Friday, November 25, 2005
Resumes
Even before the first semester of MBA School even started, the career center at BYU was giving us resume advice. We had speakers, seminars, and 2nd year students all assigned to help us craft the perfect message. Many MBA programs require applicants to submit a resume, so I’ve decided to list some resume pointers that may be helpful to applicants to BYU’s MBA program.
1 page
I thought everyone in the world knew this, but I still see resumes from people who, either don’t know about this rule, or don’t think it applies to them. Unless you have over 10 years of significant work experience you have no justification in making your resume longer than one page. Doing so puts everything you have at risk. People will usually just look at your resume really fast, and if it interests them they’ll read on. But, if they pick up a really long and wordy document, they are very likely to be put off by it. In reality, if you can’t communicate the essence of who you are in the first few lines, then you are failing at communication.
It isn’t your job to list everything you’ve ever done and let the reader thoughtfully draw the conclusions for you – they won’t give your resume that much attention. You need to make it very clear for them the type of person you are. However, on the other hand you can’t just come out and say things like “hardworking, committed” – that isn’t going to fly. There’s no evidence for it and lacks credibility. You want your readers to draw their own conclusions, but you want to make it very easy for them to do. You want them to think in their minds “this person is hardworking and committed.” Here’s how you do it.
The “CAR” method
C.A.R. stands for Context, Action, and Result. In your brief sentences you should try to tell your audience the context of the situation, the action you took to solve it, and the result that you achieved (with quantifiable numbers whenever possible). Here are a couple of examples:
Eliminated major source of customer complaints and team turn-over by spear-heading automatic testing that reduced team’s record defect count to 0
Here the context was customer complaints, attrition, and a record defect count. The action was leading a testing strategy. The result was a zero defect count. It’s hard to pack sentences to tell the whole story, but is worth doing. I wasn’t able to include the result on attrition and customer complaints – but I did include another bullet point as follows:
Reversed team exodus by recruiting and interviewing dozens of potential new-hires through networking, cold-calls, and career fairs (team grew from 2 to 7)
In this example the context was, again attrition. The action was recruiting, and the result was that our team grew – with quantifiable results. Again, whenever you can have numbers here or percentages the better. One someone reads this they draw their own positive conclusions about being smart, hardworking, resourceful, or whatever. This also invites them in an interview setting to ask you more questions since they only got a brief glimpse of the full story.
Leading with strong verbs
In the examples above I led the sentence with “Eliminated” and “Reversed” to start the sentence. It’s a good idea to use verbs such as led, initiated, created et cetera and don’t worry about pronouns, articles (such as “a” or “the”), or even punctuation that may interfere. For instance, never start out a bullet point with the word “I”. It’s implied with every sentence so you don’t need it; in fact it will appear a bit ego-centric if they read the word “I” throughout (same things for essays and letters, try to avoid it). In the above examples I used the past tense. If you’re still doing your present job you can use gerund “ing” tense of each verb.
Another advantage of leading with verbs is that your bullets will be parallel. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here, but it’s very important. You shouldn’t, for instance, have one line that says “I created a new product concept” followed by a line saying “It was my responsibility to”. The two sentences should have the same basic format – they should be parallel. By starting off with strong verbs sort, parallelism just comes naturally.
Your focus should be on clarity and simplicity. Typically, when you are writing numbers you spell them out if they are equal two or less than ten, and write the number format if they are greater (but be consistent within the same sentence). However, when writing for a resume, you should typically always use the number format – for instance say “5” instead of “five” because it jumps out more, is quicker to read and noticeable at quick glances. Also, you probably don’t need to worry about periods – just use punctuation where it adds clarity and makes it easier to read.
The Golden Triangle
On your resume, image an imaginary triangle that extends from the top left corner to the top right corner and down a few inches back to the left side of the paper. This is the “golden triangle” – the place your readers will spend most of their time. Try to pack everything you really want to say in this area. Your reader’s eyes will naturally stay in this space. For this reason many people choose to have an Executive Summary section at the very top with four bullets or so that gives the most important points from the resume. If the job you are applying for has listed requirements A, B, C, and D, then use this section to hit those points in that exact order. Make it really, really obvious that you are the right fit for the position. If I were looking for a position of managing computer programmers, for instance, I would include this in my Executive Summary:
MBA with strong quantitative skills and 10 years of computer programming experience
Presentation
In terms of how your resume looks, make it a work of art, but don’t make it artistic. For business professionals, is important that you don’t make it look fancy or trendy. Stay within 10-12 point font and leave plenty of inviting white space. If your presentation is lacking, or you have misspelled words or other major errors, your reader will likely assume you are even more sloppy about your day-to-day work when even less is at stake. I recommend that if you are using Microsoft Word you use a table to a make sure things stay in the correct location when sent to other who may have a different version of Word or different display settings. However, if you use a table, be sure and set its border color to be white. Otherwise, they’ll see a soft gray line when looking at a digital copy. One other pointer about Word – it saves info about the document you may not want your readers to see. For instance, I looked at someone’s resume for a job by clicking “File”, then “Properties” and noticed that they originally made the resume up for an entirely different company than the one they were currently applying for. It’s not a huge deal, but be careful what other information you may be sending along unknowingly.
International Resumes
The rules for resumes vary widely by country. The ideas mentioned here are just some things I’ve learned when applying to US schools or companies. Sometimes international applicants make the mistake of including such things as their picture, marital status, religion, age, or sex on their resume. This may be OK, or even expected in some countries, but it is not appropriate in the US.
