Where we are going next (Veterans of HBS Class of 2011)

We didn't know each other when we started, but we moved forward with confidence and we quickly bonded. What was true for our general class was even more true for the veterans of the HBS Class of 2011.

Despite drastically different backgrounds; from Naval intelligence to Marine infantry, those of us from different corners of the military quickly united as we attempted to navigate through what to many of us was some of the most unknown terrain we had ever faced.

The uncertainty did not preclude success however, and our small group of veterans claimed two Baker Scholar Awards (awarded to top 5% of HBS) and several awards of Distinction, including one of the handful of Dean's Awards given to students who demonstrate exceptional leadership and contribution to the school while on campus. In short, the veteran community did not only do well, it thrived.

For those of you curious where the Class of 2011 veterans are heading, I've compiled the following data for you:


Industry/Function: The most popular destination is consulting, a favorite blogging topic of mine. Of those going to consulting, 4 are going to McKinsey, 2 to Bain, 1 to BCG, and 1 to Deloitte. There are also 8 going into finance, with 5 going into investment banking, 2 into investment management, and 1 directly into private equity. General Management, Bus/Corp Dev round out most of the others, while a few are breaking ground into their own niches in real estate and startups. One AFAA member is receiving $6m from a VC to start his own materials science company. Others are seeking similar funding to start other business, though the vast majority chose to pursue a traditional post-MBA position. In general, I think it's fair to say nearly everybody got exactly the industry and function they sought. See my previous post on "So What Does Business Mean Anyway?" for a beginner's guide to the recruitment process.

Geography: While the industry/function is not completely out of alignment with the general HBS class, the geography is noticeably different. Across all of HBS, New York City is by far the most common destination for US citizens, while London tends to be the most common destination for international students, or at least it certainly appears that way. That is largely because those cities are the financials hubs for their respective continents, and more HBS students enter finance after business school than do their veteran counterparts. Our #1 location, Washington DC, is not too much of a surprise, considering the natural draw to political and government interest by those who served. San Francisco was a popular destination in general this year due to internet/tech jobs, and the military pool was no exception from the trend. Also in general, a lot more military end up in Southern cities such as Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas.

General Notes: It should be noted that those are are still in the "TBD" category are there by choice. One veteran turned down a position that would most likely pay over $300k/year and is seeking entrepreneurial ventures instead. In broader terms, I don't know anybody in my class who tried but did not receive a top job offer. However, given the wide array of options and tensions associated with all of them, it doesn't mean that students did not have plenty of anxiety about recruiting and which job would be their first civilian position.

Salary: I don't have official numbers, but I'll make approximations. I only do so not because it is something to boast about, but because I still hear from so many military veterans who are concerned about the financial implications of not having income for two years and question whether they can afford to go to business school. For one thing, the Post 9/11 GI Bill makes a huge dent in school costs, and second of all, a school like HBS simply pays for itself. The average total annual compensation (signing bonus, salary, annual bonus, etc.) the first year for my veteran peers is around $175k-$200k/year, and of course, it only goes up from there. That said, don't let the numbers fool you. For many, the job hours are brutal, the work only marginally fulfilling, and for quite a few us who previously led under the greatest of stakes, many would rather be at the point of the spear one last time. That said, nearly everyone is excited about what the future holds, how our careers will unfold, and we are unbelievably grateful for the opportunities that HBS has given us.

The most important lesson HBS taught me

Graduation is in two weeks and I miss it already. Something which I didn't expect to miss so strongly is the amazing energy of the place, because when you're there, you tend to just get used to it. Bumping into dozens of totally different and fascinating people every day, talking about starting companies, starting companies, planning overseas travel for next month and the month after, going through interviews, discussing important cases, reviewing life plans, playing sports in the afternoon, learning from world class professors, hanging out together at night, etc.... that is just an average day at HBS... and that is definitely not the "real world." It is something I miss, but life does have to go on, and we can't just be students forever; we have work to do and we have contributions to make.

