Calling all US Military Fall 2015 Applicants!

Man I don't envy your position, but you HAVE to get into at least one of those. Hold strong!

Wow, today was nuts!
Admitted to Kellogg and Ross and put in limbo by Sloan pending another review (but not wait list).

Rough day. Waitlisted at Kellogg and Sloan. Didn't get the call from Tuck. Damn...

Hey all, just got my call from Tuck (my top choice)!!!! if there are any folks still applying/thinking to apply, I'd love to help in any way I can (share experiences, resources, drafts etc...) - I know I enlisted all the help I could. Feel free to shoot me a message. Good luck to all still waiting or working on applications. It was totally worth all the hard work.

FROM MilitaryToBusiness.com:

First semester of HBS just ended, but it does not feel like 25% of my MBA experience is already over! Often times I get the feeling of “where did all the time go?” But with some deeper introspection, I’ve realized that a lot has happened, and I’ve learned so much from it. Through all this, there are a few things that I wish someone have told me, and there are quite a few pieces of advice that really helped along the way. I will provide an after action review here so anyone starting school this fall can get a sense of what to expect and to better prepare for their first MBA semester. List your Goals/Priorities Before B-School Before business school got started, many people told me to list out my priorities so I could allocate resources (mostly time) accordingly. This was probably the BEST ADVICE that I’ve received for business school so far: there are so many things going on here that you will NOT be able to do. Some people attempt to do everything, but they quickly burn out and lose their grip. Instead, focus on a few things that matter and skimp out on the rest. The things that people usually try to balance are:       ·          Employment – if you want to get a job in consulting and investment banking, be prepared to spend a good chunk of recruiting season (usually mid-October to early December) going to events, making networking phone calls, doing research of various subjects, and preparing for interviews. All of these things are very important if you want to land that dream job you wanted. General Management roles have a similar time commitment. You will spend less time on interview prep, but can have multiple company presentations and mixers packed into one day. Effort spent networking varies, but for career switchers (i.e. people like us) it is very important and you should expect to see yourself perusing your school’s alumni database regularly. It is also worth noting that every industry is very different in their emphasis, for instance, although consulting and I-banking both require interview preparation, the work that goes into the consulting case-interview prep is MUCH MORE elaborate than that of investment banking, so allocate time accordingly. I personally recommend everyone to pick ONE THING they want to do even before school starts, so you can concentrate your effort on one thing only, making your chances of landing that job much better and time-spent will be much more efficiently allocated. ·         Academics – school work varies at different schools, and the degree to which grades matter is different as well. However, in general, grades for MBA programs do not matter too much, unless you are doing really, really terrible, or if you are trying to go for the top, otherwise you should not worry about it. A former Marine at HBS who is a second year told me that he had never looked at his grades. He could be joking, but it is completely believable. However, for most people, it is really up to you on how much effort you wish to put into academics and get out of the education. ·         Networking – There are many approaches and purpose to this, but if you want to build a wide network of friends/contacts/acquaintances, then be prepared to spend time (and some money) going to social and club events. I’m not going into detail on how this should be done, as I am no expert