1 page
I thought everyone in the world knew this, but I still see resumes from people who, either don’t know about this rule, or don’t think it applies to them. Unless you have over 10 years of significant work experience you have no justification in making your resume longer than one page. Doing so puts everything you have at risk. People will usually just look at your resume really fast, and if it interests them they’ll read on. But, if they pick up a really long and wordy document, they are very likely to be put off by it. In reality, if you can’t communicate the essence of who you are in the first few lines, then you are failing at communication.
It isn’t your job to list everything you’ve ever done and let the reader thoughtfully draw the conclusions for you – they won’t give your resume that much attention. You need to make it very clear for them the type of person you are. However, on the other hand you can’t just come out and say things like “hardworking, committed” – that isn’t going to fly. There’s no evidence for it and lacks credibility. You want your readers to draw their own conclusions, but you want to make it very easy for them to do. You want them to think in their minds “this person is hardworking and committed.” Here’s how you do it.
The “CAR” method
C.A.R. stands for Context, Action, and Result. In your brief sentences you should try to tell your audience the context of the situation, the action you took to solve it, and the result that you achieved (with quantifiable numbers whenever possible). Here are a couple of examples:
Eliminated major source of customer complaints and team turn-over by spear-heading automatic testing that reduced team’s record defect count to 0
Here the context was customer complaints, attrition, and a record defect count. The action was leading a testing strategy. The result was a zero defect count. It’s hard to pack sentences to tell the whole story, but is worth doing. I wasn’t able to include the result on attrition and customer complaints – but I did include another bullet point as follows:
Reversed team exodus by recruiting and interviewing dozens of potential new-hires through networking, cold-calls, and career fairs (team grew from 2 to 7)
In this example the context was, again attrition. The action was recruiting, and the result was that our team grew – with quantifiable results. Again, whenever you can have numbers here or percentages the better. One someone reads this they draw their own positive conclusions about being smart, hardworking, resourceful, or whatever. This also invites them in an interview setting to ask you more questions since they only got a brief glimpse of the full story.
Leading with strong verbs
In the examples above I led the sentence with “Eliminated” and “Reversed” to start the sentence. It’s a good idea to use verbs such as led, initiated, created et cetera and don’t worry about pronouns, articles (such as “a” or “the”), or even punctuation that may interfere. For instance, never start out a bullet point with the word “I”. It’s implied with every sentence so you don’t need it; in fact it will appear a bit ego-centric if they read the word “I” throughout (same things for essays and letters, try to avoid it). In the above examples I used the past tense. If you’re still doing your present job you can use gerund “ing” tense of each verb.
Another advantage of leading with verbs is that your bullets will be parallel. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here, but it’s very important. You shouldn’t, for instance, have one line that says “I created a new product concept” followed by a line saying “It was my responsibility to”. The two sentences should have the same basic format – they should be parallel. By starting off with strong verbs sort, parallelism just comes naturally.
Your focus should be on clarity and simplicity. Typically, when you are writing numbers you spell them out if they are equal two or less than ten, and write the number format if they are greater (but be consistent within the same sentence). However, when writing for a resume, you should typically always use the number format – for instance say “5” instead of “five” because it jumps out more, is quicker to read and noticeable at quick glances. Also, you probably don’t need to worry about periods – just use punctuation where it adds clarity and makes it easier to read.
The Golden Triangle
On your resume, image an imaginary triangle that extends from the top left corner to the top right corner and down a few inches back to the left side of the paper. This is the “golden triangle” – the place your readers will spend most of their time. Try to pack everything you really want to say in this area. Your reader’s eyes will naturally stay in this space. For this reason many people choose to have an Executive Summary section at the very top with four bullets or so that gives the most important points from the resume. If the job you are applying for has listed requirements A, B, C, and D, then use this section to hit those points in that exact order. Make it really, really obvious that you are the right fit for the position. If I were looking for a position of managing computer programmers, for instance, I would include this in my Executive Summary:
MBA with strong quantitative skills and 10 years of computer programming experience
Presentation
In terms of how your resume looks, make it a work of art, but don’t make it artistic. For business professionals, is important that you don’t make it look fancy or trendy. Stay within 10-12 point font and leave plenty of inviting white space. If your presentation is lacking, or you have misspelled words or other major errors, your reader will likely assume you are even more sloppy about your day-to-day work when even less is at stake. I recommend that if you are using Microsoft Word you use a table to a make sure things stay in the correct location when sent to other who may have a different version of Word or different display settings. However, if you use a table, be sure and set its border color to be white. Otherwise, they’ll see a soft gray line when looking at a digital copy. One other pointer about Word – it saves info about the document you may not want your readers to see. For instance, I looked at someone’s resume for a job by clicking “File”, then “Properties” and noticed that they originally made the resume up for an entirely different company than the one they were currently applying for. It’s not a huge deal, but be careful what other information you may be sending along unknowingly.
International Resumes
The rules for resumes vary widely by country. The ideas mentioned here are just some things I’ve learned when applying to US schools or companies. Sometimes international applicants make the mistake of including such things as their picture, marital status, religion, age, or sex on their resume. This may be OK, or even expected in some countries, but it is not appropriate in the US.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
One More Thought on MBA Brands
Unlike medicine or law, there is no governing body that regulates who can and who can’t practice business. So to a certain extent, it doesn’t matter as quite as much where you go to school. But since there is no sort of certification for practicing businesses, the place where you get your MBA is all that people have to go on to judge the adequacy of your education. Hence, reputation is king.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Online MBA
More and more I hear people talking about getting on online MBA, and each time it surprises me. A few months ago, for instance, I ran into a friend of mine who works as an engineer at a blue-chip software company and he said that he is planning on getting an online MBA so he doesn’t have to leave his job to get the degree. I have another friend who was strongly considering an online MBA degree but decided against it (he’s now at Wharton).
