A Master of Business Administration has become one of the most popular and biggest money-making degrees, both from a revenue standpoint for educational institutions and for those who succeed in making a huge-leap in the pay scale post-graduation. It’s a program that’s also extremely popular. But to be admitted to a top program requires careful planning. Whether you’re thinking of applying this Fall or a few years down the road, let me highlight a recent trend that will force you to start planning today.

The Average Age is Getting Younger

In the past, all business schools used to “strongly recommend” that candidates possess a minimum of 2 years work experience prior to applying. While 2 years was the usual guideline, most admitted participants would enter with 5-6 years, putting the average age at around 27-28.

The argument was simple. Most of the learning that occurs in an MBA is through class discussion, and sharing of stories and experiences. Without enough work experience, you would have less to share and potentially have a tougher time really appreciating some of the situations that are studied. With my MBA experiences still fresh in my mind, I totally agree. It was obvious in class to tell those students who had been around with amazing experiences under their belt to share, versus the younger students who when challenged had a hard time defending their views.

With that being said, there is a new movement and philosophy regarding this topic, led by schools such as Harvard and Stanford. These schools are slowly but purposefully trying to lower their average age to 25-26. Harvard recently introduced its 2+2 Program (http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/2+2/), encouraging those still in their undergraduate programs to apply. If accepted, you are basically pre-admitted to the MBA program 2 years from today, while you go off to get your 2 years of work experience after you get your first degree. Harvard will even assign a Career Coach to help you with your job search. Not bad, eh? The only catch: You have to apply the summer before your final year of undergrad; otherwise, you have to go through the regular MBA process.

Why the sudden change?

One of the first reasons has to do with recruiting. Top B-schools such as Harvard pride themselves on attracting superstar candidates. By encouraging young applicants, Harvard is attempting to be the first to latch on to potential top talent before other schools do, or other distractions such as a rising career or family get in the way. Harvard wants to ensure that these top candidates enrol, and when they go on to do amazing things post-graduation, Harvard is able to take the credit for the “sudden” transformation. It doesn’t hurt that these superstars become amazing alumni (i.e. big donors!) too.

A second reason has to do with the statistics. One of the most important numbers, besides rankings, that prospective applicants look at when assessing a school is the percentage increase of salary a.k.a. the ROI – how high does your salary jump pre-MBA to post. Many believe that this metric is the main (and some say only) reason people invest in returning to school. Personally, if this is your only motivation, there’s lots of easier ways to make that happen than B-school. However, by admitting younger applicants, schools are making this number look way better than it really is. Younger applicants with less experience come to B-school with lower salaries, so of course, upon graduation their percentage increase is going to be much higher.

The most important reason though comes from the feedback of professors. With students in their upper 20s, many professors are finding it extremely challenging getting through to them. It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Older students are much more set in their ways. With more work experience under their belt, many are more skeptical of some of the generic teachings that professors try to impart on them. How much can you really learn and actually change as a person in a condensed 10-month/1-year program like an INSEAD or Ivey?

However, the main driver of change has been the huge number of corporate scandals that have tarnished the reputation of the MBA: Jeff Skilling (Enron – Harvard), Joseph Berardino (Arthur Andersen – Harvard), Anil Kumar (McKinsey – Wharton). Students that are younger with less experience will come into the MBA program with a more open mind and be more receptive. To put it more bluntly, professors will have an easier time breaking down an impressionable 25yr old and then brainwashing them with the “proper” MBA training that will hopefully prevent any future Enrons from occurring again. At least, that’s the theory.

What does this mean for you?

If you’re thinking of waiting until you have 4-5 years of work experience to apply, think again. As more schools begin to follow the lead of Harvard and Stanford, your best chances will be when you’re 25-26. Of course, there will always be schools that will buck the trend (e.g. IMD avg. age 31 & INSEAD avg. age 29). This means that you may need to start planning right now.