nor do I think a few sentences can describe this subject, I do want to say that although there are lots of interesting people here, YOU ARE EVEN MORE interesting to people at business school, so leverage that to your greatest advantage. Also, there is this thing called FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), and if you are young and single, you’ll want to go out, trust me, FOMO is real. Therefore, take it into your planning considerations when you are prioritizing; it could put your entire goal list into jeopardy if you don’t control or account for it. ·         Others – Many people will have many different priorities, such as family, hobbies, volunteer work, etc., that only they can balance for themselves. For those that only have the three listed above, just be cognizant and considerate of those with other priorities. Pre-MBA Course Work At HBS, we have something called Analytics, which is a one-week accounting and finance “boot-camp” to bring the students who lack financial/accounting background (military, doctors, engineers, etc.) up to speed before the official academic year starts. I believe almost all business schools have programs of this kind. It costs a little bit of money, a thousand or two, but I find it to be THE MOST useful week in terms of academics that I’ve had at HBS. The program is intense, and goes from 0800 to 2200 at night (night time is a small group study session, but you are required to go, and attendance is taken), but you will learn everything you need to not only survive but also to do well in finance-related classes. Additionally, I believe it actually gave me a leg up on the “traditional” students because I already had a feel for what case preparation and in-class discussions were like. If you do not get an invitation to such a course (a few veterans didn’t at HBS, because they were Economics majors), then you should definitely try to find something that can at least get you some exposure to finance and accounting. This way, you are not trying to learn something completely new and trying to juggle the complexities of B-School at the same time. Cases/Class preparation This is more tailored to HBS and other case-heavy programs, but I think its general principles should apply to all schools, insert [homework assignment/projects] into [case]. At the beginning, I was spending on average 1.5 hours to prepare each case. However, it became very exhausting very quickly with the socializing, recruiting, and other great events that are happening around HBS, so it became impossible to spend that much time on every case. Eventually, I, along with the most of the students, started to find more efficient ways to manage case preparation. Below are some techniques that I’ve used/seen/heard: ·         Read the assignment questions first to get an idea of what the case is about, and then skim the case, focus only on relevant parts that can help you answer the questions. Often times, big chunks of the case material are not covered in class, so preparing for them will not be a great use of your limited time. ·         Leverage your discussion groups. Some teams assign one person to deep dive into each case, so the rest can skim them. This allows each person to spend just a few hours on a few cases each week, skim the rest, and have your fellow discussion group members teach you the details. However, this method does require everyone to be motivated, competent, and being on time, so a pre-requisite to this method is having a good discussion group, which may not be up to you.           If you are a morning person, wake up early in the morning to do them. First, a morning-person like myself is very focused and efficient during morning hours in absorbing and solving problems, unlike night time where I’ll be tired and distracted. Second, if I know that my morning discussion group starts at 8, and it is 630 right now, it will give me a sense of urgency, forcing myself to be more effective. If you are someone who thrive under pressure, then this is a good way to put yourself in there.