I think the reason that it baffles me is that I just don’t see the benefit of an online degree – especially in business. I’m not trying to offend anyone, its just that the primary reason to go to MBA school is not (IMHO) to learn accounting, finance, or any other discipline in isolation. The purpose is to meet people, work in teams, discuss business cases, argue through solutions, and build networks that will help you in your career. Learning a discipline is an integral part, but its not just learning how to do something, but debating why and how in a collegial atmosphere.
During the summer my colleagues and I used our web development software to recreate a site for a medical organization. One of the PhD’s on staff said that he feels his MBA at the University of Phoenix was the best thing ever. It was staffed by working professionals as teachers that really know their subject matter. He felt the coursework was very demanding and he came out really having mastered several things such as accounting. He felt like traditional MBA programs are “soft” in many respects.
My internal reaction was “so what” – just learning accounting isn’t really the point of an MBA in most cases. There’s really nothing (in terms of books or lessons) in MBA school that you couldn’t just learn on your own. You could read the accounting and finance books at your own leisure or take an evening (or online) course. The real benefit and growth comes from the interactions, the cold-calls, the experience of acting it all out in front of critical peers. I don’t how they do things at UoP, but it doesn’t really make sense online – its all about the personal interactions and relationships.
From a more superficial standpoint, online degrees (and even UoP) are simply just not valued very much in the market. The brand is really weak. Just the other day I was filling out a survey and realized that I was filling out a form to apply to be a UoP teacher. It didn’t leave a great impression with me. I’ve read people refer to them as diploma mills and suggest that your resume is better off without that entry. Because the school advertises so much in seeking teachers and students, its hard for people to take it seriously. Even more so with an online degree were you don’t even physically meet. That’s not to say they can’t provide a great education – they very well may. But, in terms of MBA brand it doesn’t matter much. I’ve heard some Harvard MBA alums say that at HBS its hard to tell how your learning, that the hardest part is getting in, and that the second year is largely a waste of time. Does it matter? No, not really. Nobody will value a candidate with an online degree over an HBS student. And its ok that it may mostly due to the initial filter of selecting the right applicants.
One last thought. When I was visiting schools I noticed that wherever a school was ranked on the pecking order – they assured prospective students that they were ranked just high enough. For instance, at a top 50 school, administrators said “as long as your at a top 50 school, it doesn’t really matter where you go.” They say the same things at a top-10 school. When I was visiting the Stanford GSB, my host said “there are pretty much only two schools worth attending” and at HBS there was only one school worth the investment. So, I admit that my apparent snobbery about online degrees or UoP works for higher ranked schools who look down on BYU as second tier. But of course it all depends on what you want to get out of the program. If you’re applying to a top school to get a trophy that you can show off to family and friends, then go for it! If you just want to learn accounting and finance, probably any online degree will do. But, if you want to get a better job and generally improve your marketability, go to the best school you can get into that matches your needs and goals.
I think the reason that it baffles me is that I just don’t see the benefit of an online degree – especially in business. I’m not trying to offend anyone, its just that the primary reason to go to MBA school is not (IMHO) to learn accounting, finance, or any other discipline in isolation. The purpose is to meet people, work in teams, discuss business cases, argue through solutions, and build networks that will help you in your career. Learning a discipline is an integral part, but its not just learning how to do something, but debating why and how in a collegial atmosphere.
During the summer my colleagues and I used our web development software to recreate a site for a medical organization. One of the PhD’s on staff said that he feels his MBA at the University of Phoenix was the best thing ever. It was staffed by working professionals as teachers that really know their subject matter. He felt the coursework was very demanding and he came out really having mastered several things such as accounting. He felt like traditional MBA programs are “soft” in many respects.
My internal reaction was “so what” – just learning accounting isn’t really the point of an MBA in most cases. There’s really nothing (in terms of books or lessons) in MBA school that you couldn’t just learn on your own. You could read the accounting and finance books at your own leisure or take an evening (or online) course. The real benefit and growth comes from the interactions, the cold-calls, the experience of acting it all out in front of critical peers. I don’t how they do things at UoP, but it doesn’t really make sense online – its all about the personal interactions and relationships.
From a more superficial standpoint, online degrees (and even UoP) are simply just not valued very much in the market. The brand is really weak. Just the other day I was filling out a survey and realized that I was filling out a form to apply to be a UoP teacher. It didn’t leave a great impression with me. I’ve read people refer to them as diploma mills and suggest that your resume is better off without that entry. Because the school advertises so much in seeking teachers and students, its hard for people to take it seriously. Even more so with an online degree were you don’t even physically meet. That’s not to say they can’t provide a great education – they very well may. But, in terms of MBA brand it doesn’t matter much. I’ve heard some Harvard MBA alums say that at HBS its hard to tell how your learning, that the hardest part is getting in, and that the second year is largely a waste of time. Does it matter? No, not really. Nobody will value a candidate with an online degree over an HBS student. And its ok that it may mostly due to the initial filter of selecting the right applicants.
