College majors don't matter, Rankings do

There are a good amount of new articles on MBA related topics popping up on Bloomberg Businessweek this month. Two in particular caught my eye.

The first’s main topic isn’t on MBAs or Business Schools. It is on CEOs that didn’t study anything related to business at their undergraduate institution. I actually always tell young people that ask me for career guidance that choose a major that you like and know you will excel in because in the end your college major really has no bearing on where you end up. The only exception is if you want to be an engineer, you pretty much have to study engineering. As I mentioned in my last entry, Steve Jobs didn’t even graduate from college. He is not the only one: Bill Gates (Harvard) and Larry Ellison (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Chicago) of Oracle dropped out of school as well.

So let’s say you plan on finishing your university degree and not sure what to study. This article provides inspiration for you to choose a major that you want to study as opposed to one you think is best to put on your resume. It even suggests you might be better off going with a degree totally unrelated to business. Just some food for thought for you young people that tend to think your college major really means more than something. A lot of times it’s not as important as you think.

The second article is on MBA rankings and how they pertain to your future salary. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“On average, MBAs from the top 45 B-schools will make around $2.5 million in base pay and bonuses over the course of a 20-year career. But there are great differences between the total compensation of the schools at the top of the list compared with those closer to the bottom, especially as MBAs move deeper into their careers. An MBA grad from Harvard, for instance, will earn nearly $4 million over the span of two decades. A grad from the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business will earn less than half that. Newly minted MBAs at some top programs, such as Yale, earn high starting salaries but experience only a minimal increase over time. At other schools, such as the University of Connecticut, MBA grads more than double their salaries over the 20-year period.”

Of course there are tons of other factors that come into play, but it is an interesting read nonetheless. The article can be found here.

CNNMoney.com published the top 100 companies business school students most want to work for. Not surprisingly, Google topped the list for the fourth year in a row. Why Google? Well here’s what CNNMoney says:

“Well, who wouldn't want to work for a company that offers free meals, massages, as well as onsite laundry and oil changes? ‘But the creative culture is another big draw. People want to work here because they know they'll be doing innovative work,’ says company spokesman Jordan Newman. Employees are encouraged to learn skills outside of their specific field, by taking French lessons at the company's so-called Google University, for example. Says Newman: ‘There's a strong emphasis on growing here.’”

What was surprising about the list is that 3 investment banks made the list.

“’Being a part of the rebuilding of the investment banking industry is really appealing,’" said Camille Kelly, vice president of employer branding at Universum. ‘The opportunity to work at a company when it's on the road to recovery is a great chance to make an impact at your first job out of school.’”

The full CNNMoney list can be found here.

And speaking of Google…

It's all about connecting the dots

I have a good buddy W.E. in Japan that is applying to business school this fall. He asked me about b-school interviews. For me, they weren’t difficult at all. The questions at each interview are basically the same: Why do you want an MBA now? Why this school?

Then one of my newer friends S.I. posted a commencement speech Steve Jobs did at Stanford five years ago. S.I. is a university student here in Tokyo, and is dropping knowledge on me via facebook. Thanks, S.I.

Jobs says it’s all about “connecting the dots” when tying together dropping out of college to his success at Apple.

“Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Business school applications are all about “connecting the dots.” I had no idea I’d be going to USC in two months when I moved to Japan 5 years ago. He’s right though when he says it is very clear looking backwards. I can tell you exactly why I am going there now, and how everything I’ve accomplished to this point leads to that path. The b-school application process is a very painstaking process, but once you finish it you know exactly who you are, what you can and can’t do, and what you will be doing with that information going forward. Even if you don’t get in anywhere.

Jobs goes on to give more insight regarding getting fired from Apple.

"I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

This is where you really need to have faith in the stars aligning themselves. I’ve had jobs that I have liked, not loved. Will I get myself to that elusive job? Well, that’s why I’m going to back to school. Only time will tell but I’m following Mr. Jobs advice by not settling.

His whole commencement speech can be found here.

People keep asking me if I’m coming back to Japan. What nobody realizes is that Japan is pretty much home to me. Except for a short stay after university, I haven’t lived in the house I grew up in since I was 17 years old. It’s very possible I fall in love with Southern California but up to this point I’ve never enjoyed life more than my 5+ years here in Tokyo. Not even close. I wish my friends and family from PG County, Baltimore, NYC, etc. could have been here for the ride.

I met a guy last night that went to HEC Paris. He is from Argentina. He’s been here almost 3 times as long as I have and I asked him if he’s going to be here in the long run. He said yeah. He told me his reason in Japanese – Tokyo is sumiyasui. Sumiyasui translated directly into English means “easy to live.” The translation doesn’t really do the phrase any justice however. It’s more like as Miss N.S. says, “a great place to live.”

T-minus 2 months till LA and I still don’t have a place to live. Nor a car. Should I be worried?

I know I’m forgetting something, but I’ll leave it to next time.