FROM MilitaryToBusiness.com: First semester of HBS; a review by a former Army Officer at Harvard Business School

First semester of HBS just ended, but it does not feel like 25% of my MBA experience is already over! Often times I get the feeling of “where did all the time go?” But with some deeper introspection, I’ve realized that a lot has happened, and I’ve learned so much from it. Through all this, there are a few things that I wish someone have told me, and there are quite a few pieces of advice that really helped along the way. I will provide an after action review here so anyone starting school this fall can get a sense of what to expect and to better prepare for their first MBA semester. List your Goals/Priorities Before B-School Before business school got started, many people told me to list out my priorities so I could allocate resources (mostly time) accordingly. This was probably the BEST ADVICE that I’ve received for business school so far: there are so many things going on here that you will NOT be able to do. Some people attempt to do everything, but they quickly burn out and lose their grip. Instead, focus on a few things that matter and skimp out on the rest. The things that people usually try to balance are:       ·          Employment – if you want to get a job in consulting and investment banking, be prepared to spend a good chunk of recruiting season (usually mid-October to early December) going to events, making networking phone calls, doing research of various subjects, and preparing for interviews. All of these things are very important if you want to land that dream job you wanted. General Management roles have a similar time commitment. You will spend less time on interview prep, but can have multiple company presentations and mixers packed into one day. Effort spent networking varies, but for career switchers (i.e. people like us) it is very important and you should expect to see yourself perusing your school’s alumni database regularly. It is also worth noting that every industry is very different in their emphasis, for instance, although consulting and I-banking both require interview preparation, the work that goes into the consulting case-interview prep is MUCH MORE elaborate than that of investment banking, so allocate time accordingly. I personally recommend everyone to pick ONE THING they want to do even before school starts, so you can concentrate your effort on one thing only, making your chances of landing that job much better and time-spent will be much more efficiently allocated. ·         Academics – school work varies at different schools, and the degree to which grades matter is different as well. However, in general, grades for MBA programs do not matter too much, unless you are doing really, really terrible, or if you are trying to go for the top, otherwise you should not worry about it. A former Marine at HBS who is a second year told me that he had never looked at his grades. He could be joking, but it is completely believable. However, for most people, it is really up to you on how much effort you wish to put into academics and get out of the education. ·         Networking – There are many approaches and purpose to this, but if you want to build a wide network of friends/contacts/acquaintances, then be prepared to spend time (and some money) going to social and club events. I’m not going into detail on how this should be done, as I am no expert nor do I think a few sentences can describe this subject, I do want to say that although there are lots of interesting people here, YOU ARE EVEN MORE interesting to people at business school, so leverage that to your greatest advantage. Also, there is this thing called FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), and if you are young and single, you’ll want to go out, trust me, FOMO is real. Therefore, take it into your planning considerations when you are prioritizing; it could put your entire goal list into jeopardy if you don’t control or account for it. ·         Others – Many people will have many different priorities, such as family, hobbies, volunteer work, etc., that only they can balance for themselves. For those that only have the three listed above, just be cognizant and considerate of those with other priorities. Pre-MBA Course Work At HBS, we have something called Analytics, which is a one-week accounting and finance “boot-camp” to bring the students who lack financial/accounting background (military, doctors, engineers, etc.) up to speed before the official academic year starts. I believe almost all business schools have programs of this kind. It costs a little bit of money, a thousand or two, but I find it to be THE MOST useful week in terms of academics that I’ve had at HBS. The program is intense, and goes from 0800 to 2200 at night (night time is a small group study session, but you are required to go, and attendance is taken), but you will learn everything you need to not only survive but also to do well in finance-related classes. Additionally, I believe it actually gave me a leg up on the “traditional” students because I already had a feel for what case preparation and in-class discussions were like. If you do not get an invitation to such a course (a few veterans didn’t at HBS, because they were Economics majors), then you should definitely try to find something that can at least get you some exposure to finance and accounting. This way, you are not trying to learn something completely new and trying to juggle the complexities of B-School at the same time. Cases/Class preparation This is more tailored to HBS and other case-heavy programs, but I think its general principles should apply to all schools, insert [homework assignment/projects] into [case]. At the beginning, I was spending on average 1.5 hours to prepare each case. However, it became very exhausting very quickly with the socializing, recruiting, and other great events that are happening around HBS, so it became impossible to spend that much time on every case. Eventually, I, along with the most of the students, started to find more efficient ways to manage case preparation. Below are some techniques that I’ve used/seen/heard: ·         Read the assignment questions first to get an idea of what the case is about, and then skim the case, focus only on relevant parts that can help you answer the questions. Often times, big chunks of the case material are not covered in class, so preparing for them will not be a great use of your limited time. ·         Leverage your discussion groups. Some teams assign one person to deep dive into each case, so the rest can skim them. This allows each person to spend just a few hours on a few cases each week, skim the rest, and have your fellow discussion group members teach you the details. However, this method does require everyone to be motivated, competent, and being on time, so a pre-requisite to this method is having a good discussion group, which may not be up to you.           If you are a morning person, wake up early in the morning to do them. First, a morning-person like myself is very focused and efficient during morning hours in absorbing and solving problems, unlike night time where I’ll be tired and distracted. Second, if I know that my morning discussion group starts at 8, and it is 630 right now, it will give me a sense of urgency, forcing myself to be more effective. If you are someone who thrive under pressure, then this is a good way to put yourself in there.

FROM MilitaryToBusiness.com: What's My Mission?