A well-planned and well-executed MBA admissions strategy can take a good 2 years. You must first start by assessing your strengths, but most importantly where the weaknesses in your application may be. Then you need a plan on how to fill these gaps, whether it’s more leadership examples or strong letters of recommendation. If you only start 6 months before you apply, it will be too late. Admissions Directors know all the tricks, so if you all of a sudden start pilling on the community service, or become a Big Brother just 1 year before to pad the application, they will see right through it. Those of you interested in a program like the Harvard 2+2 may need to start planning as of your 1st year of undergrad.

One of the most important reasons for potentially moving up your MBA timetable is where you’ll end up in your career immediately after graduation. Many large multi-national employers such as GE, Johnson & Johnson and LVMH have standard MBA leadership / rotational programs for students to enter where everything is standard, including your pay. In investment banking and management consulting, two of the most popular post-MBA professions, regardless of your background, experience or age, everyone starts at the Associate level.

So, if you graduate at 26, you could really take a big leap forward in your career, while if you’re now 30, you may have only taken a small step forward, and some would argue that if you didn’t take 2 years off for school you’d be at the same place now or maybe even further along. There are some older MBA graduates that even have to take a pay cut or a step back in their career progression, in order for them to make the transition into a new industry.

The flip side is that having more experience will give you an advantage over your younger peers during the job hunt. Your resume will have more depth, and in the interviews you’ll have more stories to tell. Companies will also tell you that although all graduates start the same, because you have more experience, you’ll move up faster. While that might be true, there’s no guarantee.

In short, if you’re thinking of an MBA down the road, now is the time to start planning! If you’re lost on where to start, below is a list of some of the major tasks in the MBA admissions journey.

• Determining your Personal Brand and Future Goals
• Assessing your Application’s Strengths & Weaknesses
• Creating a Plan to Fill your Gaps
• Writing the GMAT/GRE
• Finding the Right School & Program
• Visiting Campuses
• Securing Letters of Recommendation
• Crafting your Admission Essays
• Revising, Revising, Revising…

Too many people come to see me 1-2 months before the deadline for help. By that time, any major challenges or gaps in your application are hard to overcome. Spending the time now to put together a plan will guarantee that you’ll improve both your overall application and your chances of success to get in to the program of your choice.

Ideal interviews are ones where you and the interviewer(s) are carrying a normal conversation. Both parties take turns asking and answering questions within the flow of the conversation, and you don’t feel like you’re part of an interrogation. While you may not have the opportunity to ask questions in the middle of the interview, you will always be given at least a few minutes at the end.

Most people now know that asking good questions is a key part of the interview. Asking the right type of questions can definitely leave the interviewer with a great impression about you. But what are good questions to ask? Here are 3 rules to keep in mind:

1. Only ask questions you genuinely want to know the answer to

This first rule may sound basic, but it is violated over 50% of the time. An experienced interviewer has heard virtually every question there is, especially from the younger candidate pool. We can tell almost immediately whether someone told you to ask that question to impress us, or whether you really want to know the answer. Not genuine = lose points and credibility.

“What does your company do in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility?” If we haven’t talked once about CSR during the interview, and this is how the question is posed to me, I would immediately be skeptical. Why does this person want to know about CSR all of a sudden? Are they just trying to impress me with the latest corporate mumbo jumbo? Do they even know what CSR means??

2. Don’t ask open-ended questions; try to be as specific as possible

Interviewers have to follow a fairly strict timeline, especially if they are talking to multiple candidates in one day. When it comes time to have you ask questions, the last thing we want to do is have to use our brains and think really hard. That will annoy us more than impress us. Bad examples: “What’s the one thing that you love about your job that makes you get out of bed each morning?” “What’s the company culture like?”

3. Always start your question with a bit of a preamble

If you follow Rule #3, you will almost always adhere to Rule #1 & #2. Stated another way, don’t simply jump in and ask your question right off the bat. Start by giving a bit of a description of what you know about the subject of your question. Tell us what you have read, what you’ve heard, your opinion on the matter, or what others have told you, and then ask your question.