One last thought. When I was visiting schools I noticed that wherever a school was ranked on the pecking order – they assured prospective students that they were ranked just high enough. For instance, at a top 50 school, administrators said “as long as your at a top 50 school, it doesn’t really matter where you go.” They say the same things at a top-10 school. When I was visiting the Stanford GSB, my host said “there are pretty much only two schools worth attending” and at HBS there was only one school worth the investment. So, I admit that my apparent snobbery about online degrees or UoP works for higher ranked schools who look down on BYU as second tier. But of course it all depends on what you want to get out of the program. If you’re applying to a top school to get a trophy that you can show off to family and friends, then go for it! If you just want to learn accounting and finance, probably any online degree will do. But, if you want to get a better job and generally improve your marketability, go to the best school you can get into that matches your needs and goals.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
MBA Program to expand in size to 250
(also posted at http://coreywride.mbablogs.businessweek.com)
Last week we had a “mix-n-mingle” with the MBA Director Jim Stice. We have these about every other month where we go to eat, hang out, and usually listen to a speaker. He talked a little bit about graduation and told us of plans for the future. He said that the powers that be have approved plans to expand the business building and that they have a goal to increase each MBA class from the current 130 range to 250. He also said that they will not rush it, but that it will simply take as long as it takes. That means that basically everyone who applies who is qualified will be admitted. He stressed that they will not lower their standards for admission.
This is really great news for applicants because it means that you’re not really competing with other students. Instead, you’re basically competing against the high standards of admission (which as mentioned tend to favor the GMAT). At Wharton, the AdCom has admitted that about half of the students that apply are qualified to attend, but they simply cannot take them all. Also, since they tend to keep the demographics on incoming students about the same, an I-Banker is basically competing with other I-Bankers, and former consultants are competing with other consultants (which can really skew the actual admission criteria). But since BYU is planning to grow, for the next few years the gate is open to all who qualify.
Last week we had a “mix-n-mingle” with the MBA Director Jim Stice. We have these about every other month where we go to eat, hang out, and usually listen to a speaker. He talked a little bit about graduation and told us of plans for the future. He said that the powers that be have approved plans to expand the business building and that they have a goal to increase each MBA class from the current 130 range to 250. He also said that they will not rush it, but that it will simply take as long as it takes. That means that basically everyone who applies who is qualified will be admitted. He stressed that they will not lower their standards for admission.
This is really great news for applicants because it means that you’re not really competing with other students. Instead, you’re basically competing against the high standards of admission (which as mentioned tend to favor the GMAT). At Wharton, the AdCom has admitted that about half of the students that apply are qualified to attend, but they simply cannot take them all. Also, since they tend to keep the demographics on incoming students about the same, an I-Banker is basically competing with other I-Bankers, and former consultants are competing with other consultants (which can really skew the actual admission criteria). But since BYU is planning to grow, for the next few years the gate is open to all who qualify.
Monday, November 07, 2005
Entrepreneurship at BYU
A friend of mine works on the MBA Student Voice newsletter (https://marriottschool.byu.edu/mba/newnewsletter/newsletter.cfm) and asked me a few questions about entrepreneurship at BYU for an upcoming article. I thought I’d post my comments here for prospective students. Check out http://marriottschool.byu.edu/cfe/ for more info on entrepreneurship at BYU.
Do you think that there is competition in the minds of MBAs between
the entrepreneur and the company man in each of them?
Absolutely – except that the company man almost always wins. Nearly every MBA I talk to about my business comments that they too would like to start their own business someday after a few years of corporate experience. You could probably ask anyone in the Creating and Managing New Ventures class and they’d tell you they’d really love to go out on their own. But for many, the perceived risk is way too high. I can’t remember the exact contexts, but I recall on more than one occasion Rich Zollinger asking a professor or guest speaker how one could start a business being married with children. His questions revealed the underlying assumption held by many that the risk is just too great to give it a go – especially once you start your family.
Personally, I strongly agree with Rich and am terrified of failing on a new venture (married with kids myself). That’s why I decided to start my business just before coming back to graduate school. Being here at BYU has been an amazing opportunity to test-drive my idea without taking on any real career risk. Plus, everyday I learn new things to help me; my only real complaint is that I can’t absorb it all fast enough. Sometimes I wish I could spread the MBA out over several years and just take one or two classes so I could devote the rest of the time to my business. As others have said, its like a suitcase that I’ll be unpacking for the rest of my life. But as school is beginning to come to and end for me, I’m feeling increasing internal pressure. We’re not yet making enough revenue to support ourselves once school ends and so I’ve tried to keep my employment options open in case things do not work out. Likewise, I’m working even harder on my business – hoping that things will progress enough that I can be fully self-employed next April.
Do you think that entrepreneurship is focused on enough in MBA school?
Or shouldn't it be, because undergrads make better entrepreneurs,
usually?
If undergrads do make better entrepreneurs (not sure I agree with that), its only because they’ve gone down that road and tried it – whereas MBA students typically have just had great corporate jobs. I think if more MBA students would just go out and try to start a business, they’d get that rush of excitement and (using their broader skill set) be much more successful than a typical undergrad. BYU itself has tremendous resources for entrepreneurship – but you sort of have to leave the MBA program to find them. I don’t necessarily think there should be an entrepreneurship track, but I think the school should make it really clear that is OK if you don’t do the cookie-cutter Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, or OB/HR programs. I almost didn’t want to come to BYU because of the track system, and would have appreciated more visibility for the general management or self-designed route.
You and I talked once about the weights on each side of the scales:
What are the pluses of entrepreneurship? The pluses on the other side?
For me, the only real benefit of corporate life is the relative financial stability – that is unless you’re lucky enough to find that perfect job that you just absolutely love. But if you succeed at entrepreneurship the rewards are much greater, more personal, and more transcending than money. When I decided to start my own business I felt like I had just arrived as a new immigrant to America – ready to find my fortune. It was an incredible feeling of freedom, excitement, and possibility.
