Everyone could use a Bob in their life

As I mentioned in my last post, there are tons of ways to go about deciding what’s best for you. One guy who has been invaluable to me in my decision making process is my friend Bob from the gym.

Bob is about 50 something. He’s the local head of a foreign marketing company in Tokyo. One of the most down to earth people you’ll ever meet. We run into each other in the gym once or twice a week.

When I met the Director of Admissions of Smith for dinner in early February, I wasn’t sure what to wear as it was a Friday night and I wanted to be able to go out afterwards. Plus it was the first time to go to a dinner with such a person, so I figured why not ask Bob. He seems to know his stuff. Bob said to wear a blazer, dress shirt and that I could go with jeans as long as they were nice. I went with that recommendation and it seemed like it was okay. My offer wasn’t rescinded at least.

Turns out Bob went to Harvard to get his MBA. You would never know that by the way he carries himself, at least if you’ve met someone else from that b-school. Since then he’s given me tons of advice regarding my search. The day of the dinner he gave me some great questions to ask and just a few days ago he told me why Marketing was such a popular MBA concentration (you’re basically not pigeon-holed as much as with other concentrations). Bob also had a son that went to USC so he knows a little about moving to the area like don’t register your car in California. The insurance premiums are crazy expensive. He also happens to know the person in Tokyo handling alumni relations for USC so hopefully I’ll get a chance to get introduced.

This week has been quite busy and will continue to be until the end of the week. I started a temp job at a company trying to create software that helps inexperienced investors currency trade. My job is to research similar companies in the US and gauge interest in potential partnerships.

The director of the MBA program I applied to at the University of Hawaii is also in town. I met with him for lunch today. He’s an Economics professor although he only teaches MBA students. Very nice, smart man. We met for lunch and I asked him as many questions as I could in the short time we had. I am scheduled to attend the program’s graduation ceremony in Tokyo tomorrow before returning to the night shift at work.

On top of that my sister and fiancé are in town. I went from unemployed to super busy in a span of a few days. Not complaining though. If you couldn’t tell, I am a happy boy.

Oh, and one last thing. Here are the 2010 grad school rankings from US News.

Cost doesn't matter

Probably the best advice I’ve received thus far came from the Foster MBA Admitted Student newsletter. Ironically, it probably pushed me away from their program. In the newsletter, Dan Poston, Assistant Dean for Masters Programs at UW says:

“Cost doesn’t matter. How can I say such a thing? Because I firmly believe that a free ride to ‘Anytown U’ cannot possibly match the value of a top MBA program, even if you must borrow every cent of the tuition. If a degree from School A leads to exactly the job you want and a degree from School B does not, does that $20,000 scholarship from School B still look like a good deal?”

There are two types of people that go to business school. The first are people that go to improve their skills so they can be better at their job now. The other group are career changers. Regardless of what category you fall under, you need your investment to lead you to the job you want. Even if you are getting a free ride, you are investing two years of your life in your 20s or 30s.

I fall under both categories. I worked in Financial Communications and Investor Relations consulting where I helped companies from different secotrs/industries/countries tailor their communications geared toward their investors. My goal is to do the same type of work in Japan, but in-house (i.e. for one company as opposed to clients). It is completely possible that I change my mind while in school, but this is what I would like to do at the moment.

There are two ways to look for a job in b-school: via on-campus recruiting or networking/finding one yourself. Unless you’re Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton, most companies that recruit on-campus are companies that are based in the same geographical area as the school. For example, 75% of students in Smith’s Full-time MBA program that graduated in 2008 chose jobs in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast region, while 70% of the same class at USC/Marshall’s program stayed on the West Coast to work.

Not many companies recruit for their in-house investor relations positions. They are usually filled internally or handpicked from investment banks that helped the company raise capital. Even if they do recruit for them, they aren’t going to business school campuses. There just aren’t enough positions for that. What this means is that my job search is going to be done by me, myself, and I as I would like to come back to Japan when I finish, and the job I want falls into a niche category.

So if I take cost out of the equation, what factors do I need to look at when choosing a school? I need a school with a big international alumni network. It also needs to have a good ranking as Japanese people really care about rankings (although American people do too). The school’s career services center also has to have a good record of placing graduates in international jobs. As mentioned earlier, there will be no recruiting for the job I want at any of the schools I got into. However, they must be able to provide as much assistance where necessary.

I am currently in at 3 schools – Maryland, USC, and UW. Given the criteria mentioned above, USC/Marshall is the best fit. USC has the largest population of foreign alumni of any university in the U.S. Its ranking is about the same as Maryland’s in most polls, sometimes better sometimes worse. A greater percentage of its graduates work abroad than the other schools I am considering. Marshall also has a greater focus on international business. They are the first business school to require its students to travel abroad.

So as it stands at the moment, I’m going to LA and pretty excited about it. I do have an interview with Hawaii this week and do not have to make my final decision on USC until next month, but Maryland’s $1,000 non-refundable deposit is due on April 8 and I do not have any plans to pay it, nor do I plan on asking them for an extension since I already asked them one to make it April 8.

I am quite relieved that the whole process is almost over, but I do have a lot of things to worry about going forward. Mainly where I’m going to live, how I am going to get a car, etc. Luckily, this isn’t the first time I am moving to a big city. At least I can speak the local language there! I also have a good amount of friends in LA (that I would hide and would hide me!) to help me out with the process.