Following this format will give you the opportunity to bring up all the research you’ve done ahead of time and maybe even get some credit for it. By giving a preamble, you’ve also automatically made the question more specific. Finally, if you’ve shown me the lengths of your research and your interest in the topic, you will come across much more genuine and sincere.

Now, if you truly are interested in the corporate culture, here’s a better way you could ask the question. “I read on your company’s website that integrity and respect for others are 2 of your most important values. Speaking to previous interns, they also echoed similar thoughts. How do these values translate into the everyday culture in the workplace?” Here, you’ve shown the interviewer that you really care about this topic. You’ve not only done research from the website, but have also gone out of your way to talk to other interns that have worked for us. Finally, the question is much more specific by asking me to comment on integrity and respect for others, not just company culture in general which can mean so many different things.

A final point to keep in mind, in addition to the 3 rules…Try not to ask “selfish” questions, questions that are only about you, what’s in it for you. “What are the working hours like?” “Will there be any overseas opportunities during this internship?” “What is the training program like?”

If you want to impress someone, the last thing you want to do is simply talk about yourself, and ask questions that only you care about. If you want to leave a lasting impression, try to ask questions that they will care about. Find out about their interests, their challenges, their ideas. Obviously, keep it professional, and try to never put the interviewers in an embarrassing situation (e.g. talking about a recent corporate scandal that has been in the news). It’s not about you, it’s about them.

Interviews are won or lost in the first 5 minutes. Experienced interviewers can tell in your initial interactions with them if there’s potential here, or if you’re just not going to fit in. Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve worked with over 75 undergraduates conducting 1-on-1 mock interviews with them, and I can definitely tell you, after just the first few questions, which were the handful that stood out from the crowd.

So what does this mean? You need to start your interview strong! Prepare for the typical introductory questions (e.g. can you start by telling me a little bit more about yourself? Why are you interested in working for us? Why this role?), and be ready to really impress the interviewer with your answer.

Today I want to focus specifically on the introduction – what should you say and how much should you say if the interviewer asks you to tell them more about yourself.

Let me start by sharing some insights on why interviewers open with this question. Firstly, interviewers will have prepared and read your resume ahead of time, most likely the night before. However, if you’re not the 1st candidate of the day, the interviewer will have a difficult time keeping track of everyone’s details. And if the interviewer is anything like me, they’ll be running a little behind. Starting with this question allows us to begin the interview right away, and gives us the opportunity to browse your resume to refresh our memories, while we try to get back on schedule.

Secondly, there is a limited amount of time we can spend with each candidate, so we have to pick and choose which areas of your past to probe. Allowing you to start first is our way to see what you highlight as the most relevant areas of your experience, and whether what we plan to ask matches and is appropriate. Despite what you may think, interviewers aren’t out to stump you or to make you look bad. Our job is to try and determine what your strengths and weaknesses are, and whether you’re a fit for the team.

With that in mind, preparing a good holistic introduction about yourself may give you the opportunity to potentially influence the questions that the interviewer asks to you. And if you’re able to better direct us to what we want to know, then it becomes a win-win situation.

A Framework: the Front Page of the Newspaper

A good introduction is one that last somewhere between 1.5 to 2 minutes long. Think of your introduction like it is the front page of the newspaper. The front page is unique as it gives the headlines of the key news stories of the day. You should do the same in your introduction – give the interviewer just the headlines, the highlights of your background.

Another key characteristic of the front page is that it doesn’t just focus on one particular area. You don’t see the front page covered with just politics. You get a little bit of business, sports, politics, arts, etc. In your introduction, don’t just focus only one aspect of yourself, tell me a little bit from different areas. Show that you’re multi-talented.

