One Year After Completing My MBA

It has now been one year to the day since I completed the MBA program at Queen's and I find myself sitting in my apartment enjoying the weekend re-charging for another week of work. Twelve months, gone. It is hard to believe so much time has passed. Even more strange is contemplating that almost exactly two years ago I was just starting the MBA program at Queen's. So, one year later, what has the MBA done for my career, would I do it again and where is the class? Hopefully I can answer these questions with this posting.

Right now, I find myself working back in downtown Calgary,Alberta, Canada. I'm in a role as a Market Analyst for a large multinational corporation that manufactures pipe and sells it to the oil and gas industry. The role I have been hired to fill uses both my engineering and industry experience as well as my MBA. The organization is very MBA "friendly" as there are people with MBAs throughout; even a few with the MBA/engineering combination I have. I did, however, have to take a slight pay cut from my pre-MBA salary, but that is to be expected with the economic downturn. In addition, it took me seven months to find this position. Also, I am working with my supervisors to expand my role as I am finding I could take on more responsibilities.

Overall, I am very happy with my decision to return to for an MBA. Although it took me seven months to find a position and I had to take a pay cut afterwards, I count myself lucky. I believe both of these can be attributed to the economic downturn, which I would have needed to navigate regardless since I couldn't have stayed in my pre-MBA position for much longer. I look at where I would have been if I had not returned for my MBA and I am very glad I did return to school. Without my MBA I would have had to try to find a different purely engineering position in an environment filled with more qualified people, with no additional skill set to offer and I would have had to take a pay cut since I would have been leaving the lucrative world of consulting. The MBA allowed me to leverage my previous experience and find a rewarding job with future growth potential with only a minor pay cut despite the economic downturn.

The summary, bullet point format, of where I am one year later:

• In an MBA role that uses my previous experience
• With a company that values both my MBA and previous experience
• With a company that has long term career growth potential
• Slight pay cut, but this can be attributed to the economic downturn
• Took seven months to find this job after graduation, but again this can be attributed to the economic downturn

As for the class, there are still a few people looking for jobs. However, it seems that the biggest barrier for these people is there limited work experience prior to completing the MBA and/or their commitment to staying focused on just one type/segment of work (e.g. only want to work for bio-tech start-up firms in a business role). As a whole, almost everyone has found employment. I'm sure the employment statistics are not pretty for my graduating year, but that holds true for MBA grads across the board.

The class has managed to say in touch somewhat, but some people have disappeared. My wife and I have returned to Toronto once for a classmates wedding reception, which was great since we got to see a lot the class. Also, there are a lot of weddings happening now that the program is complete. These are couples that were met while in the MBA as well as people who had been together prior to starting the MBA. Overall, a lot our classmates have lost touch as their post-MBA jobs and lives take up their time. However, since we all know each other so well, because it is a smaller program, there is never any hesitation to pick up the phone or drop someone an e-mail to say "hi" or to meet up if they are passing through town. I have met up with several of my colleagues as they pass through my town on business and I suspect I will continue to do so as the years go by.

Another interesting aspect of the post-MBA life is being invited to attend information sessions to answers questions from perspective MBA students. It is strange since I know I was once in their shoes. Also, it is a nice way to stay in touch with some of the faculty that travel to put these information sessions on. Furthermore, it has been interesting to become a member of the Queen's University and Queen's School of Business alumni community in my city.

That about covers my one year entry. If you, as a reader, have questions please feel free to write, but be aware that I don't check this e-mail as frequently as I once did. I may write a one and a half year or two year entry if the mood strikes me, but if not, this is likely my final post. It has been fun to write this blog and I hope others have enjoyed reading it.

Until next time,
Appleseed

Hired!

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.

Week 23.5: Brief dialogue on job hunting and employment opportunities at this time.

After a comment on the "Week 23" post I have decided to re-post my response here to allow others to view it easily.

I only want it to be clear that this is my opinion and the opinion of a few others I have discussed this with in the program. What is really happening will only be told by history. It is very likely I'm wrong, if not in entirely than in part.

From what I have heard, many companies are being a little more selective on who they are interviewing, particularly the consulting companies and the banks. In addition there are fewer positions available (e.g. 3 instead of 5) compared to previous years. Also, some of the "rumoured" offers are a little lower for some positions compared with other years, but these are "rumours" and I have no way of knowing what are the facts. (Pure speculation is dangerous, but I'm human and can't help my curiosity and to fill that curiosity with speculation when fact is not available.) All of this is a result of things slowing down and other qualified people entering the labour market.

I have been looking closely for a position related to oil and gas in Canada and I can tell you that all seems to be well in "the patch". Lots of jobs of all types. In fact the french giant Total just moved into Calgary and is looking to drop billions into building an oil sands project despite the downturn. There is also rumours that these times of lower oil and gas prices will result in consolidations. This of course means work for all the financial and supporting services for these acquisitions and mergers. So, it seems Alberta and "the patch" are a little bit more shielded.

