spiridon wrote:
Why is everbody so concern about career services in PT?
After u get ur part time MBA u can apply or register with employment agencies and I am sure that u will be overwhelmed with good job offers.
I think thats actually better because u can solicit a better deal if u r already employed and wanna transfer to another company.
Well, i think it depends on what you want to do... if its non-transitional, then yes, your prior existing job creates leverage. If on the other hand you are switching job function / industry completely (java programmer -> banker for instance) your existing compensation package would be viewed as largely irrelevant.
The reason people harp on the career svcs issue is because, frankly, a lot of firms aren't going to give you the time of day if you just submit your resume from monster.com or some other "anonymous" method such as their website. It'll go into a pile with a few hundred (or thousand) other resumes. Career Services gives you intimate one-on-one access to a lot of these top firms in the forms of coffee chats, networking events, etc - and (most importantly) gets your resume directly in front of someone who you KNOW is going to be on campus in a few weeks as opposed to just going to some recruiting@ email address along with the 3,800 other people who sent something in. Also, you'll note that often what you find online are jobs not intended for immediate post-mba grads -- those jobs are being filled through career services events -- so it becomes increasingly difficult to find jobs that are right for your skill level outside of the career svcs office. Of course this only matters if you are changing careers in some way, but most everyone is...
That said, I've been impressed with what some of the PT have been able to do at Chicago. I know one that spent the summer at Lehman and now moved to McKinsey full time (although he took a job in some weird city). He was in the army before I believe. So the OPs original question - it can be done and obviously, he's pretty happy. On the other hand, I know a girl who works for IBM at the moment and hasn't been able to land a single FT offer - and she's trying to stay in the same industry and just switch from technology to strategy. Not Booz, not bain, not mcksiney, not deloitte, not at kearney, not a single one of them wanted her. It seems like there are some PT who network well, connect well, and move forward - there are others that don't.
Simply having the MBA isn't going to get Bain or McKinsey or GS or DOW or whomever to start knocking on your door. Employment agencies can open some doors, sure, but if your goal is to change job function, they aren't going to be much help. You can't convince an employment agency to take your 5 years engineering experience and submit you as their top candidate for a Senior Financial Analyst role at PIMCO. It's not going to happen. First many of them wouldnt understand why you are now qualified anyway, and second, they aren't going to risk an employment relationship with a firm so you can get "a chance". They will send the best candidate over, and odds are, thats not you. What I'm trying to get at is that the opportunity to change jobs -- to truly change industry and function -- comes rather uniquely through the internship and full time recruiting cycle at MBA programs. It doesn't follow you forever thereafter - whether or not you were PT or FT.
Also, for what its worth, and this may vary by school, but ..... FT folks will hate you with a vengeance if you are in the PT program. The way the FT see it - the PT folks got in through a back door and now want to compete for the same jobs with people who don't even have a job. The reasons are sometimes far, sometimes not. In general, the PT students seem far less polished and really play the "elbow" game in recruiting circles. I could tell you some stories.
Along those lines, there's something to be said about the network opportunity differences. I'll see if I cant dig it up, but somewhere I have a network diagram of PT students in a class and FT students in a class. What the network diagram shows is that, on average, PT students knew something like 1.8 other people in the class (I'm making this number up at the moment since I cant recall the details, but the gist is there) and the FT folks knew something like 12 people. In fact, I've met a few FT who switched from the PT program because they felt that, despite what the PT program likes to tell people, they didn't feel it was on par. To be fair, I can see why - many of the clubs here are closed to PT students, and although they often start their own, the career svcs office supports the FT clubs with networking events, not the PT clubs. The number of career svcs events and support provided to FT students is astronomically different than that of PT students (at least at Booth, which applies to everything I've said so far actually). In short, there is a pretty big difference, at least here at Booth.
On balance, I don't think the two programs are equal - thats not to say however that the PT program isn't without merit, but it doesn't provide the same experience. I've admittedly wondered a few times if PT would have made more sense for me, considering my already high salary (pre mba) and the relative ease with which I've managed to move industries and function.... but when I remind myself that a lot of that success was because I had the support of the school, and the amazing career svcs office, as well as access to a ridiculous number of FT-only networking events, coffee chats, L&Ls, etc, I realize that it probably wouldn't have worked out. I think back to the girl I know at IBM Global Svcs -- if she can't break out of that firm into another consulting firm (thats not that big of a leap) could I have broken out of my job into General Mgmt ? Probably not.
In short, I'd caution that your hope that you will be "overwhelmed" with good offers through employment agencies is probably a bit overly optimistic.
Now on to the OPs original question:
Can you get copies of employment reports for the PT program? That might be able to answer many of your questions.... Another option is to raise these concerns with the school and ask them if they can put you in touch with some students who have sucessfully made changes to their careers. Thats another option. Also consider finding out who runs the PT clubs, or if the FT clubs are open to you at Stern. Reach out to the FT co-chairs and ask if you can join as a PT student. Reach out to the PT co-chairs (if they exist) and ask them what events they held last year. Take a look and see. It may be that my experiences are colored and Stern may provide a different set of opportunities. If I were you, I'd basically go network with everyone I could at teh school and try to learn as much about what opportunities really exist.