Going to school somewhere you DON'T want to live?

Question

Quick question - 

It seems a lot of people apply to schools in areas they want to live/settle afterwards. Is this correct, or not correct?

A lot of the schools I'm interested in (Tuck, Darden, Cornell, Yale, etc...) are in pretty remote areas where I don't really plan on staying after I get the degree.

Truth is I don't really know where I want to settle in a couple years...maybe NC, maybe West Coast...who knows. 

Should I just go to the school I want and not worry about the geography? I just don't want to go to Yale then decide to move out West and find it hard to get a job...

Thanks!

RLM · Answer

I'm in the same boat - I want to live/work in the west coast (more specifically LA) post-MBA, but I'm not sure if UCLA is the right one for me or whether I should aim slightly higher (Haas, Kellogg, Sloan...), then look for a job in LA afterwards.........

jjanders · Answer

Yeah, I would think if you go to a decent school, you can move anywhere and find a good job, but I'd like to hear from those more knowledgeable or perhaps even people who moved far away from where they got their MBA.

My specific situation is that I am looking to settle in either the Seattle area or Raleigh/Durham area for the next 5 or so years. I would probably get into the University of Washington, and while it is a good school, I feel I could probably get into a bit better school. Unfortunately, they aren't really any others in the Northwest. There are a bunch around where I live now (Connecticut). If I go to a school up here (Yale, Tuck, etc...) but then want to move to Raleigh or Seattle, I'm interested to know what my prospects are, or if I should just look into going to UW, or Duke/UNC-CH

riverripper · Answer

I am looking at schools ranging from Chicago to New England. I have to look at areas where my wife can find a job though so Cornell and Michigan are completely out, even though both would be great schools to attend. 

Post grad we would like to head back to New England eventually but thats not a requirement immediately after finishing. Once you work for 3-5 years post grad your post MBA career will be more important to a new company than where you got your degree so moving back wont be as hard at that point. 

One of the great benefits for my going back to school is that its going to be a great adventure before we settle down and start a family. I will be graduating at 30 and not planning on having kids for another few years after that, so it will be fun doing something different than we have been doing. At 27 we have the boring suburban life that we actually love, we live in a nice medium sized town (20K people), own a house, put our dog in daycare, make a good living, ski on weekends, go to the beach near our house during the summer...basically we have the lifestyle of 45 year olds but without kids. So its time to do something new and adventurous besides going on two week vacations to cool places. Though oddly I am planning on applying to Tuck which is on the other side of the state (we live in NH) from us and is in a town almost exactly like ours but with mountains instead of the ocean.

RLM · Answer

I agree that a school with a good rep will get you in a lot of doors, but the problem is that you're pretty much foregoing most of the school's Career Services job postings! Because for most schools, those postings tend to be quite local. (ie. most Cornell students goto NYC, Kellogg student stay in Chicago, etc...)

Then you'll have to venture out and rely on Monster.com or other job boards for your job search..... and from most of the stats I've read, from most schools more than half their students land their first gig through the school's Career Services....

jjanders · Answer

Interesting, did not know that. Makes sense though that most schools want to work with companies in that area. 

Guess it's just another of the 100 things I have to consider before I apply....

RLM · Answer

Yup, if you look at different schools' employment stats, you'll see that the majority of grads land their first job close to the school. Even for well-ranked schools like Kellogg, about 40% of students stay in Chicago. The rest is scattered all over the world, ie. 3% LA, 2% Shanghai, 3% Toronto, etc.... so it seems the odds of finding a job in a specific city that's away from your b-school is slim.

OR it could be just self-selection, ie. students who want to live in Chicago go to Kellogg.

But I'd really like to hear from someone who's been successful in carrying out their own job search independent of Career Services. Anyone know anyone? :-D

dabots · Answer

i think for elite schools it is mostly self-selection. the highest percentage of applicants at these schools tend to be from those areas originally. i know the midwest is the biggest demographic of applicants to chicago, so it is likely they wanted to stay in the area after school anyway.

RLM · Answer

Another food for thought: Are you looking for a tech MBA job post-grad? Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc. are all either based in Seattle or have offices there. And they recruit primarily from certain tech focused schools like Sloan. Might be another option for you. (unless you're not a techie.. if so disregard this msg) :lol:

jjanders · Answer

I'm not a super techie, but I am interested in perhaps pursuing an IT/MIS focus within my program. Sloan is probably my top choice, but I'm not sure what my chances are there. I know I could get into the University of Washington, and I'm sure MS, Amazon, Google recruit there too since it's local, but I'm not sure how much weight a UW MBA would carry outside of the Northwest, as opposed to Sloan which is recognizable anywhere.

pelihu · Answer

I want to go ahead and clear up some misinformation. Students at any of the ultra-elite schools and most of the elite schools will have no problem moving along to work in whatever city they fell like. It is a complete falsehood that job postings are localized for a school like Kelogg. Students at that school will have no problem landing jobs in any city in the US, or around the world.

