WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS FOR ZERO WORK-EX FRESH GRADS, TO GET AN MBA EDUCATION?

HOW MUCH WORK-EX IS DESIRABLE TO HAVE BEFORE PROCEEDING TO AN MBA EDUCATION?

HOW MUCH WORK-EX DO VARIOUS BUSINESS SCHOOLS REQUIRE ME TO HAVE BEFORE APPLYING?

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS FOR ZERO WORK-EX FRESH GRADS, TO GET AN MBA EDUCATION?

As far as the first question above is concerned, the Jury, as they say is still out on this one, basically because there is no single ‘one size fits all’ answer to it. Perhaps the only one answer that can correctly address this question is “Apply when you feel you are ready for it”. But does that help? Or does it only lead to another, equally puzzling question “How will I know when I am ready?” The only one thing that seems to be clear is that the correct time to apply is different for different people. Some might be ready early in their careers whereas others might be better off waiting a few years more. But what exactly is the way to determine the correct time for any one individual? Well, as I said, the jury is still out on that one.

So, let us get another opinion on it. Business Schools, who actually teach the MBA curriculum are surely the best ones to advise on this. So what do they say? Unfortunately, here again we do not find the consensus which might lead us to the right answer.

Take for example the IIMs in India. They have from the beginning been open to taking early career students for their flagship PGDM programs. The majority of students at the IIMs continue to be fresh Graduates and most others are in the 1 to 3 years category. And the 5+ yrs workex students at the IIMs are still only a small minority. And are the IIM graduates as good at managing businesses as their counterparts from US Business Schools where the avg workex tends to be 4+ yrs and where it is the fresh grads who are the small minority? Well, looking at the track record of IIM grads over the decades, it would certainly seem so. Graduates of these institutions have done as well as those from any other institution, whether they pursued their careers in India or abroad.

On the other hand, most Business Schools in the US for example, do seem to prefer students with more workex. Even though many of them state as a policy that workex is only desirable not necessary, the class composition at most schools tells the real story because very few students at these schools are fresh from college and the average workex is 4+ years.

Coming to the last two questions of the topic for this post – How much workex do Business Schools require me to have before applying, and what are the options if any for fresh grads – you know already that IIM’s in India have no requirement for workex, though they too do give some weight to workex in their selection process, ISB in India asks for 2+ years and most business schools in the US also prefer at least 2 years, even if they do not always say so.

So what are the options for fresh grads? I wrote already in an earlier post on this blog, about MIM programs offered by an increasing number of Business Schools in the US. But what if one wants to join a regular MBA program? Well there is now an increasingly visible trend even among US business schools that some of them, including some top schools, are encouraging fresh grads to seek admission directly out of college. Notable examples are:

·         Harvard: The HBS 2+2 program – you apply while still in the final year of your UG program, get admission and defer enrolment for 2 years, acquire workex during these two years with an assured seat at their regular MBA program after two years.

·         Stanford: Deferred admission program - Here again you get admission while still in college, defer enrolment by 2-3 years and use this period to gain workex, with a reserved seat at the regular Stanford MBA program.

·         Yale School of Management: Silver Scholar Program – This is a total 3 year MBA program where you join the regular Yale MBA class directly after college, complete the first year of the MBA curriculum and then take a one year break from studies to take up a full one year internship before heading back to Yale to complete the remaining one year of their regular 2 year MBA program.

·         MIT Sloan: Sloan simply encourages college seniors to apply directly to their regular MBA program itself, without any workex. As an incentive, they even waive the application fees for these applicants. About 20% of the Sloan MBA class is composed of students without workex so that tells you they are serious about it.

·         ISB: YLP and Early Entry options – Our indigenous ISB has not one but two options for students with less than 2 years workex. The Young Leaders Program (YLP) requires you to apply while still in the pre-final year at college whereas the Early Entry Option is for graduates with less than two years workex. And both options allow for deferred enrolment.

Likewise there are many other business schools in US that offer either deferred enrolment option or accept significant accept significant proportion of the MBA class without workex. While it may not be clear yet, whether these Business Schools are in fact veering towards younger students, maybe they are only experimenting with the idea for some time to determine what works well, the point is that options are available at US Business Schools even for fresh graduates.

A Master's degree in Management from a US Business School - without work-ex?

I am often asked what is the right amount of work-ex one must put in before taking up the MBA. Many, still in undergrad college, feel it is unfair for Busines Schools to give so much weightage to work-ex that they almost deny students who want to get in straight after their Bachelors degree.

Well, it is true that most Business Schools attach serious weightage to work-ex when evaluating candidates. And so, even though the stated position is that work-ex is only desirable, not compulsary, and even though a few candidates do make it to these schools without work-ex, the truth is that those who do are really a very small minority and most schools prefer candidates with varying lengths of work-ex.