Where would you work if you could go anywhere? That’s the dilemma facing MBAs matriculating from top b-school programs.  It’s a current dilemma that I, and several of my veteran classmates, face.  “…if we could go anywhere”, may be a slight overstatement, but not by much.  Our veteran cohort has several job offers in various industries and at a myriad of firms, as well as dozens of interviews lined up.  I anticipate more offers to follow, even if we assume a 50/50 success rate, which would be a conservative estimate. So the question arises again: where would you work, post military, if you could go anywhere??? Do we, as veterans who often times have little to no “business experience”, need to get our feet wet in business before we branch of on our own?  There are a number of great introductory vehicles just waiting for us…namely management consulting and investment banking.  These industries claim* to provide a broad, if not shallow, exposure to many of the functional areas of business: finance, sales, strategy, etc.  Grab a blue chip firm for the ol’ resume and no telling where you can go, right?  But where do vets typically go after consulting or finance? (*Aside: I say claim because I find the term “business experience” to be a loaded one.  Recently a professor, and former CEO of a Fortune 100 company, discussed what he called “The Primary Colors” of business jobs.  He said that you’re an advisor, an investor, or an operator.  He challenged us to discover what role was the best fit for us, and then pursue those roles.  He was’t without an opinion and made a case for veterans pursuing operational roles, at least initially.  The Primary Colors is relevant when considering what “business experience” to pursue. If you ultimately want to be an operator/entrepreneur, experience as an advisor / investor may not be the most relevant experience to chase.) What about “Search Funds”? This relatively new investment vehicle allows aspiring entrepreneurs to search for and purchase small businesses (all over the country) directly out of b-school using investors’ capital and debt.  After running the business for 5-7 years, the entrepreneurs sell the business often realizing a capital gain in the 7-8 figures, and investors often enjoy a 30%+ IRR.  A lot of “start-up risks” are mitigated by purchasing a strong, cash-producing business with steady revenues. Is this well suited for vets? If we consider those two options opposite ends of a spectrum, so much lays in between.  There’s general management in just about every major industry: tech, pharma, med devices, retail, food/bev, etc.  I mean vets are generalists by nature, no? I’m asking these questions because so many of us are currently in the horns of this very dilemma.  How do you build a framework useful in making this decision? For most of us, it’s our first jobs after the military.  We’re beginning to build our next careers, and starting young families.  These are exciting times. I think it’s helpful to remember that first, and foremost, you don’t need to have clear answers to these questions to decide to leave active duty and start another chapter.  Many of us will not get clarity on this matter (in the next few months) and will have to jump headfirst into our next adventure before we truly know if it’s a good fit.  And, we’re uniquely equipped to thrive in such a situation. It’s also helpful that over the past few years, you’ve been wired to be purpose (mission) driven.  But I’d offer that this dilemma can be reduced (or elevated?) to a sobering confrontation with the following question: what’s MY mission? does this job, or opportunity, allow me to accomplish that mission?  This mission will certainly evolve and develop over the next 50 years (*number of years not guaranteed, just a statistical approximation), but I've found that a mission centered lens has helped. At the very least, it has eliminated certain roads.  Will you dodge the mission question? Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE

I got accepted to attend Grad school full time while remaining AD. Anyone else in this position? I'm having a hard time writing to my short term goals when my service has already told me what they will be!

I'm working with two Navy Supply Corps officers (810 Program) who will stay on active duty during school and after. They just wrote about what they hoped to do for internships and what they would get out of it, how they wanted to pursue externships after graduation to get more private sector experience, and what their most likely post-MBA assignment would be and how a top-tier MBA would help them be better SuppO's.

Any (former) enlisted out there? The abundance of pilots, academy grads, SOC types is making me feel a little inadequate. (I was enlisted Army military intelligence).

Quick question...I'm wrapping up my R2 applications, and I'm looking for some tips on how to fill out the employment section for each app. The Navy is the only job I've had since undergrad (or since high school, for that matter). Should I list each different duty station as different "employers" when filling out the employment history pages? Some of the things they ask for have changed much over the years....number of people managed, salary, job function, etc. Seems hard to group all together under one "employer" (and that's only for 3 different duty stations, I imagine this would be even harder for someone with a 10+ year military career) Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Even though Big Navy has been the only "employer" who's sent you paychecks over the last few years, I typically recommend that people list each command as a separate job since on a day to day basis you're working for your ship/squadron/battalion/shore command/etc. rather than Big Navy. And as you mentioned, the responsibilities vary quite a bit within each 2-3 year duty assignment.

I think the main reason schools tell applicants not to separate different jobs under the same employer is that they don't want to read all the details of how a Goldman/McKinsey/etc. applicant went from junior associate consultant to associate consultant to junior consultant over a two-year period. Adcoms know how that progression works and what each position entails. What you're talking about at three different duty stations is not the same situation, and whoever's reading your application may or may not know anything about the military.

