B-Schools| Three Months After Completing My MBA |
| Sunday, 02 August 2009 07:37 |
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Three full months have passed since I completed my MBA at Queen"s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. I find myself sitting at my in laws still without full-time employment. I split my time between my in laws and my parents living in subsistence as I job hunt. I"m very thankful I have this safety net to fall back on as I don"t know what I would do if I didn"t have it. The previous few months have not been completely without opportunity, but none of them materialized into a full-time position. As a result, I remain on the sidelines as the economy continues to improve and my bank account continues to empty. I have not heard what the official class employment stats are, but from what I have heard through the the people I have been talking to, I am guessing we are more than 25% but less than 50% placed. (Aside: one of my readers wrote me and said they asked about this in their entrance interview and they says it is close to 65%) Many people have found and started jobs, but some have had to return to their previous employers which I know was not their first choice. Additionally, I have heard of one person who had signed on with a consulting firm last fall and had their position put on hold. As a result they are now looking for other opportunities as this may no longer pan out. I understand that this year is by far the exception with the economic downturn, but it doesn"t help ease the situation for those of us caught in the thick of things. If this had been next year, or two years earlier, most of the class would have been hired by this time. I"m curious how long it will take until everyone is employed. The only saving grace seems to be the work experience we brought with us into the program. Through my face-to-face networking, I was able to secure an opportunity to interview with the business consulting practice of Deloitte with their Calgary practice. After countless hours of case interview prep and two interview session of three hours in length each, Deloitte informed me they had decided to go with another candidate. This is what I disliked about the "consulting" route from the outset. The enormous investment of time and energy just to hear "no". However, that isn"t what really got to me about this process. Deloitte didn"t pay or offer to pay for the expenses I incurred to travel to these interviews. I have interviewed with many different companies in a variety of industries in the past and all the companies, except the very small "ma & pa" outfits, offered to pay for the expenses incurred. Deloitte is not a small company and for them to pick-up a few dollars of gas wouldn"t affect them, but it would make the world of difference to an unemployed MBA saddled with debt. Other than this factor, Deloitte was very professional and the interview process was an excellent experience. I would advise others considering this route to keep the time, energy and capital requirements in mind at the beginning. Another consulting opportunity that has been slowly working through the process is with Hatch Management Consulting. Hatch has traditionally been a technical consulting company providing engineering, construction management and project management for very large mining, metal and infrastructure projects on a global scale, but they are looking to add management consulting to their other offerings. Although the company has been taking their time to launch their projects and hire people, they do seem to mean business and I"m interested to see where this opportunity could lead. Additionally, I have been seeking out business development opportunities related to my previous oil and gas background. When I find an opportunity, I look for alumni who are in the ranks of the companies I have been targeting via the alumni database. Through these contacts I have been able to learn a lot about the position(s), people and future outlook of the organizations I"m hoping to join. Furthermore, these conversations often lead me to other opportunities. One specific case led me to a finance position with CIBC under a top energy analyst as a research associate. As luck would have it, one of my former classmates from my undergrad was working in a similar capacity with CIBC. After discussing with him the details, I decided this position would not work for me. Research associates are expected to work 12 to 14 hours a day, starting at 5 AM, 6 days a week and potentially more during "peak" periods like quarterly reporting. They spend half their day finding data and crunching financial models in excel for the companies they are covering. The other half of their day is spent writing research reports on the data and correcting the reports after their analyst has reviewed them. When I asked my friend about life out side of work, he didn"t have one. No time to workout. No time for a relationship. No time. The compensation isn"t even that good. Most of these positions start at 80,000/yr salary, no overtime and the "potential" for a bonus of 100% of your salary. The hourly rate on these jobs just doesn"t seem worth the HUGE sacrifice required and the career path is simply to move up the ladder one rung to do slightly less work for more money or to move to managing a portfolio for an investment firm. As I am married and would like to stay that way, this is not the path for me, but for someone who was willing to sacrifice this much for a few extra dollars, there are opportunities to do so in the way of Equity Research. Other opportunities I have been considering have been more in line with my previous background in oil and gas engineering. These positions wouldn"t specifically make use of my MBA, but I need work and I figure if I brought the skill set to the table it would get used as I proved myself. More importantly, there are positions being posted in this area, but these positions have only been showing up in the past month and not nearly in the same quantity as when I left industry. Although the economy is "improving" and the Bank of Canada has declared the recession "over", things are still limping along. Yes there are more positions being posted, but when I discuss with recruiters about being considered for these positions, I am told that companies are waiting for individuals with significantly more experience. As many companies went through downsizing, mergers and acquisitions, there are highly experienced people displaced by these events available to fill these positions. This makes the job market very difficult. I have heard this all before when I graduated from my undergrad. "If you just had five more years experience...". Well, if over five years of experience, a professional engineering designation and an MBA doesn"t cut it, then nothing ever will. I can"t think of a better candidate to hire into an organization. So, I continue to persist and ask simply for the opportunity to be presented as a potential candidate. At this time I have been reduced to looking for any opportunity that offers fair compensation and a chance to expand my knowledge while providing a reasonable work-life balance. I am no longer holding any grand delusions that I will find my "dream" MBA job right out of school. That will have to wait for the next position I take down the road or perhaps the one after that. I have invested a lot of time, money and energy into my education and I need to start seeing a return on that investment. The loans and lines of credit I used to finance my education will need to be paid back and sitting on the sidelines unemployed will not accomplish that goal. To top it off, I"m bored. I want a challenging job that requires me to use my skills and knowledge to solve difficult and dynamic problems. Overall, the best method of seeking out information and potential positions has been contacting alumni and either conducting informational interviews via phone or over a cup of coffee. Meeting for coffee has by far been the best. This method has worked so well that I have received an e-mail concerning a potential opportunity that I would never have found on my own from one of these previous contacts a few months after our meeting. Moreover, during a different meeting my contact provided me with a different perspective and list of ideas to continue looking for opportunities when I thought I had exhausted all avenues. Also, sending "thank-you" cards after these meetings is essential. These people are taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with me and I really appreciate it. In addition, I think they like to be recognized for the gift of their time and it sets me apart from anyone else they meet. Meeting with them has also helped boost my moral and keep me in a positive state of mind. Both essential when conducting a full-time job search. In addition to this method, I keep checking eluta and indeed as well as the school"s job website and many company career websites for postings. This is my holding pattern for the moment until I find employment. In summary, most of the class still does not have a job. I have seen good results using the methods encouraged by our career center, but it still has not resulted in a full-time position. I have explored the traditional "consulting" and "finance" avenues taken by MBAs to no avail and I don"t think I would find them especially rewarding. My expectations have been significantly reduced and I"m curious to see where I will find work as well as how long it will take for my cohort to do the same.  |