The first year of MBA – from joining to interning
Categories: General
Congratulations to all those who have received the admission confirmation and are now on their way to start at their dream schools. One of our consultants has written this interesting article about the first year of MBA, read on…
If you’re just getting started on your way to a global MBA, you must be filled with myriad questions. How will it be like? How do I gain the most? How am I going to hunt for internships and jobs? Are my two years going to be very competitive?
In this section, our consultants attempt to provide you a good picture of your MBA period, so that you’re not in for any surprises, at least not many of them 
. In what follows, we are assuming a common scenario of a 2-year US full-time MBA, starting in the month of August.
Typically, in India, the first month of an under-graduate academic session feels like a honeymoon period. However, a US MBA starts on quite a busy note. You have deadlines to do assignments right from the beginning and it is difficult to have the luxury of having a quarterly test which is three months away.
August and September pass quickly as you intermingle with your study-group and class-mates but, before you know, campus placements start. Whoa, when you have barely begun to understand the MBA stuff, you’re up against all others for internships. Your must-dos are:
- Prepare a professional resume which talks about business rather than technical details. You will need to take help from the second year students and friends for review.
- Prepare a cover letter. An average Indian student will probably do it for the first time. Yes, cover letter is important and employers read it.
- Networking. You had always assumed that your knowledge and performance will take you to the best jobs. Now you need a third element – your relationship-building skills. Networking events in the evening, can easily convert into late night events, and can leave you breathless.
- Thank you emails – you have never done so. Yet, you will wish to remember precisely what was discussed in the event and with whom. Personalizing your thank you emails is a good idea.
In your first recruitment season, your professors may be willing to extend your deadlines and relax your work schedule, but not a whole lot. As a management student, you will be expected to do everything and still find time to do more. Be ready.
Those gunning for investment banking and financial services industry positions need to do more. These demanding employers will be the first to visit for recruitment. Internship positions are few so obviously, not everyone can end up spending summers in a top-rated investment bank. Gun for the best but don’t ignore the niche banks.
By October end, the pressure starts easing up. But many students, who may not have tasted success in campus recruitment, will have to start looking for alternatives recruitment platforms. Some of the good recruitment platforms are:
- NBMBAA – National Black MBAs Conference. This conference generally takes place in late September, almost two months after you join MBA.
- NSHMBA – National Society of Hispanic MBAs Conference. This happens generally a month after the NBMBAA.
- West Coast Forum – This career track is typically an initiative by the business schools standalone or as a consortium.
Are NBMBAA and NSHMBA conferences really meant for Indians? Absolutely! Most Indian MBA students visit these conferences and many walk away with leads, contacts and job offers.
By the time Christmas & New Year holidays commence, campus recruitment dries up and major conferences are over. For those still looking for a break, there may be many options:
- Start the search individually using job sites such as Monster and Linkedin
- Use the contacts and reach out to the alumni network for a break
- Start cold-calling companies in the surrounding region
- Look within the university and the school to find promising projects
- Discuss opportunities with the professors for TA or RA
- Go entrepreneurial, form a team of like-minded classmates and discuss ideas
- Reach out to your friends in other business schools and be on the scent of hot employers
We hope that this will give you some idea on how you might spend your first year at the business school.
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