Okay great, thanks for the response! It certainly makes things easier this way.

I'd like to wish all the vets out there good luck on your round 2 applications! I will be submitting all of mine today and couldn't feel more stressed/excited.

Yup, there's a sprinkling of us, although that distinction hasn't come up even once so far including in my interview.

I'm an Army OCS guy. Enlisted in 05 into Artillery. I'm now an Engineer Captain (commanding an Armor company in an Infantry Brigade, but that's another story).

It came up in my Harvard interview. My interviewer hadn't heard too many stories like mine, since most guys tend to be academy, so it was something we got to chat about.

Good luck!

FROM MilitaryToBusiness.com: The Online MBA: Can You Have Your Cake and Eat it Too?

I was a year and a half from completing my service obligation and in the process of evaluating my life and career options.  Despite having multiple goals and various paths to reach those goals, earning an MBA was the common ground in all my plans and the next logical step in my trajectory.  I researched relentlessly, scoured the rankings, read about “fit” and “culture”, and considered how each school’s geography would contribute to my post-MBA job search success.  Meanwhile, I considered how I was going to support a family on a GI Bill stipend, pay for all of the tuition costs, and manage being out of work for 2 years.   During my research, I realized there were countless options for pursuing an MBA.  There were part-time, executive, customizable, corporate-sponsored, hybrid, and all sorts of other programs.  Then there were the online MBA’s.  I wasn’t even considering online as a credible option but internet searches and advertising reminded me they were there.  Phoenix, Kaplan, Capella, and wait….Indiana? UNC?  Were these the real top 20 B-schools or some scam masquerading as an elite program?  A few phone calls later and some fact-finding and I was seriously considering the virtual MBA. I ultimately applied, was accepted, and decided to attend Kelley Direct, the online format for Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.  The decision was the result of two realizations.  First, I considered the costs, lost wages, and limitations of living on a GI Bill stipend while supporting a family.  The other consideration was that it mitigated risk.  I would be able to have the MBA in hand, participate in on-campus recruiting, interview, and accept a job offer without leaving the military.  For me, attending a top tier business school without any of the sacrifices and uncertainty was like having my cake and eating it too.  Without a doubt, the decision to attend school virtually was a great decision.  At Kelley, as with the other credible online MBA’s, there is an in-residence requirement.  It was during the week on campus that I realized the quality of the instruction, the faculty, and the other students.  Classes are rigorous but flexible with a constant focus on applying the knowledge to your job.  To me, this creates a symbiotic relationship, whereby bringing work into the classroom intensifies the discussion.  Conversely, bringing classroom knowledge to work on a daily basis solidifies understanding and elevates job performance.   As for the skeptics out there, be advised this program is no walk in the park.  You will be challenged like never before.  The academics are rigorous, the program is very quant oriented, and you will be doing more than just posting on a discussion forum.  It’s typical to spend your weekends working on team assignments with people all over the world.  In Financial Management, I was teamed up with a Finance professional who lived in Moscow and another that lived in Colorado.  Finding times for virtual meetings that match everyone’s schedule and learning to work as part of a diverse team are a vital part of the Kelley Direct program.  Having graduated from a rigorous major research university and being in the top 10% of every military school I ever attended, I was a bit naïve going into this and thought that I would be able to make it through fairly easily.  Never did I imagine that I would be challenged like this, and that I would have to work so hard to succeed.  But the journey has been worth it, and I’m convinced that when I’m done, the results will be tangible and will translate into success in whatever field I choose to go into. I have recently teamed with other student veterans to found the Kelley Direct Veterans Club.  The club is the first of its kind as a virtual club and is also an official Student Veterans of America chapter.  KD Veterans Club is available to prospective applicants as an information source. Please contact the club’s leadership at KDVetsClub@gmail.com for additional information about online B-school or Kelley Direct.        Brian M. Misuraca is a Kelley Direct MBA candidate and the Founder/President of the KD Veterans Club.