In terms of where to start, try the following the order:

1. Start with your educational background. Where are you going to school, what are you studying, but most importantly, tell us your motivation and reasons why you decided to pick this field of study. Remember to try to relate it back to the current position / industry if possible. (30 seconds)
2. Next, quickly outline some of the different roles in your work experience. Then pick the one that you think is more relevant, and tell us why. Focus first on your achievements, and the impact you made. If you don’t think that’s very impressive, tell us what you learned in that one job that would make you extremely successful in this new role you’re applying for. (30 seconds)
3. Finally, talk about your achievements beyond work and the classroom. “Outside of school and work, I’m very involved in the community and extracurricular activities…” Similar to the work experience, quickly tell us what type of activities (e.g. CCAs, community work, or extracurriculars) you’re involved in. Then pick the one that you’re most proud of, or is the most relevant, and again tell us why. (30 seconds)
4. If there’s anything else unique about you that doesn’t fit in the 3 categories above, you can add it here at the end. Perhaps a hobby, or a passion. Best if it’s somehow related to the role or the company. (30 seconds)

Remember, like the front page, just give the headlines so the reader (in this case the listener) gets excited and wants to read the rest of the story. By telling the interview what your strengths are, this will allow them to know where to probe further and perhaps even have them adjust their questions to talk about the areas you’ve highlighted.

Having a good introduction is crucial in starting your interview strong. You want to highlight your strengths early, potentially dictate where the interview goes next. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to sell yourself, but keep it to a maximum of 2 minutes.

Also, don’t forget that half the evaluation in the interview is not about what you say, but how you say it. Remember to talk confidently, be energetic and enthusiastic. Show your passion and maintain good eye contact. A solid well-rounded introduction delivered with energy is a sure way to start to connect with your interviewer. As the saying goes, you never have a second chance to make a first impression.

If you’re reading this article via a RSS reader or by subscribing to my feed or through email, I don’t think I need to tell you too much about how powerful and informative blogs can be. Blogs have quickly moved from a niche personal outlet to the mainstream. CEOs from large MNCs to celebrities and politicians are all jumping on the blog (and for that matter Twitter) band-wagon.

The education industry is no different. As students begin to move away from their home town to their new university environments and experiences, they have been quick to use the blog, and other social media channels, as a way to let their friends back home know what they are up to. Blogs have been a great way for prospective students to get a real feel and insider perspective of how life can be like at the schools they are interested in.

Admission departments are now beginning to embrace this new marketing channel as well. While MBA programs have been soliciting student volunteers to be part of their official blogs for sometime now, undergraduate programs are joining in on this growing trend. One concern some administrators have had is the lack of control and influence on the specific content student bloggers write about.

This New York Times article gives you some more insights about the issue, and talks about M.I.T.’s policy of allowing their student bloggers to write censor-free.

The corporate world has also been engaged in blogging as a marketing tool for new recruits. One thing to be aware though is that corporations generally have much stricter guidelines for “official” bloggers and I wouldn’t be surprised if virtually every corporate blog has some sort of approval (read: censorship) process to adhere to. This was definitely the case when I helped Deloitte Canada start their first recruiting blog aimed at undergraduates back in 2006. Keep that in mind.

This week’s (Sept 14) cover story of BusinessWeek magazine highlights their results of the 2009 edition of “the Best Places to Launch a Career”…and $10 says you won’t be able to guess who it is. I’ll give you a hint. I know this company better than ANY other one in the world.

First, a caveat. This article is heavily biased towards the U.S. job market, and while most of the companies on the list are MNCs (multi-national corporations), some of the specifics that are mentioned in the article apply only to certain U.S. office locations, and not necessary to what is happening in all countries of the same company. Secondly, the article’s perspective is from the eyes of an undergraduate student, not necessairly MBAs or other more seasoned professionals, although I believe many of the arguments made in the article could be applied to Master’s students as well.

Now, to add a little credibility to the article, here’s a quick excerpt of how they compiled the rankings (in their words):

To compile this ranking, BusinessWeek polled 60 college career services directors across the country; collected data from a survey of 60,000 U.S. undergrads by Universum USA, a Philadelphia research company; and required employers to submit statistics on everything from pay and benefits to training programs and retention.

