5 Arguments for Focusing Your Attention in Business School

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The following is an excerpt from After School answering the question, “What advice would you give yourself looking back at your time in school?”

They knew that I wasn’t really interested in their companies so I was not getting enough offers.

“You need to know what you want to get out of an MBA and what you want to do after it. I didn’t have that picture. I got in and I started interviewing all these different companies…I interviewed for a pharmaceutical company. I interviewed with a credit card company. I interviewed with an oil company. I just interviewed in every different industry because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. They knew that I wasn’t really interested in their companies so I was not getting enough offers. I did some soul searching and thought about what I really wanted to do. I wanted to come back to tech and become product manager again.”

Think about what skills you want to learn while you are in school.

“When you’re there, don’t get distracted by anything. By city, by what the company does…just think about what skills you want to learn while you are in school, your internship, and any other side projects.”

Getting some job where you’ll never see your friends and family, but earn a lot of money that you’ll never have time to spend might not be what’s best for you.

“Not to get caught up in the noise. Everyone is at business school for a different reason. I did a lot of peer coaching; I did a lot of career counseling while I was at school. It was interesting to see people who would come in thinking “Here’s what I want to do”, and then inevitably end up apply for consulting or I-banking because that’s where all the money is.

The one thing I said to people over and over again is, “You need to understand what you’re hoping to get out of this and stick with that. Getting some job where you’ll never see your friends and family, but earn a lot of money that you’ll never have time to spend might not be what’s best for you.” I felt like I did a great job of balancing that out over time, but there were definitely moments in my MBA experience that I lost sight of that a little bit.”

One of the big lessons is learning when to walk away from things.

“I think that one of the big lessons is learning when to walk away from things. When I came into B-school, I felt like I had a lot to prove because I didn’t have a business background. So when I took on a challenge, I felt like I had to hang on to it take it all the way through. There were a couple incidences where things were just not worth the time.”

I think having more of a plan with of what I wanted to do long-term would have helped.

“I guess more planning. A lot of people think of just say, ‘Alright, I’ll get this MBA and then I’ll get this job,’ it just doesn’t work like that. That’s a changing paradigm with us millennials. We thought that you get a college degree, get a good job, and you’re done. I think you have to be more practical and think, ‘Ok, within the first year or so of the MBA, I should have already planned out the kind of the companies that I wanted to work for, or this industry that I wanted to be in.’

I had a soft interest in Health Care, but I didn’t have any tangible leads on how to actually enter that industry. The value of networking helped me out because I was able to talk to people that had their hands in other areas; I could kind of latch on to them and work my way in. But I think having more of a plan with of what I wanted to do long-term would have helped.”

 

If you would like to participate/be interviewed for the blog, contact me at nkem.nwankwo@lifeafterschool.co.