Before coming to BYU I researched and visited a wide variety business schools, including the Wharton school at Penn. During a class on entrepreneurship a professor at Wharton suggested that if you want to go be a “potted plant” in some large corporation that you should demand a salary of at least $250,000 to justify passing up the financial opportunities of entrepreneurship. His point was that – on average – the money is so much better for those who are successful at starting their own businesses. Its also more risky – but I think its ironic that those of us in MBA school (who are far more educated on what it takes to be successful) are often more risk averse than your average entrepreneur who often will start and succeed in business just because he or she was too naïve to know how hard it would be.
Do you think that there is competition in the minds of MBAs between
the entrepreneur and the company man in each of them?
Absolutely – except that the company man almost always wins. Nearly every MBA I talk to about my business comments that they too would like to start their own business someday after a few years of corporate experience. You could probably ask anyone in the Creating and Managing New Ventures class and they’d tell you they’d really love to go out on their own. But for many, the perceived risk is way too high. I can’t remember the exact contexts, but I recall on more than one occasion Rich Zollinger asking a professor or guest speaker how one could start a business being married with children. His questions revealed the underlying assumption held by many that the risk is just too great to give it a go – especially once you start your family.
Personally, I strongly agree with Rich and am terrified of failing on a new venture (married with kids myself). That’s why I decided to start my business just before coming back to graduate school. Being here at BYU has been an amazing opportunity to test-drive my idea without taking on any real career risk. Plus, everyday I learn new things to help me; my only real complaint is that I can’t absorb it all fast enough. Sometimes I wish I could spread the MBA out over several years and just take one or two classes so I could devote the rest of the time to my business. As others have said, its like a suitcase that I’ll be unpacking for the rest of my life. But as school is beginning to come to and end for me, I’m feeling increasing internal pressure. We’re not yet making enough revenue to support ourselves once school ends and so I’ve tried to keep my employment options open in case things do not work out. Likewise, I’m working even harder on my business – hoping that things will progress enough that I can be fully self-employed next April.
Do you think that entrepreneurship is focused on enough in MBA school?
Or shouldn't it be, because undergrads make better entrepreneurs,
usually?
If undergrads do make better entrepreneurs (not sure I agree with that), its only because they’ve gone down that road and tried it – whereas MBA students typically have just had great corporate jobs. I think if more MBA students would just go out and try to start a business, they’d get that rush of excitement and (using their broader skill set) be much more successful than a typical undergrad. BYU itself has tremendous resources for entrepreneurship – but you sort of have to leave the MBA program to find them. I don’t necessarily think there should be an entrepreneurship track, but I think the school should make it really clear that is OK if you don’t do the cookie-cutter Finance, Marketing, Supply Chain, or OB/HR programs. I almost didn’t want to come to BYU because of the track system, and would have appreciated more visibility for the general management or self-designed route.
You and I talked once about the weights on each side of the scales:
What are the pluses of entrepreneurship? The pluses on the other side?
For me, the only real benefit of corporate life is the relative financial stability – that is unless you’re lucky enough to find that perfect job that you just absolutely love. But if you succeed at entrepreneurship the rewards are much greater, more personal, and more transcending than money. When I decided to start my own business I felt like I had just arrived as a new immigrant to America – ready to find my fortune. It was an incredible feeling of freedom, excitement, and possibility.
Before coming to BYU I researched and visited a wide variety business schools, including the Wharton school at Penn. During a class on entrepreneurship a professor at Wharton suggested that if you want to go be a “potted plant” in some large corporation that you should demand a salary of at least $250,000 to justify passing up the financial opportunities of entrepreneurship. His point was that – on average – the money is so much better for those who are successful at starting their own businesses. Its also more risky – but I think its ironic that those of us in MBA school (who are far more educated on what it takes to be successful) are often more risk averse than your average entrepreneur who often will start and succeed in business just because he or she was too naïve to know how hard it would be.
International Student Support
As I mentioned before, I was personally disappointed to discover that there weren’t more international students in the MBA program. BYU has a tremendous international presence and so I expected a higher representation. One reason why the % of international students is the lowest in many years is due to visa problems (One of our students from China almost had to drop out of school last year because, during the first semester, she had trouble getting her visa renewed). However, another reason is cost. As I think I mentioned before, our international students have much more work experience and – in general – have a lot more to offer the school, making their opportunity cost of coming back to school pretty high.
BYU already has incredibly low tuition, but for those international students who are married members of the Mormon church, there is the Cardon International Sponsorship program (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/mba/cis/cisProgram.cfm) which pretty much pays for everything. If accepted, the only string attached is that you need to return to your home country within a couple of years. The reason why the donor requires that students be married is that students who are already married are supposedly more likely to return to their home country. Some international students have resented the marriage requirement and one of our top international students even turned it down because he didn’t want to have any predetermined timeline to return to Ghana. But for those who meet the criteria, its an exceptional opportunity.
There are other scholarship programs such as the Extended Reach Scholarship (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/diversity/financialaid.cfm), the International Graduate Student Scholarship (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/aid/igss.cfm), and the Single Parent Scholarships (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/aid/singleparent.cfm). There are also general academic scholarships that BYU hands out for those who do well on their MBA application or during their first year. BYU is very scholarship friendly; I was very surprised to discover how much money they give away considering the already low cost of attendance.
I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve heard stories that some recruiters are placing pressure on BYU to accept more minority applicants. This is only anecdotal, but the emphasis seems to be on underrepresented US minorities that already have authorization to work in the US. So for international students, the pressure to find a job can be much greater. With that in mind, the additional support for international students is greatly appreciated and seems to be continually on the rise.
The other day I talked again with the MBA Director of Recruiting and he is considering sending some GMAT teachers abroad for a crash course to help the very qualified prospective students get over the high GMAT hurdle. He told me that in places such as São Paulo, the Alumni Chapter (http://alumni.byu.edu/Sections/Chapters/) is already sponsoring weekly GMAT classes to help prospective students.
