This is a question that a lot of you are asking regardless of where you are in the process. Some of you are starting business school in a few months. Others may be getting ready to apply to business school this fall. Still others may just be wondering how they’ll eventually make a smooth transition from the military to the private sector via business school. Regardless of which camp you’re in, your pre-MBA summer is a valuable time during which you can accomplish a variety of things. There are several major options that I’ll discuss here, and I’ll endeavor to lay out the merits of each. I’ll conclude with a few pointers that might be helpful whichever track you choose.
Timing: First, let’s talk about timing. We all know that in the military, this is an element of life over which we have limited control. If your service obligation requires that you stay in uniform right up until business school starts, then your decision for how you’ll spend your summer has already been largely made for you. While these other options may not be a possibility for you, you should at least be able to heed most of the advice/tips near the end of this article. And don’t worry – not having the summer off won’t hurt you once business school starts. Your learning curve may just be ever-so-slightly steeper than others in the first few weeks.
If you are able to influence the timing of your departure from the service, whether that be through an extension of a few months or through taking a big chunk of terminal leave, then I’d highly recommend that you consider your options wisely and make the most of this rare opportunity. The following are all different ways to maximize your summer:
Pre-MBA Internship: Your first option, and this is the one I pursued, is to find an interesting internship for a period of two to three months. The main objective here is to learn – to get your feet wet before you jump right into business school. Prior to my internship, I couldn’t tell you what a balance sheet was, much less walk you through one and tell you what it reveals about a business. But even just a couple months in the right business environment can give you basic skills like this and help you put into clearer context much of what you’ll learn and experience at business school. In my second year of business school, I still found myself drawing on experiences from my pre-MBA internship as I worked through cases and participated in class discussions. So this is an option that I highly recommend to anybody that’s able to make time for it.
You may be asking yourself how in the world you’ll find anybody looking to hire a pre-MBA intern. It’s not as hard as you might think. You’ve got at least two, maybe three, incredible networks at your fingertips that you need to start leveraging: military veterans in the marketplace, alumni from the business school to which you’re headed, and alumni from your undergrad (particularly Service Academies). Ideally, you’ll find somebody who fits into all three groups. I was fortunate to find a CEO of a medium-sized company in Boston who graduated from West Point (I graduated from Annapolis – close enough), served six years in the Army, and then graduated from HBS. His COO was a former Ranger and a Columbia MBA. These gentlemen were more than happy to talk to with me, even if only to pass along a few words of wisdom. When I asked for an internship, they didn’t hesitate. This truly had very little, if anything, to do with me, but rather had everything to do with the power of these networks. So begin tapping into them!
What kind of internship should you look for? I think the most important thing is that you find an environment where you can learn. You certainly want to work hard, produce good work, and add value, but there also needs to be an understanding that you’re there to learn. You could just as easily find this in a big company as you could in a small one. The most important thing is that the person you’ll be reporting to is interested in and supportive of your development. The most likely place to find this is with other veterans who have been through MBA programs. They’ll have a good understanding of what you need to learn over the summer so that you can hit the ground running once school starts, and they’ll tailor your projects accordingly. Furthermore, I wouldn’t worry too much about the industry. You’ll have the next two years and another summer internship to explore different industries in a targeted and methodical way. If you can find an internship in an industry that you think you’re excited about, then that’s great, but the most important thing is that you just get out there and gain some experience. In addition to your own personal development, an internship like this will also add a completely new dimension to your resume, which will only help once recruiting season begins.
One final thought on pre-MBA internships, compensation. It may be a good strategy to offer your services for free, especially since your primary objective is to learn, but in most cases you’ll get paid. For legal reasons that we don’t need to go into here, it’s very difficult for companies to pay you nothing. So an internship may also be the solution to the gap in your cash flow before the school loans and VA benefits hit your account.
Shadowing a Business Leader: For those of you who don’t have the time or the desire to do a full internship, this might be a better option, albeit one that won’t be nearly as robust. Using the same network discussed above as your primary source of opportunities, you may be able to find a business leader willing to spend a few days, or even a week, with you. Additionally, this individual may also provide you access to his or her team, affording you the opportunity to learn about the business from both functional and general management perspectives. I know a few veterans who have done this, and they all found the experience to be worthwhile. You certainly won’t learn as many practical skills as you would in a full internship, but it could provide you with an interesting perspective to draw from during business school. This path may also offer the added benefit of providing you with a professional mentor who’s invested in your success. This option, however, is likely unpaid.
Taking Classes: This isn’t a bad option, but I’m not sure it’s the best one either. Many business schools that have concerns about specific academic abilities of particular incoming students will require those students to take courses over the summer. Your school is also likely to require all students to complete some pre-course academic work in the areas of finance, accounting, and statistics. So, unless you’re extremely concerned about your academics, I recommend completing only what’s required of you by your school. This will more than likely be perfectly sufficient preparation for the coursework you’ll encounter in your first semester.
