Well, it has been over 7 months since my last test at Queen's and over 300 CVs sent out, but I now have a job. It has been a struggle to find opportunities as the economy is down and even harder to secure interviews as there are a lot of qualified people looking for work too. However, by persisting, using all the tools available to me and being able to show some adaptability it all turned out in the end.
I will be working as a Market Analyst for a company in Calgary, Alberta, Canada that manufactures and sells drilling pipe. This is not where I saw myself when I entered the MBA program, but the company is a great fit and the position require both my oil and gas engineering background as well as my MBA education, which is exactly what I was looking for. In addition, this will put me back in the heart of Calgary and if for some reason this doesn't workout, which I don't see why it wouldn't, I will be in a good place to see what else is around.
The main job hunting method that helped me get this job was networking and my school's alumni network. By attending a Queen's School of Business event I was directed to contact an alumni relations person who in turn forwarded my resume to this company. As it turns out, this company has a strong relationship with the school and that helped too.
All the other methods were very helpful too, but this was the one that got me the opportunity I signed on with. Sending resumes to specific advertised position worked. Sending resumes to companies "cold" worked, but only if the timing coincidentally happened to be right. Sending resumes through recruiters (a.k.a. headhunters) worked. However, it was through face to face networking that I found this opportunity.
Most positions I found were advertised on company websites. Although eluta.ca and indeed.ca were helpful, I found that they were not as thorough as going though the company websites myself. They will likely improve in the future, but at this time they seem only to find jobs posted on larger companies' websites or jobs that have been posted for a few weeks. Their major weakness was finding jobs posted by smaller companies. Sometimes these companies don't post a html job description and instead opt for a PDF of a scanned print of the job description. A bit low tech, true, but effective none the less. These PDFs, however, do not get "crawled" by the job search engines and as a result you do not see them in the results. So I recommend going through a list of specific companies once a week to check postings as well as using job posting search engines.
Because I found this job so close to Christmas, my start date has been delayed to the new year. By the time the company can get all the required IT and HR items in place, a lot of people will be gone on vacation and the company doesn't think there will be any point in my starting prior to the new year. So, I am unemployed for another month, but it will give me time to look for a suitable place to rent and spend some time with my family.
Overall, the hardest part has been keeping my moral up. Nobody wants to interview or hire someone who is "down in the dumps", but it is hard not to feel that way when you graduate from an excellent MBA program and can't find a job for months. Talking with the career counsellor at Queen's, working out regularly and getting out to network were the three major things that I did to stay positive. Having a supportive wife, family and a group of understanding friends were major factors outside of my immediate control that helped me through this tough time as well.
My advice to anyone going back for an MBA is to make sure you "plan for the worst and hope for the best". Make sure you have your support system in place prior to entering the program just in case you need it. With luck, you won't, but it sure helps to have it there if you need it.
Informasi Terkini
10 years ago
8 comments:
Congratulations! I've been following your journey for the past 2 years, and it helped me make some of my own decisions to pursue my MBA at Haskayne, which I started in September 2008.
Your insight into life in a full-time program was great, and, although I chose to pursue my degree part-time, it still reinforced many of the ideas about networking and people-centricity as the key elements in your MBA.
First of all congrats for the job.
MBA plays an important role in getting a good job . But as you know economy is down so its beneficial to still go for an MBA or to choose other course.?
If we adopt an MBA course then part time MBA have same importance while we apply for a job?
What do you suggest??
Gary, you pose as a very good question. If you would like to discuss this in more detail I would be happy to give you my opinion. Please e-mail me at "appleseed at live dot ca". I will take a stab at it here though.
Whether to get an MBA or not has a lot to with where you want your career to go and where you are at the present. There are many "good jobs" available to people with or without MBAs, so I disagree with your statement that an MBA plays an important role in getting a "good job". An MBA can offer the chance to work in a different area with a certain type of skill set, which may or may not be for everyone.
Although the economy is down, that has traditionally been the best time to enter a program as you graduate when things start to improve. However, timing a market is risky and if your entire plan is hitched on getting your timing correct you could be sadly disappointed as even the most savy economists and business professions have great trouble with timing the market. I would recommend adopting an over arching career strategy where an MBA is part of the plan regardless of the economy if you chose to pursue an MBA. If you get luck with the economy, so much the better, but at least your whole plan will not be at risk of failing if you don't time the market correctly. That way you either win or win bigger.
That being said, how you take an MBA (i.e. part-time, full-time, distance, etc.) has a lot to do with how you learn best, what you want to accomplish and what you are prepared to sacrifice. At the end of the day, you will still have an "MBA" degree, which will open certain doors for you, but what really matters is what you are able to do from there. If you can't deliver on the promises and expectations put upon you when you were hired, then you will not ultimately succeed.
Although I can't speak to specifics since I don't know where you are posing your question from, I do know this, life writes no guarantees. If you can't risk losing your job by returning to school full-time, then perhaps a part-time option is best. You can always seek other employment afterwards from a position of strength and relative safety if you really need a job.
Again, a very good question and I would love to discuss this further with you if you e-mail.
Congratulations on landing a new position. The silver lining in the clouds are that you found a way to land work coming out of the worst recession in 25 years. Although being unemployed with no certainty was stressful, being employed as a white collar worker in 2009 meant working 50, 60, and 70 hours a week doing the jobs that 3 or 4 people previously did. There are those of us who learned by working in 2009 that we want to go back to school :-)
The bond market is pointing to a strong economic recovery in 2010, so you'll be starting your work at a time when the business will be growing, the economy will be growing, and so will your prospects and bonuses.
Hello, and congratulations on finding a job :)
I am an MBA aspirant and had a interview at Queens (skype)... can you please let me know how soon do they decide on the candidature?
Best,
S
Shubham,
You can look at my postings from when I was an applicant. Queen's has rolling admission so you could know any day. However, it also likely you may be offered a conditional position for the next year and the school may hold off on telling that as they will be focused on filling this years class first.
Overall, it varies, but if you don't hear back in about 2 or 3 weeks I would contact the person you interviewed with to see how things are progressing.
Hope that helps.
You got so many points here, that's why i love reading your blog. Thank you so much!
Queen's School of Business is one of the world's top business schools. Graduates at Queen's are well prepared for career success.
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