Edification
I had an interesting chat with a Cornell Alum yesterday. He works in an I Bank out in NYC. His added some perspective on this whole big school, small school debate when it comes to recruitment and networking. He was of the opinion that Cornell students fare well in comparison to the bigger school students when it comes to getting jobs of choice.
Apparently I banks have a very high attrition rate, and going by what he mentioned was an average day in his life it is easy to see why people want to get out early. Which means that they are always looking for new enthusiastic associates and analysts fresh out of B school. Since each bank has a few vacancies the alumnus of the schools try to recruit people from their school. This, according to him pans out well for small schools since there is less competition for the few jobs going around, with the ratio coming down to 1:2 (jobs Vs. applicants) in schools such as Cornell and Tuck, while being 1:5 in schools such as Wharton and Harvard. This ratio is probably more significant for people who are career changers and something to keep in mind while crafting an application strategy.
The way I look at my business school strategy now is that if I don't get in this year, I will definitely try one more time the next year, with a better crafted message. I guess the smart thing to do would have been to contact a whole lot of alumnus right from the start of the process and ensure that the message is right the first time around, but lacking the necessary network, (the tech industry for some reason lacks in numbers as far as MBA's go, not to say they don't exist, but it is easier for me to meet to engineering grads from Stanford and MIT than it is to meet a business grads from the same schools), I couldn't make contact and lacked the info.
But like all things in life, once you get an 'in' into a network it is that much easier to get deeper. So this alum I was speaking too, volunteered to get me in touch with his buddies at his bank who just happen to be from all these top schools. And that certainly will help me craft my message for the target schools better. :)
Apparently I banks have a very high attrition rate, and going by what he mentioned was an average day in his life it is easy to see why people want to get out early. Which means that they are always looking for new enthusiastic associates and analysts fresh out of B school. Since each bank has a few vacancies the alumnus of the schools try to recruit people from their school. This, according to him pans out well for small schools since there is less competition for the few jobs going around, with the ratio coming down to 1:2 (jobs Vs. applicants) in schools such as Cornell and Tuck, while being 1:5 in schools such as Wharton and Harvard. This ratio is probably more significant for people who are career changers and something to keep in mind while crafting an application strategy.
The way I look at my business school strategy now is that if I don't get in this year, I will definitely try one more time the next year, with a better crafted message. I guess the smart thing to do would have been to contact a whole lot of alumnus right from the start of the process and ensure that the message is right the first time around, but lacking the necessary network, (the tech industry for some reason lacks in numbers as far as MBA's go, not to say they don't exist, but it is easier for me to meet to engineering grads from Stanford and MIT than it is to meet a business grads from the same schools), I couldn't make contact and lacked the info.
But like all things in life, once you get an 'in' into a network it is that much easier to get deeper. So this alum I was speaking too, volunteered to get me in touch with his buddies at his bank who just happen to be from all these top schools. And that certainly will help me craft my message for the target schools better. :)
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