BYU also has an English Language Center (http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/CyberCenter.html) that teaches English to the next crop of MBA students. I have neighbors from Brazil, Japan, and Mexico who are all enrolled with the aim starting the MBA program next year.
Check out (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/mba/prospective/internationalApplicants.cfm) for more information for international applicants.
BYU already has incredibly low tuition, but for those international students who are married members of the Mormon church, there is the Cardon International Sponsorship program (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/mba/cis/cisProgram.cfm) which pretty much pays for everything. If accepted, the only string attached is that you need to return to your home country within a couple of years. The reason why the donor requires that students be married is that students who are already married are supposedly more likely to return to their home country. Some international students have resented the marriage requirement and one of our top international students even turned it down because he didn’t want to have any predetermined timeline to return to Ghana. But for those who meet the criteria, its an exceptional opportunity.
There are other scholarship programs such as the Extended Reach Scholarship (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/diversity/financialaid.cfm), the International Graduate Student Scholarship (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/aid/igss.cfm), and the Single Parent Scholarships (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/aid/singleparent.cfm). There are also general academic scholarships that BYU hands out for those who do well on their MBA application or during their first year. BYU is very scholarship friendly; I was very surprised to discover how much money they give away considering the already low cost of attendance.
I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve heard stories that some recruiters are placing pressure on BYU to accept more minority applicants. This is only anecdotal, but the emphasis seems to be on underrepresented US minorities that already have authorization to work in the US. So for international students, the pressure to find a job can be much greater. With that in mind, the additional support for international students is greatly appreciated and seems to be continually on the rise.
The other day I talked again with the MBA Director of Recruiting and he is considering sending some GMAT teachers abroad for a crash course to help the very qualified prospective students get over the high GMAT hurdle. He told me that in places such as São Paulo, the Alumni Chapter (http://alumni.byu.edu/Sections/Chapters/) is already sponsoring weekly GMAT classes to help prospective students.
BYU also has an English Language Center (http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/CyberCenter.html) that teaches English to the next crop of MBA students. I have neighbors from Brazil, Japan, and Mexico who are all enrolled with the aim starting the MBA program next year.
Check out (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/mba/prospective/internationalApplicants.cfm) for more information for international applicants.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Non-profit opportunities
Although the MBA program is heavily corporate focused, there are opportunities within the Marriott School to pursue non-profit work.
Non-profit stuff is huge at BYU in general – largely due to the Mormon missionary effect. Since many of us have served and lived in the third-world countries, people are seemingly always looking for ways to give back. Just last month I hosted a French national who is running an Orphanage in Nepal using the resources of our NetImpact club (http://www.NetImpact.org). One professor in particular, Warner Woodworth (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/emp/employee.cfm?emp=wpw) is a huge non-profit, development guru and has started many organizations such as Unitus (http://www.unitus.com) which is devoted to non-profit work. I heard Warner speak at a conference at Columbia last year and happen to know he’s quite active at helping other Universities get more involved in the effort. Our business school has a self-reliance center here on self-reliance (http://marriottschool.byu.edu/selfreliance/) and hosts a conference every year (https://marriottschool.byu.edu/conferences/selfreliance/). BYU recently put together a documentary called Small Fortunes (http://kbyutv.org/smallfortunes/) that talks about a very popular approach to development called micro-credit and Muhammad Yunus who founded the movement comes to Provo every year or two.
International MBA
BYU is a small school, with only about 130 students each year. With such a small class the actual % varies quite a bit year-to-year. As I think I mentioned, the number seems to be done a bit because of visas. I don't know the first year students well, but I know second year students from Switzerland, Ghana, China(4), Mexico, Korea(3), Uruguay, Jamaica, Finland, Brazil(3) and Bulgaria. I know a couple of first year students from Romania, Chile, and Brazil and a few MPA students from Tonga, Japan, Romania, Mexico, Italy, and Ecuador.
Although the majority of the students are from the US, the global awareness of BYU MBA students is (IMHO) unrivaled. Most students have spent two years as Mormon missionaries in foreign countries and some of us look for every opportunity to return. A few months ago I met an executive MBA student here who is not Mormon and is from Brazil. He said he was shocked to find that half his classmates spoke Portuguese.
When I was looking at schools I attended an international language class sponsored by the Lauder program at the Wharton School. There were two people in the class, a 2nd year student who had traveled to Latin America with the military and a 1st year student who had served a Mormon mission to Chile. The class was basically a conversation between the Spanish professor and the 1st year student; it was pretty obvious the 2nd year who hadn’t the same exposure was lagging behind. It was then that I started realizing just how strong BYU’s international connection is because of all the missionary experience. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t exploit it much, but I honestly think that with some effort BYU could dominate the international MBA scene. Since the international connection is primarily due to Mormonism, most of the international students are members of the church and you’re much more likely to run into someone speaking some obscure Filipino dialect than Hindi since we have lots of Mormons in the Philippines, but not so many in India – so it is a bit skewed.
Although the majority of the students are from the US, the global awareness of BYU MBA students is (IMHO) unrivaled. Most students have spent two years as Mormon missionaries in foreign countries and some of us look for every opportunity to return. A few months ago I met an executive MBA student here who is not Mormon and is from Brazil. He said he was shocked to find that half his classmates spoke Portuguese.