"Reviewing" my experience at HBS is too difficult, but I will summarize what I think HBS teaches based on my 2 years here. HBS is more than just a transfer of knowledge from an institution to a student, and it's also more than a brand name on a resume. I would summarize what HBS provides in three broad categories (adapted from one of my favorite professors), in order of least importance to most important:

1. Knowledge, information, and techniques
2. A perspective and approach to problem solving and decision making
3. Values, attitudes, and beliefs

1. Knowledge, information, and techniques

This subject of learning overlaps with many other MBA programs. In fact, if one had the self-discipline, one could learn much of this by reading enough books and doing enough online training programs. This includes things like understanding how to analyze an industry, financial leverage, calculating net present value of revenue streams, techniques in marketing, the structure of a Board of Directors, as just a few examples among thousands. Among all the skills that HBS provides, this is probably the most fundamental, but also the least important. Most of us will only apply a very small percentage of this knowledge base in the first couple of years after school, and most of the rest will be forgotten or become obsolete. For those of you who are in the military, think of this as the equivalent of your entry level training... it's mostly replaced by different tactics and techniques once you get to your first unit, but it is still a good foundation to establish.

2. A perspective and approach to problem solving and decision making

After technical skills. the next most important element taught at HBS is how to approach and solve complex problems given limited information. This is equivalent to how new officers learn to be decisive, develop a bias for action, learn to step up in the critical moment, and feel comfortable being in command. Those skills are usually much more important than the nuances taught at basic training, and those are the skills which are critical to a life of success in the military.

Most of my HBS non-military peers were previously individual contributors only; they were never in charge of a unit... so the experience of learning to persuade others, to defend positions, and to just make decisions, was a previously underdeveloped skill set. Just like it is done in the military, these are things that develop best with repetitive person-to-person exercises, which at HBS is done 600 times over two years in 80 minute periods called the case method.

Former military people still greatly benefit from this as well though, for while most of us are not uncomfortable making decisions or defending points of view, we don't know how 1) to transfer our knowledge to a technical business environment and how 2) to do so in a diverse civilian environment. HBS is therefore outstanding for this purpose.

3. Values, attitudes, and beliefs

The most important element of the HBS education, in my opinion, is the values, attitudes, and beliefs it imparts on people who are receptive to it. To this end, non-military students benefit much more. Veterans are used to applying ethics in their decision making, understanding what it means to work towards a purpose beyond themselves, weighing conflicting moral dilemmas, etc. Many non-military classmates however have not been forced to think through many of those issues, so for that purpose, the HBS education imparts a tremendous sense of responsibility and judgment on students, or at least, those who are open to receive it.

What I would like to emphasize though is not the moral or ethical views that HBS imparts, but what may be the most important "value, attitude, and belief" that HBS imparted on me as an individual, even though I have never heard a single person explicitly say it...

I feel that I need to give a little bit of context though first; I grew up in a middle class family. My mother was a homemaker, and my father was an engineer. Although our house was in a neighborhood most people would consider very nice, it was 50 years old, had 1300 square feet, and one bathroom for the entire family. I didn't grow up poor, but I didn't grow up rich. I went to a public high school and I paid most of my own way through college. Nobody has ever pulled any strings for me to get into any school, nor any job, and I am very proud of that.

I have also always been very engaged in current affairs, in politics, in my general surroundings, and of those beyond. However, besides for my direct impact in the military, I tended to watch the news as an observer, not as an actor on the world's stage. I always thought the news was made by "those people" - people who's decisions have had a big impact on the world. People like George W. Bush, Jeff Immelt, Mitt Romney, and Michael Bloomberg. I picked those four as examples because they all attended HBS, and two of them came from very well established families, but two did not. I tend to believe that attending the school is a better indicator of success than one's family status.

The four people I listed as examples are people who have had a very significant impact on the world. They are part of "those people" I used to watch on the news. What I realized at HBS, was that "those people" were just my peers! So when I looked around, I realized I was one of those people as well. Of course, nothing changed about who I was, it was only my outlook that changed. It may make me sound naive, but for somebody who grew up in a middle income family and then served in the military, this view was a radical departure. To be clear, it is NOT a feeling of entitlement, for I have never been, and am still entitled to absolutely nothing. On the contrary, it is a feeling of responsibility and purpose.

Previously I could justify being an observer of world events...as somebody largely watching it unfold and mainly contributing through my direct and immediate role. Today I no longer have that excuse. HBS has given me the perspective, the tools, and the network to at least have as much of a shot of success in any endeavor as anybody else out there. If there is something I don't accomplish, I have nowhere else to look but at myself now. So while it was not explicitly said at the school, this is what I learned at Harvard Business School:

If there is something in the world which you don't like, either a gap, a void, or an injustice, whether it is a business opportunity, a political imbalance, or a social cause, YOU can go and change it, for if not you, then who?

