So - what do you REALLY want to do post MBA?

souvik101990 I'm still a college senior, final year of my business administration (BBA) course. The only step I've taken towards my MBA is writing the GMAT, and tbvh, it almost seems like it was the easiest step now.
All the strategizing and planning and thinking about 4 years from now when I'll apply to MBA programs has been getting to me.
Like most, I've been considering management consulting, purely because I'll be working as a hedge fund analyst for the next 2 years at least, and I already know that finance is not really what I want to do in the long run.
That being said, I'm always open to exploring other career paths. In your experience, did students with no tech/PM background stand a chance during the recruitment process for these roles?

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This is a bit of a sidebar.... but there is definitely am adjustment to goals and plans that happens to one’s goals during and after the MBA. For one they are often not well enough researched. But even if they are, other opportunities come up and things change in 2 years. Sometimes people realize what they were after is not what they are interested in... I have known only one person who had a very specific role for entertainment industry (quantitative marketing) and who quickly got an internship in the field and the recruited later and got a return offer and stayed loyal to their goal. This person did quit after some time though as life has changed or perhaps they had a different plan all along to start their own one-man consulting company... so lots of things come along but that does not mean you should just not make any plans or have no goals. People who set goals gm tend to be more successful and those who write those goals down end up being twice as successful is achieving those goals as those who don’t write them down.

So, research, be as specific as you can, and the set measurable goals and write them down.

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Couldn’t help but chime in on this. To bb ’s point, even if you’ve researched really well, if you stay rigid to your goals, you might not be able to leverage your MBA completely as the most value of any top MBA program is for its networks and connections. Depending on how you leverage those networks, you can have a different path to wherever you are in 3-5y post MBA. The other thing is that coming into an MBA program, you would’ve researched your top 3 choices post MBA but what about the others? Do you know for sure that you wouldn’t like those or even know what they are (wrt industry and/or function)? Over the course of 2 years of the program, you will invariably get to know about newer paths that you might not have known when you were researching for your applications.

These 2 are the biggest reasons why I think it’s absolutely fine to not stick to your goals or have a competent different career path. I keep telling people to be flexible with their thoughts while they are going to start their MBA journeys or else they won’t be able to maximize the ‘value’ coming into the program.

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I completely rambled on without answering your question...

Here is my take: work in a client facing industry (be it Consulting or PE) and make a big enough retirement nest for my family in the next 13-15y that I dont have to worry even if I dont work beyond that. Function/role doesnt matter to me, I have also considered myself as a corporate mercenary who will do whatever needs to be done!

Great topic. Have been thinking about asking this on the forum for a while now. What about one year MBA goals? If one wants to change careers/ domains/ industry? I am a CA working in a PSU and want to shift to consulting /product management as backup. But I agree with souvik that I don’t have a fondness for airports either. After a lot of research somehow I am getting interested in strategy and brand management. I might not put that in my essays but yes it’s intriguing as of now. What are your thoughts on taking a plunge into an unconventional role post one year MBA from India?

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If its USA you are looking at for your geography, its more difficult coming out of a 1Y MBA program as your "brand" isnt known in US unless you also do an internship in that 1 year of MBA. This is the reason why I always recommend people from India to do 2Y MBA program. Companies are becoming more and more closed to sponsoring you for H1b and they wont hire you on F1 OPT either as that will be too much of an issue for their legal teams to have you work for them for 1y in US and then moving you to a new geography. 1Y MBA programs are thus good for the following sets of folks from India:

1) People who dont want to switch industry/function or are sponsored by their parent companies
2) People who want to recruit for MEA or APAC offices of the MNCs
3) People who want to open or work on their own ventures post MBA

BTW, treating consulting as a 'backup' will not be realistic as there is a lot of competition for MBB and T1 companies while others wont sponsor you, period. Consulting companies also prefer to see prior consulting experience or US internship experience.

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If you are referring to getting 1Y MBA from India and staying in India post MBA, then we are talking about a different set of considerations. If this is the case, then by all means you should try to go for unconventional paths post-MBA as you would have created a strong network of people you can fall back/rely on.

I am actually looking at one year MBA from India only as I plan to settle here only. Glad to know I can switch fields later in India from one year MBA itself. Coming to the topic of why I REALLY want to do MBA is because of the network, the fast paced career ( I thrive in stress), knowing the in’s and out of a business and not just the finance side of it , plus am great at managing people , and frankly being in a CXO position is a rush!

ENGRTOMBA2018 - thanks for the insights! I have a question for you. I don't mind looking at the corporate ladder and do whatever I need to do to make a name/place for myself. I guess my broader goal is to be able to travel and live in different parts of the world and also be a product leader. I don't know if they necessarily go together

So my question to you is how do MBA students a few years out of school evaluate how they are doing? Is it the money in their banks? The promotions? How do you know it is time for a move?

Great question and I dont think I have found the right answer as there is none! I left Amazon after 5 months as I didnt feel it was a good fit as I didnt learn anything new after my first day. I also knew consulting or IBanking will set me up for good or better exit opportunities down the line. Both of these were driving me towards the next thing to do, which in my case was leaving Amazon and going into consulting. It came down to a combination of "is this job worth my MBA" and "what are my exit opportunities after X # of years"...

I do think money in the bank is 'A' factor but not 'THE' factor per se. As you start a family of yours, youll also think about staying close to your family over a high paying consulting job. Promotions is a def factor, IMO, as any promotion means 2 things a) company is thinking about you in the right manner b) you are getting recognized. Both of these are things that make you happy at any given company.