When I was looking at schools I attended an international language class sponsored by the Lauder program at the Wharton School. There were two people in the class, a 2nd year student who had traveled to Latin America with the military and a 1st year student who had served a Mormon mission to Chile. The class was basically a conversation between the Spanish professor and the 1st year student; it was pretty obvious the 2nd year who hadn’t the same exposure was lagging behind. It was then that I started realizing just how strong BYU’s international connection is because of all the missionary experience. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t exploit it much, but I honestly think that with some effort BYU could dominate the international MBA scene. Since the international connection is primarily due to Mormonism, most of the international students are members of the church and you’re much more likely to run into someone speaking some obscure Filipino dialect than Hindi since we have lots of Mormons in the Philippines, but not so many in India – so it is a bit skewed.
Do Grades Matter?
Some of the top business schools (Wharton, Stanford, and HBS) have this really great policy called grade-nondisclosure. Students are not allowed to share their grades with others and recruiters are not allowed to ask. Before coming to BYU I visited the Stanford GSB and met with a 2nd year MBA (BYU alum) who said that he really had no idea how he was doing compared with others in his same class. He knew what his grades were, but had no idea how they compared.
Last January I met a 1st year Wharton student with Utah roots at a Venture Capital conference in Salt Lake City. He had come home for Christmas break and had stayed in Utah a couple of weeks after school resumed so that he could visit family and attend the conference. Incredulous, I asked him how he could just miss a few weeks of class without worry. He simply shrugged his shoulders and responded: “grade non-disclosure”. He also remarked that he didn’t really consider applying to BYU’s MBA program because his friends that had gone to school here were “always” studying – they had tons of homework every night. Having done his undergrad in finance at Penn, he said that wasn’t something he wanted to repeat in MBA school.
So, do grades matter in BYU’s MBA program? In my opinion, the answer is a qualified no. During new student orientation professors and 2nd year students alike told us that grades do not matter and that very few recruiters even ask for them. However, some of my peers (now 2nd years themselves) have suggested that its not quite true. It turns out that some recruiters (especially for finance job) actually do ask for grades. For those considering seeking a Ph.D. grades matter very much. However, its still a far cry from law school where grades are often the only real determinate. Much more important than grades, I’d argue, is previous work experience and your ability to network.
I’ve seen students who have done very well in school fail to land a great internship. On the flipside, I’ve seen others who have paid less attention to their studies land some great opportunities; often they spent class time networking an interview. BYU has a very generous grading curve – typically the lowest grade is a B-. And, since you are working in groups your grade is often dependant on the efforts of others on your team. And since many of the classes cover topics that are really hard to grade, scores are incredibly subjective. That said, many people recognize that grades are not the best indication of talent and are simply looking for an indication that you’re smart and hard-working.
My bias is to view the MBA program like a giant buffet table, with students free to pick and choose where they want to spend their time. Rather than feel like you need to perfectly execute some pre-contrived plan, just decide what you want to get out of school and measure your portions accordingly. Last year I decided to miss my finance class a couple of times to make important presentations for my evolving business (www.EvolvingWeb.com). Because I missed a quiz or two, I was curious if I would have in fact received an A instead of my A- had I not ditched class. Because I knew the professor well, I decided to risk looking like a grade-grubber and find out jut how close I was to getting an A. It turns out I was right on the border: my decision to spend class time on my business definitively hurt my grade. However, the professor followed up with a strong rebuke telling me that I needed to decide what my focus was and stick to it. He said that if I wanted to succeed as an entrepreneur I needed to commit to it without looking back.
Last January I met a 1st year Wharton student with Utah roots at a Venture Capital conference in Salt Lake City. He had come home for Christmas break and had stayed in Utah a couple of weeks after school resumed so that he could visit family and attend the conference. Incredulous, I asked him how he could just miss a few weeks of class without worry. He simply shrugged his shoulders and responded: “grade non-disclosure”. He also remarked that he didn’t really consider applying to BYU’s MBA program because his friends that had gone to school here were “always” studying – they had tons of homework every night. Having done his undergrad in finance at Penn, he said that wasn’t something he wanted to repeat in MBA school.
So, do grades matter in BYU’s MBA program? In my opinion, the answer is a qualified no. During new student orientation professors and 2nd year students alike told us that grades do not matter and that very few recruiters even ask for them. However, some of my peers (now 2nd years themselves) have suggested that its not quite true. It turns out that some recruiters (especially for finance job) actually do ask for grades. For those considering seeking a Ph.D. grades matter very much. However, its still a far cry from law school where grades are often the only real determinate. Much more important than grades, I’d argue, is previous work experience and your ability to network.
I’ve seen students who have done very well in school fail to land a great internship. On the flipside, I’ve seen others who have paid less attention to their studies land some great opportunities; often they spent class time networking an interview. BYU has a very generous grading curve – typically the lowest grade is a B-. And, since you are working in groups your grade is often dependant on the efforts of others on your team. And since many of the classes cover topics that are really hard to grade, scores are incredibly subjective. That said, many people recognize that grades are not the best indication of talent and are simply looking for an indication that you’re smart and hard-working.
My bias is to view the MBA program like a giant buffet table, with students free to pick and choose where they want to spend their time. Rather than feel like you need to perfectly execute some pre-contrived plan, just decide what you want to get out of school and measure your portions accordingly. Last year I decided to miss my finance class a couple of times to make important presentations for my evolving business (www.EvolvingWeb.com). Because I missed a quiz or two, I was curious if I would have in fact received an A instead of my A- had I not ditched class. Because I knew the professor well, I decided to risk looking like a grade-grubber and find out jut how close I was to getting an A. It turns out I was right on the border: my decision to spend class time on my business definitively hurt my grade. However, the professor followed up with a strong rebuke telling me that I needed to decide what my focus was and stick to it. He said that if I wanted to succeed as an entrepreneur I needed to commit to it without looking back.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Diversity at BYU
Like most MBA admissions office, BYU’s also favors women and diversity applicants. As a white male myself, it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I really wish there were more diversity in the students here. Unfortunately, BYU has only about 14% women and the smallest number of international students it has had in many years (perhaps because of recent visa issues). I know some of us in the majority resent slightly lower admissions criteria for international students, but I’m strongly in favor of having a diversified class – it’s a lot better for the school, and more interesting for the students.