One clear distinction should be made between Canada and the US. From what I have heard Canada is still relatively strong even if things are slowing. Some firms in the US have come to a grinding halt. In other word, although Canada may be slow, at least we still have job opportunities. Not a lot of people were looking to go to the US after the program, so this shouldn't affect too many of us. Most the international students were looking to work for a Canadian company and see where that took them since visas to work in Canada are available where as the same visa in the US is all but vanished. (If a US reader had further insight please feel free to share via posting a comment)

In addition, one person I talked to was a tad bit concerned since they were thinking of going to the United Arab Emirates for banking. However, one of their contacts mentioned that there were a large number of applicants from Europe and the US. A lot of them ex-bank employees and looking for work as a result of certain closures and downsizing. This could be a serious issue for this individual should the situation not change over the next 6 months. I haven't heard much regarding other international employment environments. (If readers from other parts of the world has any insight please feel free to share via posting a comment)

However, all is not dark! I distinctly remember a particular CEO who talked with us a few weeks ago (although it seems like eons). Bruce was quite confident that getting into these firms, both banking and non-banking, was difficult in these times, but the effort well worth it. He has seen many a career made by someone entering industry in a downturn and watched as they have been catapulted to the top during the ensuing recovery and boom. This makes sense, but only time will tell if this particular dip will rebound in a similar fashion or some other random fashion. Also, it may have just as much to do with the individual in question as the circumstances. It all sounds a lot like luck to me...

As my father always used to define luck when I was younger, "luck is when preparation and opportunity meet". So, getting the education and a key position is the preparation allowing you to take advantage of the opportunity when it arises. Hopefully I can take care of my "preparation" now and get ready for my "opportunity".

Employment: Interperting Placement/Employment Statistics from Universities.

I have encountered several people researching and exploring MBA programs. Inevitable "placement" statistics enter into the discuss and I am surprised how little most people know about what is being put in front of them. Therefore, I am posting this excerpt from a document I found on the Queen's Career Centre website. Hopefully it will help people to start asking the right questions about what is being presented to them. Statistics can be very useful, but they can also tell many different versions of the "truth"; some of them misleading.

Reporting Guidelines and Statistics – a few comments.

1. READ INFORMATION CAREFULLY - ESPECIALLY THE FINE PRINT!

Many schools may report information on their web sites differently from the guidelines set out by the MBA CSC – this is perfectly acceptable as long as the institution clearly sets out for you the basis of their reporting.

2. What does the placement (employment) rate mean?

Placement or employment rate is the percentage of students in the class with employment at a given date.

It is the percentage of students with offers of employment based on the number of students reporting back to the university and actively looking for work. This means that if there are 100 students in the graduating class, 80 have reported back to the university and 60 of the 80 have job offers, the placement rate is 75%, not 60%.

Active job seekers -Further to the above, if 20 of the 80 reporting back are continuing to further their education, not in an active job search or otherwise not looking for work (extended travel for instance) then the placement rate is 100% : 80-20 = 60 of which 60 are reporting having received an offer.

Offers count as placement. If a student receives a bona fide offer for a suitable MBA level job but declines it, they are nonetheless considered placed as they had the opportunity to accept meaningful work.

3. Timing of placements;

a. At Graduation – means offers received on or before the official graduation date at the school.

b. Within three months of graduation means offers received on or before the three month anniversary of the official graduation date at the school.

c. Placement reports can include dates beyond three months depending on the type of program and profile of the average graduate. Graduates with more work experience often are more targeted in their job search and may elect to take longer than three months to search for the right job.

4. Source of placements:

Placements facilitated by the University are not just those offers received through formal on campus recruitment programs. University-facilitated placements may include offers received as a result of networking events, alumni connections or other university sponsored, arranged or facilitated sources.

5. Timelines and transparency:

Look for schools that report several years’ worth of data. Economic conditions play a significant role in placement and salary statistics. You should want to see how well an institution fares in both strong and weak conditions. Further, consider how stable and how consistent the salaries are from year to year. Some years a few outliers may take the numbers look very good but may not reflect the total picture of salaries over a long run.

Correspondence: Feedback from Career Centre

After writing a follow-up e-mail the Queen's Career Centre replied with the sample material they mentioned during my phone conversation with them. It was comprised of 5 job posting from this past year for various "finance" and "strategic consulting" positions. This material was quite helpful and in line with what I had discovered before from the websites of the top firms involved in these industries.

I still don't know how these options might suit myself, but at least I have some idea what they might be like if I should be presented with the opportunity to pursue a career in one of these directions. I won't really know until I get into the material at Queen's.

Employment: Found some options

Came across the "Fortune" list of the top MBA employers for 2007.

Top 25 list. Has brief breakdown and profile of each company.

Top 100 list. Just a list that includes the top 25 list.

I found the lists very heavily weighted to the US, but it was good to take a look at the individual companies websites. I was able to get a feel for what kind of opportunities might be available after graduating. The recruitment pages for numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 (McKinsey&Company, Goldman Sachs, Bain&Company, and Boston Consulting Group respectively) were insightful as to where these organizations would try to fit you and what your career path for the first 5 years might look like. The interview process for all of them seems very rigorous and there seems to be a lot of competition for a limited number of spots with these big names.

If you do check out these companies, make sure you also check them out at wikipedia. I found it to be a little more transparent. It lays the corporate structure and culture out in a much more logicial manner that allows you to see the benefits and drawbacks to these orgnaizations. For example McKinsey&Company has an "up or out" policy that isn't mentioned in the recruitment site. That could make the environment a little bit more competive than one would initially assume from all the smiling faces.

I'm not assuming I will even try to get into these organization or that I would even be able to, but I'm sure that there are other organizations I might find an opportunity with that would be similar in corporate structure, function, and experience. I'm not even sure if I would want to move my career in this direction, but looking at these organizations did give me a better idea what the "finance" and "strategic consulting" opportunities, mentioned by the Queen's Career Centre, might be like.

(Aside: also found this website that seems to have information on salaries at different organizations)