MBA Students as Employees: Things Both Sides Should Consider
April 16, 2013
To support my efforts here, I get daily alerts from Google spiders who hunt for news about, or otherwise concerning, MBAs and the GMAT. Every now and then one of these alerts will contain a snippet of information from the interwebs that subsequently does its job and inspires a post. One such link led me to this CNBC article about a new start-up called Hourly Nerd.
Hourly Nerd is a by-product of Harvard Business School’s FIELD curriculum—a fairly recent addition to HBS pedagogy and one I have written about before here and here. Soon-to-be Harvard MBAs started Hourly Nerd with the intention of matching money-starved students with time-and-money-starved businesses. The model actually reminds me of one used by crowdSPRING: a service that matches those in need of graphic design services with
Kaplan GMAT Blog: Post #150
March 28, 2013
My last retrospective was when I hit fifty. Number one hundred was overshadowed by the test change so there was not an opportunity for much fanfare. However, Elite GMAT Instructor, Justin Doff, asked me what some of my favorite posts were just after I told him that #149 was up on the blogroll. “Geez, that’s a tough one… but it’s a great idea for #150!” I replied.
Nineteen months and one hundred fifty posts later… Here is a list of some of my favorites, or at least these are posts GMAT blog readers might find interesting.
Cheers.
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Is Business School for Entrepreneurs?
February 22, 2013
Just read an article titled ‘Is the MBA Relevant for Entrepreneurs?’ This is an interesting topic for me for a couple of reasons. First, I completed my MBA with dual concentrations in Entrepreneurship and Finance. The latter was a result of happenstance more than an actual interest in finance. I inadvertently satisfied the requirements for the concentration and find it almost comedic that I ended up with one. The former, however, was a target from the start.
Pursuing entrepreneurship as an academic discipline is an interesting undertaking and there are many out there who believe the mettle entrepreneurship requires cannot be learned, or, at the very least, it cannot be taught. It is this notion that strikes another chord with me. Coming from an undergraduate background in fine arts, I’ve run across the you-are-either-born-with-it-or-you-aren’t idea many
Great News for MBA Grads
February 7, 2013
In recent years, the job market has faltered due to the lagging world economy, and MBA grads were hit just like everyone else. However, a recent survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), who administers the GMAT, reveals that employment is up for 2012 MBA grads. Of the 4,444 MBA and other graduate-level alumni surveyed, 92% were employed three months after graduation–6 percentage points higher than reported by graduates in last year’s survey. Additionally, 77% of those surveyed this year reported that their starting salary met or exceeded their expectations, and 76% stated that they could not have gotten their jobs without their graduate management education.
Dave Wilson, GMAC president and CEO, attributes this year’s higher employment percentages to the improving world economy, stating, “As the economy improves in many parts of the
Give Aspiring MBAs What They Want This Season
December 11, 2012
Bloomberg Businessweek posted an article that reaches beyond the superficial issues tangentially relevant to the aspirant MBA.
The article gets straight to the most timely and crucial concern at the forefront of any prospective b-schooler’s mind as well as their closest friends and family: holiday gifts. Whether you need ideas for giving or receiving, Bloomberg’s survey of students, professors, and administrators at our nation’s top schools is sure to provide sage advice that will bring ear-to-ear smiles of gratitude this season.
Conveniently, the write-up is broken down into categories: technology, travel, fashion, rest & relaxation, and stocking stuffers and more. Here, we highlight a few of the best ideas then offer up some more of our own. At the end, let us know what missed the list!!
From the article:
- PowerPoint remote. This simple device future students can use
Kaplan & the sexiest job of the 21st century
November 1, 2012
Data. Whisper it slowly, softly. Think of all the poems written throughout history longing to capture the sublime intimate immensity of the human data experience. Think of the endless songs of heartbreak, devotion, and passion that carom across the significance of data.
Let’s take this to the next level—let’s leave the mushy stuff behind and go straight for carnal, hard-hitting sex appeal. Let’s pair “data” with “scientist.”
According to an October 2012 Harvard Business Review article, ‘data scientist’ is the sexiest job of the 21st Century. Data analysts working with Facebook and LinkedIn came up with the job title only four years ago in 2008 to describe a large contingent of the labor force that had long been wrangling, interpreting, and using to forecast the colossal numerical records our digital age generates. As evidence the sheer volume of information these libidinous professionals are charged with mining,
Hurricane Sandy: GMAT Classes and Communication
October 29, 2012
To our GMAT students:
As always, we are committed to the success and well-being of our students and our faculty. As a business, we try our best to remain in operation during periods of inclement weather to provide information about class cancellations in your area and to provide assistance to ensure that you can continue with your studies with minimal disruptions.
We have a team of Kaplan representatives ready to help. However, due to increased call volumes, students may experience a delay in reaching an Enrollment and Experience representative by telephone or email. We appreciate your patience during this time. Please be assured that we remain absolutely committed to your educational success and want to do our part in easing any concerns you may have.
We will contact you if there are any changes to your regularly scheduled class. If you do not receive any notification, you should assume your class will meet
Business School Strategy Question
October 5, 2012
Since most readers are all studying hard to get into business school, I thought that today I would throw a strategy question out there for discussion. Read through the following situation and post your thoughts in the comments. I will let a few days go by to gather ideas, and then I’ll chime in.
You are the CEO of a trucking company, and you are thinking about entering a new market. You will only invest the resources to enter one of the two markets that are available to you. You need to decide which market is most attractive.
In the first market, another trucking company is already serving customers. This company has invested $100 million in their operations and their cost to serve the customer is $.003 per mile.
In the second market,
“When you interview recent MBA graduates about the highlights of their two years, you are very likely to hear about their experience doing case work in the field. They loved the social aspects of school and were inspired by their professors, but it is often the work they did practicing what they learned in the real world where they gained the most.”
- Aaron Hurst, President and Founder, Taproot Foundation
I am one of those MBA graduates Aaron Hurst is talking about. Experiential learning is a topic near and dear to me and one I’ve visited on this blog many times before (post links 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). The HuffPost article I quoted above is a tad thin, but
The Art of Business
June 27, 2012
When Richard Branson talks about business we all listen. At an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion, the life of the serial entrepreneur and corporate business mega-mind is a success story we’d all like to have a little of.
Business Insider has a series of short little posts it calls Instant MBA. The posts are interesting tidbits from measurably successful business people and business academics. In a recent one, Sir Richard likens building a business to painting a picture. I have always thought my undergraduate fine arts degree served me well during my MBA education and my professional business endeavors afterward. Now I have been validated by Virgin’s captain. Yes!
The simile is well-taken: a masterpiece is not created by slapping any old paint onto any old canvas with any old
