In the MBA program, it seems like you are able to classify students into one of two job seeking categories: those who know exactly what they want to do and those that are searching. This post is going to be designed for those who know what they want to do in their post-MBA world. I have a piece of advice that can seriously help students in their networking and job search.
This piece of advice is to use personal branding to your advantage. First let’s talk about what personal branding is. Personal branding is labeling yourself as “officially targeting” a particular industry, job function or company. Using myself as an example, if you were to ask pretty much any student in my program who I was... they would probably respond with, “Brian Jenkins? Yeah... he’s really into human resources.” That is the first step of branding. I make sure that every professor, student and networking contact knows right away that I am focused on human resources. This opens the door for networking without even thinking about it. For example, I recently was giving a presentation to Dean Livingstone and I mentioned (as I always do) that I am interested in HR. She later connected me with Steve Milovich, a Senior HR manager at Disney. With this connection, I have a phone interview planned for later this week. If I didn’t wear the fact I’m pursuing HR on my forehead, I wouldn’t have made that contact.
The second aspect of branding yourself is to become an expert in your field. You have to find your niche. Business as an area of study is so broad that it is impossible to become an expert at everything. Because of this, students should carve out a specialty. This speciality needs to be deeper than just a general concentration in the program like finance, marketing, accounting, etc. When you set out to be an expert in your particular area, any chance you get to focus on that area in school you should take. Meaning that when taking classes, try to custom tailor your papers, projects and readings to encompass as much of your specialty as possible.
In addition to your normal classes, you should seek out people with knowledge in your field. For example, the first day of my Leadership class with Dr. Kevin Groves I found out that he had extensive knowledge in human resources. That same day I arranged a meeting with him for the following day. During our meeting, we reviewed my career development and future job plans. He gave me valuable advice and shared some of his HR research with me, deepening my knowledge in the field even more. To add to your area of focus knowledge pool, Google “Top Ten Books in _______”. Go on Amazon, grab a couple and start reading. Its this outside the classroom effort that will make a huge difference in building your knowledge base.
Networking is a word used in a MBA’s everyday language. Everyone talks about how to meet people, where to make the connections and how to target certain industries. What students don’t seem to focus on as much is how to impress an important contact when you finally do come face to face with them. Looking back at how I got my summer internship, I met a VP of HR in a sauna and had 10 minutes to impress him. If I hadn’t focused on HR as part of my personal branding strategy, my chance of getting the internship would have been small.
The result of all of this work is two main objectives: have everyone know what you want to do and become an expert in that field. Accomplishing this will go a long way towards helping a MBA student obtain a job in their career field of choice.