60,000 may not seem like a lot, but I wouldn’t say that’s an extremely small sample size of say just a 1,000 people. So who’s at the top? Well, the top 4 companies are all from the same industry and are often collectively known as the “Big 4″. Yep, you know who I’m talking about now, right? Ernst & Young (E&Y), Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and KPMG. And the winner for
2009…where I spent almost all of my professional life at…Deloitte.

With decent pay, variety and generally a strong culture of growing and grooming fresh graduates into fairly seasoned business professionals, I can see why the Big 4 dominate the list. Some of the training programs offered are also a big attractive point to students, and the fairly large and collegial group of other young professionals at these firms definitely helps.

Now, I know many of you are probably shaking your head right now and are extremely skeptical, but remember the title of the article. It’s the best place to LAUNCH a career, not necessary the best place to work for the rest of your life. The days of a fresh grad joining the Big 4 as an analyst and staying their entire career until they reach Partner/Principal are virtually over. But whether you’re in the Accounting side or the Advisory / Consulting side, working in the Big 4 definitely opens your eyes up to a wide variety of industries; you learn like you’ve never learnt before, mainly because of the situations you’re put into (and perhaps the lack of expertise on your team), and you definitely develop your soft skills, as you’re mostly always in front of clients.

Of course, even at Deloitte, there are some not so good things, and many things that could be improved. Pay yes is okay…but some may say that’s over-stating things. Compared to the actual hours you have to work at times, the pay probably doesn’t look so hot, but from a macro perspective, as a new fresh graduate, 21 – 23yrs old, you’re not starving, that’s for sure. If you want to know more specifics about Deloitte or the Big 4, feel free to leave a comment below. There are also some good sources of insider information from sites such as the Vault. You can learn quite a bit from following the company-specific forums where insiders post, but take all comments with a grain of salt. The insiders contributing on the forums are generally those that are most disgruntled

The other point to highlight from the article is around the amount of responsibility young new graduates will be getting in their jobs today. With graduate hiring down significantly at most companies, and many places have trimmed down their workforce, those graduates lucky enough to have jobs will find that they will have to take on multiple responsibilities at one time and fill the shoes of those that are no longer with the company. So, the glass may be half empty to you, but to some, it’s definitely half full.

You should be able to find this specific issue of BusinessWeek magazine on store shelves now. (Always wanted to say that)

Here’s a link to the online story.

Blogging has definitely become very mainstream today, not only in our social lives but in the corporate world as well. CEOs maintain blogs, companies may have a recruiting blog, even Business Schools have admissions-based blogs. Last week, I happened to find the blog of Steven Sinofsky, who used to be the SVP at Microsoft in charge of Microsoft Office, but several years ago was promoted to President of the entire Windows Division.

To try and stop some of the exodus of Microsoft employees to other up-and-coming technology firms (aka Google), Steven was asked to start a blog to reach out to potential Microsoft candidates and offer insights into what it’s like to work at Microsoft, the different roles, and generally the valuable contribution new graduates can make at the company on Day 1.

As I was scrolling through, a short post from 2005 caught my attention that offered some advice I want to share with you today.

From Steven Sinofsky’s blog (Dec 4, 2005):

A few weeks ago I was on a panel discussion at Cyberposium 2005. The panel’s moderator was Ken Morse, a lecturer and managing director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. Professor Morse has quite a lot of experience with startups in the technology industry (having been involved in launching companies like 3COM, Aspen, and others) and is also a founder of the MIT center.

Although Steven specifically mentions Product Development, I believe the 2 points above can be applied to many different areas outside of technology. Let me know what you think my leaving a comment below. I hope to share more of these nuggets along the way, and will also be posting some interesting video clips on our Facebook Page. Make sure you become a fan today.

As a follow-up to our last post, here is a short list of some of the upcoming university fairs, for prospective undergraduates and MBAs. In addition, many of the top schools host private information sessions. Visit their website to see if and when they will be coming to your city.