In fact, many large firms that recruit at BYU are also keenly interested in seeing more diversity in the student body and some (I’ve only heard stories) have threatened not to come back to BYU unless there are more women and minority students. So if you dislike having a different admissions standard for women or minorities you should just get used to it. That is the way the game is played everywhere and BYU is under a lot of pressure to catch up. I’ve also noticed that some of the American minority students here have done exceptionally well in landing a job or internship – it appears on the surface that their placement rate is much better than the average white male.
That said, I’m personally not a big fan about talking about diversity much once school has started. We had a seminar last year where the three Deans talked at length about diversity – I hated the whole thing. For me the tone was divisive rather than unifying, and I talked to a few international students who similarly resented being placed in a special category. Some in the majority felt like the meeting also had an accusatory tone against white males. The meeting had good intentions, but it was a bit awkward. My preference would be – after crafting an incoming class – to treat us all the same, the only label we carry being “BYU MBA”. I realize that may appear as a double standard, (discriminate on admissions but not afterwards) but not if you keep in mind that minority students often apply with an inherent disadvantage (language for international students as an example) and that, as a church school, BYU should admit a class more representative of all the church members throughout the world subsidizing the school through tithing donations.
Anyway, there is a lot of push to be more inclusive here and yesterday the recruiting director sent out this e-mail about a diversity open house.
“[In] an effort to increase our diversity student population, we are hosting a diversity open house for women and under-represented minorities on Wednesday Nov. 9th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM in room 710. If you know of any women or diversity candidates, would you please invite them to the open house? A light buffet will be served and current students will be there to answer questions.”
In fact, many large firms that recruit at BYU are also keenly interested in seeing more diversity in the student body and some (I’ve only heard stories) have threatened not to come back to BYU unless there are more women and minority students. So if you dislike having a different admissions standard for women or minorities you should just get used to it. That is the way the game is played everywhere and BYU is under a lot of pressure to catch up. I’ve also noticed that some of the American minority students here have done exceptionally well in landing a job or internship – it appears on the surface that their placement rate is much better than the average white male.
That said, I’m personally not a big fan about talking about diversity much once school has started. We had a seminar last year where the three Deans talked at length about diversity – I hated the whole thing. For me the tone was divisive rather than unifying, and I talked to a few international students who similarly resented being placed in a special category. Some in the majority felt like the meeting also had an accusatory tone against white males. The meeting had good intentions, but it was a bit awkward. My preference would be – after crafting an incoming class – to treat us all the same, the only label we carry being “BYU MBA”. I realize that may appear as a double standard, (discriminate on admissions but not afterwards) but not if you keep in mind that minority students often apply with an inherent disadvantage (language for international students as an example) and that, as a church school, BYU should admit a class more representative of all the church members throughout the world subsidizing the school through tithing donations.
Anyway, there is a lot of push to be more inclusive here and yesterday the recruiting director sent out this e-mail about a diversity open house.
“[In] an effort to increase our diversity student population, we are hosting a diversity open house for women and under-represented minorities on Wednesday Nov. 9th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM in room 710. If you know of any women or diversity candidates, would you please invite them to the open house? A light buffet will be served and current students will be there to answer questions.”
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Grades, Work Experience, or GMAT… what matters most?
Last week I had lunch with Tad Brinkerhoff, the Director in charge of recruiting for BYU’s MBA program. I met Tad last year on a MBA trip to New York and did a little bit of work with later on in setting up a prospective student visit program. Students who are interested in attending class and meeting with current students can come spend a few hours and really get a feel for the program. Brian Cutting is the student in charge of it – you can e-mail him at brian –at– briancutting.com if you’re interested.
Anyway, I met with Tad last week with people from ACE GMAT prep encourage him to tell prospective students about ACE’s GMAT course. He talked a bit about the admissions criteria and admitted that a great GMAT score is far more important than your GPA – and that the reason why is that it is pretty much the only criteria that is easy to compare across candidates. Because students come from such a variety of Universities and majors, a GPA is much harder to compare. He said that he encourages prospective students to spend a significant amount of time preparing for the GMAT – and that he finds it ironic that students anguish so much about grades when the GMAT matters so much more, and is easier to improve.
So, what about work experience? Although he didn’t come out and say it, there were a few things he said that indicated that having four years of solid work experience is even more attractive than a nice GMAT score. BYU is probably the only school that doesn’t count LDS mission experience – that is – unless you are a woman. In that case, Tad said they count it to encourage more female applicants.
Anyway, I met with Tad last week with people from ACE GMAT prep encourage him to tell prospective students about ACE’s GMAT course. He talked a bit about the admissions criteria and admitted that a great GMAT score is far more important than your GPA – and that the reason why is that it is pretty much the only criteria that is easy to compare across candidates. Because students come from such a variety of Universities and majors, a GPA is much harder to compare. He said that he encourages prospective students to spend a significant amount of time preparing for the GMAT – and that he finds it ironic that students anguish so much about grades when the GMAT matters so much more, and is easier to improve.
So, what about work experience? Although he didn’t come out and say it, there were a few things he said that indicated that having four years of solid work experience is even more attractive than a nice GMAT score. BYU is probably the only school that doesn’t count LDS mission experience – that is – unless you are a woman. In that case, Tad said they count it to encourage more female applicants.