But there is another interesting development lately. An increasing number of Business Schools are offering a Masters degree of Management , admission to which is open to candidates without work-ex. And I'm not talking about the "Deferred Admission" options like the 2+2 program at HBS, or the YLP or Early Entry options at ISB. Those are only different routes to their regular MBA program, wherein these schools pick out exceptional candidates while still at undergrad college and promise them deferred admission after they complete a prescribed duration of work-ex.

Rather I'm talking about the MIM (Masters in Management) program being offered by many universities in the US and which is available with little or no work-ex.

So does this represent a change in thinking on part of the B-schools? Are they now accepting that work-ex is not really important for graduate education in Management?

Actually, NO. These schools differentiate clearly between the MIM and MBA program. You can get a clue from the name of the program itself. While the MIM is a Masters in Management, the MBA is a Masters in Business Administration.

Very simply put, the MBA equips students to manage and run Business enterprises. The curriculum is much more practical. The cases discussed in the classrooms are all real life problems. The data students analyze while learning various techniques of analysis is real life data and so on. And admissions to these programs are still weighted heavily towards candidates with work-ex.

By contrast, the MIM student studies the science of Management. These programs may also use some real life data but the focus here is much more theoretical. Graduates from these programs often pursue further study of Management to a PhD level or go into academia. Those that do join the industry after the MIM program, do so at a level junior to their counterparts from MBA programs, who might join the same businesses.

So those of you wanting to pursue Management education but not keen to work before heading to a university in the US, have the option of the MIM program. But unless you are keen on studying Management as a science and continuing in research and academia, my personal advice would be to choose the regular MBA programs, though it means you will have to wait a few years while getting some good work-ex under your belt.

So let us examine why B-schools give importance to work-ex while admitting students to the MBA program. The obvious answer of course is that the various theories, analytical and decision making techniques that are learnt at a business school are more easily learned and absorbed by candidates who have faced typical work environments and who have had exposure to the workings of a Business Enterprise before coming to schools.

But there is another, and a more important reason. Students in a typical B-school classroom learn as much from their fellow students as they do from the teachers. Each class has students from different industries, geographical regions of the world, different cultures where business practices differ from eachother as does their language. And when the diverse group of students get together to discuss a Business case or a theoretical management idea, the wealth of real life experience that they bring to bear on the subject adds immensely to the quality of the discourse. Every student thus gets the benefit of the experience of every other student in the class.

So be clear what your objectives are from your Management education and choose the program that works best for you. The important thing is to know that both options are available.

Components of your application - III - Essays

Many applicants have complained over the years that they find writing the essays among the most cumbersome part of the MBA app - something they approach with trepidation as an unavoidableburden. But my clear view is that essays should rather be seen as an opportunity to be utilized to its maximum. Let me illustrate with a story.

Early in my career, I worked at a large multi-division, multi-location company. I was in-charge of one of its profit centers. There was a strong internal audit setup wherein auditors periodically reviewed the operations of each profit center, and raised queries about its deficiencies, mistakes and wrong-doings. These had to be replied to by the profit center head. In the end, the auditor's notes, his queries and the division head's responses, altogether made up the audit report.

All of us operations managers abhorred this exercise because it could potentially highlight our mistakes, that too in front of the most senior Directors in the company. The audit report was the one and only report about individual profit centers that it made its way all the way up through the company hierarchy - such was its importance.

But this attitude changed one day, when a senior gave a bunch of us youngsters a completely new perspective. He pointed out that since the audit report was read by all the senior people, who could ultimately make a difference to our careers, we should see them as our direct line of communication to them. He pointed out that no other report we made, including our monthly or annual profit reports, reached them intact. Rather they got aggregated at the location level, or the product division level, and in those aggregate reports, a single individual's performance never stood out. Even our performance appraisals were not always read individually by people at this rarefied level of the company to which the audit reports reached intact.

From then on, we looked forward to the audits and while replying to the audit queries, ensured that all our important achievements, intitiatives and contributions made it into those reports. And as you might rightly anticipate, a few months later a senior director, when he visited our branch, called me separately and I found he actually remembered my key achievements from the last audit report, and in fact appreciated them in front of my local seniors.

The lesson with the MBA application essays is exactly the same.

The application form, resume, etc. force you into a certain format which firstly limits what you can write in them and is also quite similar across candidates. On the other hand are your essays which form the only part of your application which you get to write fully on your own. This is where you can tell your story in your own words, in your own style, and in such a way that you can paint your own picture of yourself for the AdComm. This is where you can truly make a case for why you deserve to be admitted. Your resume gets them interested. Your essays have them convinced.

So go ahead and appraoch your essay writing with the a sense of anticipation, like when creating a work of Art :) Grab the opportunity to speak directly to the AdComm through the essays. A good way to start I found, is to imagine yourself sitting across the table from the AdComm members and get your story down on paper in the same way that you would tell it to them orally. Then of course you condense it because understand that when the AdComm members are taking the trouble to hear you out individually, you too must show respect for their time.

