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| FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Thinking Innovatively About Your Career |
![]() ![]() By Sarah Allin TP'17 Sarah is a fellow at the Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her husband, Tom, is a T’17, and they live in Norwich, Vermont with their three-year-old standard poodle, Charlie. You can email her any questions at sarah_allin@hks.harvard.edu. A usual weekday morning in our household goes something like this: Tom’s alarm begins buzzing around 6:00 a.m. He heads downstairs to make coffee, and Charlie, our standard poodle, sneaks into Tom’s place on the bed. Around 7:00 a.m. I begrudgingly part with my covers to get ready for work. Ten minutes later, with coffee in hand, I step into my “office” and open my computer. My office is a bit different than most people in the Upper Valley—or anywhere for that matter. Tom and I live in a large, converted barn, and I do my work remotely from our dining room table. In between participating in conference calls and crafting emails, I watch hikers on the Appalachian Trail passing our barn (our road is literally the AT) and neighborhood kids playing basketball in our driveway. If it sounds like I’m in love with our life in the Hanover/Norwich area, that’s because I am. But—like many partners—I wasn’t always enamored with the uncertainty that surrounded the MBA admissions and decision-making process. What program was Tom going to decide on? Where were we going to live? How was I going to financially support our family? Was I going to find a job that also meaningfully advanced my career? No matter where you and your partner decide is the best fit for an MBA journey, these questions come up. Building a new network and understanding the job landscape is as large a need in urban areas as more rural ones, like Hanover. Your job search process may require just as much energy and attention ![]() as your partner’s MBA application process, and Tuck’s more rural location may make this particularly true. When Tom decided Tuck was the best fit for him, I pursued both local and remote employment options. My interests are in supporting state and local governments, so I started by reaching out to departments and centers on Dartmouth’s campus to learn more about their work. I also set up a series of phone calls with nonprofits in both Vermont and New Hampshire, and even traveled to Concord, New Hampshire to explore some opportunities that would have required commuting daily. With time, I also started to think more creatively about what meaningful work could look like for me. I decided that I didn’t necessarily need to report to an organization each day, and that I was open to working remotely. This allowed me to broaden my job search, and I started reaching out to organizations in the Boston area as well. Luckily, the Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School was open to bringing me on as a full-time team member even though I was based in Vermont. As a fellow, I oversee technical support for GPL projects with New York State and a community in Kentucky. I travel three to four days a month, while working most days from our barn. I love that I get to travel some, work from home, and maintain lots of flexibility in my schedule. Working from home is not for everyone. Some individuals want to engage with colleagues in person, and many individuals (teachers, nurses, counselors) may not have the option of working remotely. However, given my dual desires to build a life as an active member of the Tuck community and advance my own career focused on state and local governments, working remotely made the most sense. So, for the next two years, you’ll find me sipping coffee in the corner of a barn while quietly sending emails. I’m grateful Tom chose Tuck. I work in a place surrounded by natural beauty which is full of community. But I’m also grateful because the job search process allowed me to think in a more innovative way about my career and the value I could bring to an organization through remote work. No matter where you and your partner end up on the MBA journey, I hope you will also use the transition as an opportunity to start thinking creatively about what your ideal work environment looks like and start taking steps to bring your vision closer to reality.
