be developed in staff roles in companies, working your way up. Your MBA will provide you an edge to get ahead, but you can't start at a high level unless you have it ALL going on. Those things may include being a great athlete, being a great looking, great talking candidate, being a minority or female candidate, etc. I think you have to be willing to take whatever you can get and then from the inside, work yourself into a good career track where you can get good relevant experience. you have to work in the trenches first. There is also the possibility that the company was turned off by the candidate as possibly having too high of expectations or assuming even if hired, the candidate would not stick around for long.

My advice would be to get some lower level experience, use your MBA learning to get you ahead, and HUSTLE all you can. Use a combination of outworking and outsmarting your counterparts. Be the first one to work and the last to leave. Hope it works out for everyone.

Here we go again. Another interview this week with the hiring manager. Let's see how it goes this week.

Focussing on:

1) Fit and passion

2) Connect with Interviewer

3) Product review of their product

Anything else?

Ok, just created a deck, unprompted with some product ideas. Will try and show connection to the company.

Wish me luck guys. Any last minute advice?

Thanks

Don’t get a degree in English, Psychology, Anthropology or Archaeology.

Some of it though, is luck and timing, even if you bust ass and FILO and network.

Don't do journalism. I wish I had someone in 2002 or 2003 steer me away from that major in college. That really is my only regret in life.

You guys are getting me confused with MBA fail. He was the one with the English major.

My undergrad was in Electrical Engineering.

Wendy's and Chik-Fil-A start out at $15.00 an hour where I live. They even have a signing bonus and some educational programs. Perhaps you could get on with them until something better comes along. And no, I don't work in that industry, just saw the signs posted outside their establishments!

Don't bring an unsolicited deck of slides to an interview. I've interviewed dozens of freshly minted MBAs at top programs, and every year 1 or 2 try something similar. It never goes well. It's like showing up at the house of a girl you've barely even spoken to and doing a John Cusack in Say Anything.

If your asked to prepare a presentation as part of the interview process, then obviously do so to the best of you ability. Otherwise bring a few copies of your resume, something to take notes on, and nothing else to your interview.

Received call today just as I was heading over that the position's been filled and as a result my interview was cancelled.

"Will keep your record on file... blah blah blah... What do I do now?"

How do I leverage this situation to get into the company next time a role opens up...

Thanks guys.

If you can't get a job or don't like the job prospects you see, then think about starting your own business. I started a financial consulting business that did business valuations, investment research and advice after getting my MBA and, after a slow start, it has worked out well for me.

I am working on starting my own company. Hopefully it takes off or gives me somethings to talk about.

Thanks for your sincere advice.

Work for free/intern. Do it at the best place possible too

This thread was from 2017. I just put it up on the homepage, hoping the original poster will post and tell us what happened. Did they get a job? Where are they now? What's their salary?

I have never really understood what skills an MBA provides someone that translate to a specific job? Can someone please clarify this. I have an Economics undergrad and I feel like nothing in the business school other than accounting or maybe marketing directly translate to real world experience for a job.

wondering9 wrote:

I have never really understood what skills an MBA provides someone that translate to a specific job? Can someone please clarify this. I have an Economics undergrad and I feel like nothing in the business school other than accounting or maybe marketing directly translate to real world experience for a job.

Leadership skills and tools, socialization. Wasted on those not in managerial jobs or not consulting for managers. It's like officer leadership courses in the military. The higher up in an organization the less relevant functional skills are.

Economics isn't a real world practical degree anyway. English for greedy kids.

The degree of luck involved in finding the right job cannot be overstated. I did relatively well (top third of my class while working 30 hours a week) at a well regarded (top 25) law school back in the late '90s when the market was booming. But I had a working class background and definitely still needed some polish. I got one meaningful job offer, and that one was only because other more highly preferred candidates took offers from other firms, leaving a spot for me. I celebrate my 20th anniversary with my firm at the end of August and, professionally, I have achieved about as much as I could have reasonably hoped for. It just really turned out to be the right place for me.

And it all came about because the economy was booming so there was a desperate need for new attorneys, because one of the two people who interviewed me saw something that the other guy didn't and decided to keep me in the mix and eventually call me back for an interview, and because others who received offers before me decided to take other gigs.

OP probably landed a 6 figure salary a week later and is laid up with a '10' somewhere on beach, fresh off a 1:10 half marathon.

The OP (MBA Fail) gave an update back a couple pages ago. See quoted passage above.