Singapore

Thursday, September 17, 2009
The MBA Tour – Featuring top MBA schools such as: CEIBS, Haas, IESE, INSEAD, Sloan (MIT), Stern (NYU), Wharton
Marina Mandarin
S$5 / S$10 Registration Fee
www.thembatour.com

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Linden U.S. University Fair – Featuring a smaller set of lesser-known American State and Private universities
Location: TBD
www.lindentours.com

Sunday, November 22, 2009
QS World MBA Tour
Pan Pacific Hotel
Free online registration or S$10 at the door
www.topmba.com

Toronto

Sunday, September 13, 2009
QS World MBA Tour
Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building)
CAD$5 / CAD$10 Registration Fee
www.topmba.com

September 25 – 27, 2009
Ontario Universities’ Fair 2009 – Featuring all 21 Ontario universities – a “don’t miss” event
Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building)
www.ouf.ca

September 25 – 27, 2009
Student Life Expo 2009 – Running concurrently with the OUF, featuring colleges and universities outside of Ontario
Skywalk (link between Union Station & Convention Centre)
www.studentlifeexpo.com

Sunday, November 14, 2009
The MBA Tour
Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building)
CAD$5 / CAD$10 Registration Fee
www.thembatour.com

With many students already back to school here in Singapore, and back-to-school season hovering right around the corner in North America, university career fairs have begun, marking the beginning of the university application season.   In the past 2 weeks, I’ve already attended 2 such fairs here in Singapore, focused on studying abroad, at the top schools in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and U.S.  Judging by the crowds, competition is going to be tough, no matter where you plan to go, or where in the world you’re applying from.  To get you started and on your way, here are a few things you should keep in mind:

At Kwantum Leap, we firmly believe that in order to make the best choice for yourself, you must be as informed as possible.  You know yourself best, so our job isn’t to help you make your choices.  It’s to help you gather all the important information you need, so when you do have to make those tough choices, you’re making informed ones.  With that philosophy in mind, if you’re planning on applying to university, college, or a graduate program like an MBA this year, but haven’t started, now’s the time!

1) Know Yourself

• Although this may seem too obvious, understanding what you’re passionate about, what you’re best at, and motivates you are some of the keys to laying the foundation in finding the perfect school for you.  This can be pretty overwhelming at times, and frankly, there are many people in there 30s and 40s still trying to figure that out. 
• One good tip: start backwards.  Start by taking note of the things you don’t like, and use a process of elimination to narrow down choices. 

2) Know the Schools

• With over tens of thousands of schools all across the world to choose from, it’s no surprise that just thinking about getting started with the application process can be daunting.  However, if you’ve already spent some time “knowing yourself”, you will have begun to narrow down the choices significantly.  Published school rankings can be a quick way to understand who the top schools are in your areas of interest, but it should never, by any means, be your definitive source.
• University fairs, where large groups of schools are in the same place at one time, are another great source for establishing your list of potential schools.  To best make use of your time there, you should do your homework in advance.  (more to come about this in a future post)
• Know which schools will be attending.  Try to have a brief look at their websites to get a quick understanding of what the offerings are like.  There’s nothing more embarrassing than asking a school how their science programs are, if they only offer liberal arts. 
• Don’t use your time just to go around and collect as many booklets & brochures as you can get.  All that information, including the brochures, are available on the school’s website.

3) Know the Deadlines

• There’s nothing worse than finding out that the application deadline for your dream school is tomorrow, or even worse, has passed.  Go to the school website, find out the deadlines, and mark your calendar.  Then, set interim deadlines for yourself, ahead of the actual one.  For example, if a school’s application deadline is Dec 1st, you will most likely want to tell any one writing a recommendation for you that their letter is due at least 1 week before (to allow for any delays or mailing time).  With that in mind, you will also typically want to give a recommender at least 2 months notice.  So that means near the end of September, you will have had to decide whom you should approach, and then make the actual the request. 
• Know the application process and admission requirements for each individual school.  While the U.K. simply has one common application that can be sent to your set of interested schools, in the U.S. each school has their own individual process and timelines, just different enough from each other to trip you up if you’re not careful.
• Australia starts their 1st semester in February, so application deadlines are typically in October, while deadlines for U.S. schools fall in January/February.