Which is why when writing your essays, always remember - Clear, Concise, Compelling and Authentic.
 

Components of your application - II

Continuing from my post on July 16th, 2013 on Components of your application - Extra Curriculars section.

So what can you do to bring out your positive qualities via the extra-curricular activities section of your resume? Well consider this. Many ECAs are practised as team activities, like games and sports, organization of events, and so on. So did you do something to show leadership qualities during some of these activities? Were you a team player? Did you motivate a team member or a group of them in a difficult situation? Did you achieve something simply by persevering when others had given up hope? All these, and many other experiences you might have had during your ECAs bring out important positive qualities. But is any of them conveyed by a bland "Member - College Music Club"? If you can write some actual achievement , or if the achivement was recognized by any authority or external evaluator, it suddenly begins to look more positive and authentic.

Moreover, we know that some people claim things in the ECA section which might be half truths or even outright fictitious. Which is another reason to write "Won third position in annual Inter-college open debate at St. Stephens college, New Delhi in 2008", rather than just "Member college debating team - won several prizes." And finally, keep it short. Even though you need to bring out your contribution clearly rather than just mentioning the activity you were part of, avoid launching off into lengthy stories. Remember - clear, concise, compelling AND authentic.

Your GMAT score is not important!

Well, I should amend that I guess because your GMAT score is definitely important, very important. But it is certainly not the be all and end all of a business school application. I am sometimes asked by applicants "I scored XYZ in GMAT. What schools can I apply to?"

It is this applicant with such a mindset that I want to address this post, to say that while your score is important, you must not let it weigh you down if you scored a tad less than you expected. Understand that it is just one of the several factors that the AdComm will evaluate and if you take good care with the other elements of the app like your essays, the application form, your resume and the recos, you can offset a below par GMAT score.

Also, while most aspirants look at the mean or median GMAT scores published by a school, one should also look at the range. So while the median GMAT score in Stanford class of 2014 is around 730, the lower end of the range is around 550. And since most schools display the GMAT score range of the middle 80% of the class only, the actual lowest score to make it to Stanford might be even lower than 550.

But this does not mean that one need not put in the hard work to maximize his or her GMAT score. Remember that each and every element of the full application package must be as strong as we can make it, while retaining full authenticity, because the competition is fierce. The things to remember are:

• One below par element of your application package (like the GMAT score) is not enough reason to give up hope.
• The more profitable view is to evaluate the overall strength of your own application and take that as one of the inputs, along with other inputs like your career goals etc., to choose the correct schools to apply to.

Components of your application - I

 

We would like to take up different parts of your MBA application, in a series of posts on this page, with some suggestions on how one can handle them to their advantage.

 

Let's start today with the Extra Curriculars Activities section.

 

This is one of the most neglected sections of many a resume and MBA applications, whereas it has the potential to become amongst the most important ones. Typically students populate this section with one liners like "Member - school football team", or "Helped organize the college tech fest XYZ", or "Interested in reading Science Fiction" or "Learning to play the violin for the last 4 years", etc. None of these is a bad entry in the sense that it adds some diversity to your profile, something most AdComms would like. And if you have multiple such entries in the extra-curriculars activities section of your resume, it might even be considered good as it gives you a multi-faceted, well rounded personality.

 

But what about "Is it good enough?" Or even, "Could it be better?" Or "Could it actually be good enough to make up for a weakness in some other part of my resume?" The answer to the latter 2 questions - a resounding "YES, it can".

 

To be continued...

Harvard Business School lobs a googly this year

Harvard Business School has lobbed a solid googly this year by asking for just one essay in the MBA App and that too an open ended one - without a specified word length. So how many stories should one write here? What should be the length of the essay? The essay topic is "You are applying to HBS, we can see your resume,school transcripts, extra curricular activities, awards, post MBA career goals, test scores and what your recommenders have to say about you. What else would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy?"

Well, according to us, from the wording of the essay topic it is clear that the AdComm wants to see something other than all the hard facts already presented in the application form, your resume and recos. A good strategy could be to bring out some of your soft skills which otherwise don't come out in your GPA or GMAT score. Use some events from your past - from your work-ex or your college days, even your family life or a vacation you took - which bring out such skills. Take care however that what you write must be clear, concise, compelling and authentic. And while it may be compelling to go into lengthy storytelling, remember that Quality always scores over Quantity in such cases. Try to keep it to within 600-750 words, though this would be very case dependant and could vary significantly. This could be one long story or several short ones but the story style must be brief. Also do not reach or claim more than what you actually did or you will lose authenticity. And finally, howsoever great it reads to you, be sure to get it reviewed by some outsider, someone who can give you an unbiased critique, and ask them if your essay conveys to them, what you started out to convey.