In summary, there is no 1 way or method to evaluate how you are doing. You need to understand your own self to make that determination. Set yourself some goals (could be anything) for the next 3-5y and see if you can achieve those. If you do, you would have your answer and if not, pivot and see if you need to redefine your goals.

Hope this helps.

Why cant you travel and be a PM? I think if there 1 function that lets you do that is to be a PM as you have a lot of different opportunities open to you globally, from well-established players to startups that there will never be an dearth of these.

I’m surprised by how much my post-MBA goals changed during my first semester. I ultimately choose my summer internship, and perhaps my future career, based on culture rather than the more traditional delineations.

ENGRTOMBA alluded to this flexibility, although I may have pushed it too far. My classmates don’t quite share the same perception as I do (I chose an Energy LDP over FAANG PM, Tech Finance, and the possibility of a top IM offer), so perhaps I swayed a bit too far on the “fit” side.

To answer the question, I’d say my longer-term career goals are to advance within the company while building out my toolbox. So I guess the cross-functional exposure of an LDP may have actually been my second consideration.

Hah! If you are talking about 'flexibility', let me walk you through my MBA experience -> recruited for IB --> interned at RE PF management group --> did PE and VC internships --> did FT consulting and tech ops recruiting --> got into FAANG Ops role, left it 5 months after MBA --> recruited again for consulting --> now in Consulting FT (everything in a span of 2y). At the end of the day, its your MBA experience and how you want to shape it. No one can or should tell you what to do.

Thanks for starting this thread souvik101990!

Quick background - Undergrad in engineering + Postgrad in marketing and communications; 6 years of work exp.(in marketing research, advertising, and tech product marketing) going into business school.

My primary motivation is to use the MBA and the 3-5 years post-MBA experience to launch my startup. For me, entrepreneurship seems to be an excellent way to find my ikigai and bring together my passion for problem-solving and being enterprising, and tech and business skills to help society (and make money in the process ).
Particularly, with a history of playing multiple sports at competitive levels and currently part-timing as a Crossfit trainer, I consider sports as a massive influence on my life and values. And so, I’m interested in using tech to scale this passion and provide accessible sports and fitness training to people, with a focus on underprivileged kids.

So for my post-MBA job(s), I’m considering two paths. Path A is to work as a tech product manager (I’ll be primarily targeting FAANG/big tech companies but also look for specific PM opportunities in Nike and sports tech startups such as Hudl, Aaptiv, etc.). Path B is consulting, wherein I will try to either directly recruit into the digital/sports consulting practice of a top-tier firm or try to make my way internally (full disclosure: I don’t like the consulting lifestyle).

Besides this, in the next 10-15 years, I want to build a good enough corpus to not be worried about money for later, climb one 8000m peak, finish one Iron Man, own a Crossfit gym as a side hustle, travel, and write fiction. All this will be quite an exciting challenge, given my entrepreneurial ambitions!

Happy to hear thoughts and suggestions - what am I missing? What else should I be considering?

I like the plan but here are my 2 cents. Breaking into digital practices is doable but top consulting companies dont really have a sports consulting practices. These are usually tiered with practices that have "leisure" baked into them. Its good that you are thinking about startups for PM role but do note a) you dont have a PM background (I might have missed it) or a Comp Sc. background in UG (again, assuming your engineering degree wasnt in Comp Sc. or related) b) Startups or smaller companies wont be open to sponsoring intnl candidates for internships as they want to bring someone on for internships those who can stay with them FT as well post graduation.

If digital/sports is the intersection you want to expose yourself to, I would say also look at gaming companies like EA Sports/Zynga/Ubosoft/Bethesda etc.

Finally, one more thing that people need to keep in mind is the fact that 'usually', tech recruiting happens after consulting for internships and FT at top b-schools and hence consulting should then be your Plan A and not B.

DM me and we can discuss more. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes.

Thank you, ENGRTOMBA2018 for sharing those insights - super helpful!

Having spoken to the Ross CDO and a few other students who recruited for consulting, I agree with you that sports consulting is a niche service that isn't present across all the top consulting firms, and hence isn't the most feasible career path. I think that while that experience would have been ideal, the reason I considered consulting in the first place was that it will help me further polish my problem-solving skills, help build a solid network, and also pay well to seed the startup a few years down the line. And digital consulting seems to align better with my current experience and skillset.

Also, I've heard contrasting opinions on startups recruiting international students. Some folks say that startups don't hire internationals for the same reasons that you mentioned, while some others have mentioned that if you can demonstrate impact and fit and develop a strong relationship, then startups might put in the effort required to get you onboard. I'm wondering how STEM and the two-year OPT could affect this.

And about Plan A/B - I meant that in terms of career path priority tech would be my priority over consulting, however, because the recruitment timelines work the opposite way, I'll definitely be preparing for consulting recruitment before tech.

Also, thank you for suggesting looking into gaming companies - I didn't think of that. On that note, I think it might also be worth it to look into sports + AR/VR companies.

Be careful with STEM extensions. USCIS has been cracking down on it lately as people have misused STEM OPT extension to go into non-STEM related fields. If you stay as a PM on STEM OPT, you should be able to convince USCIS to approve your petition. Again, something for you to look at , not a legal opinion*.

AR/VR companies would be a good fit given your goals.

Bringing this back from some needed hibernation! What do you all think about international options post MBA? I guess there could be two categories:

1. International students who had to leave the US because they did not get into the H1 lottery.
2. Domestic and international students who want to pursue opportunities outside the US either temporarily or long term.

What do you guys think? Out of the US would most likely be less money, but consulting gigs should be fairly similar. Tech would ideally pay similar with PPP built in?