Stay on Active Duty and Maximize Finances: This option may be particularly attractive to Service Academy graduates looking to maximize their eligibility for the Post 9/11 GI Bill. If you’re able to extend your active duty time 90 days past your initial service obligation, you’ll be eligible for up to 40% of the benefits. This equates to roughly $15,000 in books and tuition and $20,000 in BAH over a two-year MBA program. Clearly, this isn’t enough to offset all of your MBA costs, but it’ll certainly help. Furthermore, if you’re able to take a good block of terminal leave, you may be able to combine this option with one or more of the others already discussed above.
Catching Your Breath: Regardless of which option you choose, I strongly recommend that you take the time to catch your breath and recharge your batteries before school starts. With today’s op-tempo, many of you haven’t taken a good break in years. You definitely deserve one. So take the opportunity while you have it, because once school begins, life will be fast and furious again. If you do an internship, try to schedule it to wrap up a few weeks before you matriculate. If you have a family, get them settled into your new city and spend some quality time together. If you have the means and the time, do some international travel. As service members, you’ve all been to some interesting places, (though usually not vacation destinations) but you’ll be blown away by the appetite your future classmates have for global travel. Up to a third of them are likely to come from abroad to begin with. So, adding an international adventure to your list of life experiences could contribute to an even richer two years at business school. The bottom line is that you need to do whatever is necessary to show up on day one of school with a full tank ready to go. It will feel like a sprint at times, but it’s really more of a marathon.
These are your primary options for your pre-MBA summer. I’m sure there are others, but most will take one, or some combination, of the paths above. So, in summary, the first step is to figure out how much control you have over the timing of your exit. The next step is to spend some time thinking hard about the objectives you’d like to accomplish during your summer. The third step is to lay out a course of action that fits both your timing and your objectives. And the fourth and final step is simply to execute.
Before I sign off, I want to leave you with a few pieces of advice applicable to all veterans preparing for an intensive MBA program. Regardless of how you choose to spend your summer, please seriously consider doing the following:
- Read the Wall Street Journal daily: Your future classmates coming from the private sector speak a different language than the one we all speak in the military. A few months of reading the WSJ everyday will help tremendously. As you begin reading it, some of the content may not make sense, but stick with it and you’ll be far more knowledgeable about your new profession before long.
- Set goals and priorities: It’s easy to become reactive, instead of proactive, at business school. People will fill your calendar for you if you let them. The best way to control your time and get the most out of your experience is to have confidence in the goals and priorities you’ve set for yourself. Take the time to write them down and refer back to them as you progress through your first year. Otherwise, they’ll be easy to forget in the overwhelming rush of activities.
- Start networking: It’s not a popular thing in the military, but you need to try to get past this and recognize the merits of building a strong professional network. The best place to start is with veterans who have already graduated from your business school. Most of them will be very interested in your success and will want to keep in touch with you all the way through and beyond your MBA experience.
- Learn about your classmates: Most schools will make available a database of your future classmates’ profiles at some point during the summer. Read up on them, and figure out who you’d like to meet. I had a classmate who showed up on the first day of class with a list of 50 “interesting people” he couldn’t wait to have coffee with. I thought this was awesome. Your classmates will truly be the best part of your MBA experience, so don’t waste any time getting to know them. In fact, if it’s practical, consider contacting some of them ahead of time if they’re in your city. It’s very possible you’ll be the first military or non-traditional classmate they’ve met, and they’ll be very interested in your story. Furthermore, the sooner you can start learning through the experiences of your classmates, the better.
- Learn about your professors: You should have access to a faculty directory as well. Browse through it and see if there’s anybody you’d like to meet with at some point on campus. Professors can be great sources of advice and wisdom on everything from how to improve your class participation to how to assemble a board of directors for your startup.
- Physical Training: One of my major regrets from the first year of business school is that I hardly made any time for PT. If it’s not in your routine before business school, it’s not likely to be in it once business school gets rolling…and if that’s the case, it’s really hard to get it back on your calendar. If it’s important to you, don’t wait until school starts to make it a priority again.
- Complete pre-matriculation requirements early: As I’ve already stated, many schools will require you to complete some pre-coursework over the summer. Don’t wait until the last minute to knock this out. The tutorials required by HBS took me and most of my classmates 40+ hours to complete, and everybody who waited until the last week regretted it. Completing this work early may also highlight any potential weaknesses in time for you to adequately address them through other supplemental means.
- Get your technology in order: Effective use of technology will be one important key to your productivity, time management, and efficiency in business school. Many of you and your classmates will show up to campus with a tablet, a smart-phone, and a lap-top. In order to maximize your effectiveness, make sure all three are set up and integrated with the school’s IT system. Frantically trouble-shooting your technology in the first week of school is a headache you don’t want to deal with.
-Dave C., Guest Blogger, HBS 2011
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