What they don’t teach you in Business School
Aug 18th, 2004From Fast Company, a good piece about what you may find in business school, straight from the mouths of students who've gone through various programs.
Here's one …
Name: Michelle LeBlanc, 27, one of three executive officers in the student senate; MIT Sloan School of Management.
Job before B-school: International-business analyst at Textron Inc.
Summer internship: Marketing analyst at 3M Corp.
What I've learned
Keep your eye on the ball — or it will blow right past you. Many people go into business school not knowing exactly what they'll do when they finish. Nothing wrong with that: There's no better place to investigate various career possibilities. But you need to have a clear idea of what's important to you, or you'll end up following every other MBA into consulting or investment banking.
It can be difficult to stake out an independent career path in B-school — in part because the pressure from recruiters never lets up. Then, in November of your second year, consulting and investment-banking firms start waving fat salaries and signing bonuses at you. When 60% or more of your classmates are accepting offers from those firms, you'll be tempted to go that route too.
I seriously considered going into consulting, but I decided against it once I remembered what I care most about: I want to have some control over my work life. I want to work from a home base instead of constantly living out of a suitcase. And I want to be able to take charge of the projects that I work on.
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