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| FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: Why You Should Get an MBA at Tuck: Part II |
![]() People pursue an MBA to enhance their career or switch careers. So as careers go…why Tuck? It comes down to our scale relative to our peers and, again, to access—access to incredible resources dedicated to helping you in your career search. And access to recruiters from the world’s top companies. Tuck has fewer than 300 students per class competing for interview slots and networking opportunities. At other top schools, that number can grow to as many as 900. Tuck is a place where you can stand out during your job search. Some applicants worry about Tuck’s location and the impact it has on recruiting. But these are, in reality, great strengths. Tuck has deep and longstanding relationships with the world’s most prestigious recruiters of MBA talent. The best part: our students have incredibly personal access to them. While they’re here, they’re a captive audience: they stay all day, have dinner here, interact with students during office hours. Furthermore, Tuck’s career counselors are industry specialists with direct industry experience. And many are MBAs themselves, so they know exactly what you are going through because they have been there themselves. Our scale ensures that they will get to know you personally and work closely with you on your career search. Especially beneficial to career switchers, Tuck offers a bidding process, through which at least half of all company interview slots are available to students (the other half of the interview schedule is filled with candidates selected by the company). This allows students with non-traditional backgrounds to get a foot in the door. Several times, we’ve mentioned Tuck’s small size. How does this play out in the alumni network? The alumni’s enthusiasm—for Tuck and for each other—is unrivaled and is part of what makes our community so unique. There’s no better measure of this than annual giving. Tuck’s annual giving rate has exceeded 70 percent for several years in a row, nearly triple the average participation rate of other top business schools. This shows just how satisfied our alumni are in their Tuck experience and how deeply committed they are to ensuring others share in such a transformative experience. Tuck alums are personally involved and accessible to our students. You can always count on them to return your call and provide extensive help when needed. This kind of responsiveness takes some students by surprise, and we constantly hear students express their gratitude for the generosity of our alumni. As far as the size of our alumni network, Tuck is definitely smaller than peer schools. In the 2014 Economist ranking of our alumni network, we were #91 in size. We were also #1 in terms of effectiveness. ICYMI: Why You Should Get an MBA at Tuck: Part I Join Senior Associate Director of Admissions Pat Harrison for a webinar on Beat the GMAT to learn more about Tuck through the experiences of three recent graduates on Tuesday, November 17 from 12-1pm ET. |
| FROM Tuck Admissions Blog: “Here, everyone is rooting for you” |
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By Vishnu Malli T'17 Vishnu is living the dream as a first-year student at Tuck. He loves being surrounded by intellectually stimulating peers and is passionate about creative ideas. He thinks that he suffers from the “get out of your comfort zone” syndrome. He grew up in Mangalore, India and was perfectly happy living there, but decided to move to Bangalore. When life couldn’t get any better there, he relocated to Phoenix, AZ (where he did not know a single person). As he began to feel at home after building an expansive social circle, he moved to Hanover. Before Tuck, he spent four months backpacking across South America without knowing a word of Spanish (he now claims to know a few). When I started at Tuck, I was in a unique situation. I already had an internship for the next summer at a top notch CPG firm for brand management. I prematurely concluded that since I already had an internship, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to leverage the Career Development Office (CDO) at Tuck. I couldn't have been more wrong. The CDO at Tuck is completely invested in every student's success. From the moment I received my internship offer, I met with Tuck’s career coaches—whose experience spans across various industries including marketing, technology, consulting, banking, etc.—to evaluate the offer as well as to learn more about other functions/industries. I was also suffering from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) syndrome. I kept obsessing over all the potential opportunities I'd miss out on if I accepted the internship offer. To alleviate my doubts, the career coaches met with me several times to share their solid, unbiased advice and to answer my long-winding questions. At Tuck, we are exposed to industries and various functions in multiple ways and it starts early. Even before the first day of classes began, Tuck organized a pre-MBA Silicon Valley boot camp which brought students to several companies in the Valley including Google, Facebook, Salesforce, and more. We exchanged ideas with several VCs, startup gurus, and Tuck alums living in the Bay area. Within a week of starting classes, we had several companies visiting campus each day to host one-on-one coffee chats, company information sessions, happy hours, and cabin nights at Dartmouth's very own mountain lodge. The second years at Tuck are a highly accessible and extremely supportive bunch. They are willing to spend their valuable time (in between their recruiting season) to share their perspectives. In early October, we spent four days in NYC for a marketing trek visiting companies such as Colgate, PepsiCo, Amex, IDEO, and more. During this trek, Lizzie Napier, a career coach focused on the marketing arena, enthusiastically introduced me to several Tuck alumni who had worked in brand management and facilitated conversations that helped me gain a deeper understanding of marketing and the CPG industry. It was incredible to witness the passion of Tuck alumni while they were guiding and advising me. All this exposure helped me to, not only make a more informed decision, but also gave me deeper insights into various career paths. I truly believe that this level of personal attention exists only at Tuck. Before starting school, I had heard about Tuck's highly collaborative and intimate setting. Now that I am here, I can honestly attest that. Here, everyone is rooting for you! Photo at right: Vishnu on the NYC marketing trek with Felix T'15 at Unilever and Kim T'08, formerly of General Mills. |
Success stories and strategies from high-scoring candidates.