People at all the elite schools can and do land jobs with major companies in cities around the country. If you're targeting a specific job in a specific locale, you might have to do your own footwork, but if your goal is generally to "work in LA" or "work in Chicago" any of the top schools will work out just fine.

Generally speaking, you should consider schools according to their cluster (as defined by Hjort), and then decide among schools within the same cluster. You'll want to have a very very compelling personal reason before passing on a school in a higher cluster to attend one in a lower cluster.

jjanders · Answer

Pelihu, thanks for the insight.

I suppose at this point I will put geography at the bottom of the list of considerations and attend the best school I possibly can.

pelihu · Answer

If you're looking at the ultra-elite and elite clusters, I think that would be the best strategy. Certainly, you can go anywhere you'd like from any of the ultra-elites. Some of the elites are more regional (NYU and UCLA come to mind), but I think in large part that's because they tend to attract people that want to be in that area.

The further down you go, the more concerned you need to be about location. Some of the near-elite schools have some national presence but many don't, and after that the schools really are regional and it will be more challenging to move around.

riverripper · Answer

If you want a specific career, some near-elites have very good reputations in certain areas...some due to their overall reputation as schools in certain areas. Like an IT person who attends Carnegie Mellon but was planning on returning to the field. CMU has a great reputation in the computer field due to its being considered one of the top comp sci schools in the world. Having an MBA from them probably looks great to a lot of managers at computer companies due to the high regard they hold for CMU as an institution. 

Like Pelihu said, some schools like NYU seem to have a regional bias because the majority of the people that attend them are in part attracted to them based on their location. If you want to be an IB then NYU has the ideal location and if you end up liking the city why would you leave.

RLM · Answer

pelihu, have you met anyone who's successfully carried out their post-MBA job search in a location different from that of their b-school? In *theory* ultra-elites and elites give you job opportunities everywhere. But for example sakes the employment stats from Kellogg show that the biggest pool of grads end up staying around Chicago. Again I don't know if this is more because of self-selection or if job postings DO mostly come from the local geographic area. 

But in either case you still have to carry out your own job search as you graduate, and would companies post their postings on internet job boards when they have pools of fresh grad applicants to choose from when they target specific schools? The latter approach seems more effective to me....

piper41955 · Answer

It can't be that much different than looking for a tech job. Once you have your resume in order simply post it on the various major job bboards, and then apply proactively to those postings that interest you. Depending on your profile pre-MBA you should be able to do well with a little effort. I'm getting a little fed up with my current day job and since I still have until late 08/early 09 before I start Bschool I decided to try looking. I posted my resume around 9pm last night and already have received 5 calls from various corps.

pelihu · Answer

Well, yeah, of course I have. I attended info sessions for most of the elites and ultra-elites last year in the bay area, and every single school was able to trot out lots of people who secured jobs around San Francisco and San Jose. I asked specifically about the opportunity to return to the Bay Area after graduation, and the vast majority secured their jobs through on-campus recruiting. I will note that Yale seemed to have placement on the West Coast (only saw them at an MBA fair), and strangely UCLA was only able to muster up 3 alums in the Bay Area, but again, targeting large employers in a big metro area is a relatively simple task for students at most elites & ultra-elites. Those interested in niche industries with small companies in niche locations will have to do more of the work on their own.

Regarding the recruiting process, the big companies that hire many students each year don't post their jobs on the internet, or on their web pages; at least not for schools that they visit. Typically, the big companies will recruit on a firm-wide basis. So, I know that Lehman Brothers is the first recruiter coming to campus (in just 2 weeks, yikes!). They aren't recruiting for a specific office; students interested will be able to speak to recruiters about positions around the world. Then, I think the process is typical of most schools; the firm will create a "closed" list of students they are interested in and invite them to interview. Those that don't make the closed list can still bid for interviews. The process then varies a lot by employer, but typically 1st round interviews will be on campus (for any worldwide office), and perhaps a 2nd round at the corporate HQ (depending on proximity) and perhaps a 3rd round at the office of choice. Some may go 4 rounds, some may go 2. This is typical employers like this (there are about 500 of them in the Fortune 500 that recruit annually at the top schools); they might also open up an online application system for students at schools that they don't visit.

Of course, smaller companies that don't hire regularly will not have this process, but any of the elite and ultra-elite schools will certainly have at least a few hundred recruiters coming to campus looking to hire a few (or a few dozen) people; while at the same time maintaining recruiting relationships with hundreds more employers with formal resume collection and so forth. Posting on internet job boards isn't really part of the process; at least not at this stage.

gixxer1000 · Answer

I read a statistic that only 4% of jobs are actually acquired throught the internet. They may be a good place to look for reference but I dont think anyone from a top 50 school should be relying on the internet. Especially not a full-time program. That's defeating a big reason for goint there in the first place.

riverripper · Answer

I am planning on getting all my future jobs from people on this forum...its my ace in the whole network. People all over the nation at tons of different top schools.

I think I may write an essay how I plan to start a GMATClub.com Club at the schools I am going to attend.

lepium · Answer

I agree with pelihu. L.

Going to school somewhere you DON'T want to live?

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