You may or may not be successful, but the right thing to do is to try.

It is this self-realization and determination which has empowered our greatest leaders to achieve what they did. Although incredibly difficult, they didn't leave it to somebody else, and they didn't let others stop them from pursuing their goals, no matter how great of a challenge. My real lesson to you as the reader, is that this is obviously true for all of us... not just for a small group of HBS graduates. It only took myself, as a slow learner, an HBS education to believe it.

For all these reasons, HBS can put a tremendous amount of pressure on students to achieve... but for those of you who served in the military, the burden of leadership is far from a new concept. Whether you attend HBS or not, I hope you will find and pursue your calling in life.

To read more about my views about the complicated topic of one's purpose in life, read my previous post on "What do you believe in?"

The last few weeks of class at HBS

With less than a month of cases remaining for me at HBS, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on how some of my classmates are spending their precious remaining weeks:

1. Look for a job (maybe 15%)

There are generally three types of people still looking for work:

• Some committed to finding a private equity, hedge fund, or niche market job (5%?)
  

Many people landed private equity and hedge fund jobs early in the year, but with hundreds of students competing for dozens of some of the most prestigious positions, the demand far outweighs the supply, and many are still holding out for a PE/HF position. Out of the same pool, some were willing to accept an investment banking job with the hopes of leaving it within 6-12 months to go to private equity. As I've reflected on in previous blogs, I have not met a single person in business school to date who actually wants to be an investment banker (yet about a quarter of the class goes into the field).

• People looking for start-up opportunities (5%?)
  

Most, if not the best start-up opportunities come very late in the school year. Those looking for start-ups post-HBS cannot really recruit in the Fall because 1) the start up may not exist yet, 2) start-ups certainly can't forecast expensive hires over 6 months out, and 3) start-ups don't do a lot of formal recruiting outreach due to limited time and budget, so students have to go out and find them.

• Students just looking for anything (5%?)

Some students either just haven't found that perfect position yet, or more often, just partied all year and now realize they have to actually reintegrate into the working world. So after partying every night for the last 8 months, they are starting to think about getting a job. Needless to say, these are not people who show a propensity for long term planning.

2. Conduct "last minute" networking

Students are having weekend brunches, weekday dinners, or mini-retreats with classmates they wish they had gotten to know better. Some students are also re-visiting past professors in order to help cement relationships. Basically, students are investing time in relationships that they would like to retain after we all graduate and head our separate ways.

3. Relax, reflect, and share

HBS has been an amazingly positive journey. Graduates from this school have learned a tremendous amount about business, leadership, values, life, and relationships. They deserve some time to relax and reflect on this amazing experience. It's unlikely that we will ever again be surrounded by such a large peer group of highly diverse individuals. People have not started to become overly nostalgic yet, but I can see it coming from a mile away! Students who are pleased with their choice of full time employment are the most relaxed of all; just enjoying their days, planning summer travel, and waiting for decent weather.

4. Express regret about their job choice

According to frequently quotes statistics, HBS students tend to change their job within the first year or two after graduation. Many students from last year's class have expressed to me how they hate their job and are looking toward radically different career tracks.

Students who accepted investment banking positions are rather open about how they are just doing it to "do their time" and move on, and some who accepted management consulting jobs are expressing second thoughts about their decision. Several who accepted consulting jobs from top firms are also looking at options to delay, defer, or even completely alter the terms of their employment to create space for alternate opportunities.

I hate to dime out an individual company, so I will keep it generic. I've observed that when students were mostly attracted to a company because of its brand and the certainty of financial stability, as opposed to the culture or the work itself, their loyalty seems to be bit thinner than at competitors. Now in the spring several of those same students are being exposed to some of the exact same entrepreneurial job opportunities that they would have after spending two additional years at these high end firms... and this creates a dilemma for many.

To be clear, there are many students are who going to really enjoy their consulting roles and consulting is a great fit for them. But it can be a difficult fit for those who want to lead, have significant responsibility, and immediately create change. Yet as I've discussed before, consulting is a great transition platform for former military to penetrate the business world, gain experience, credibility, and financial stability. So it really is a tough decision and a natural source of tension for many.

In general and not surprisingly, students who accepted a job offer in the fall because they wanted to spend their signing bonus over the winter holiday, not have to continue to recruit, and in general so that they "wouldn't have to worry about it" are the ones who are now not looking forward to starting their job. On the positive side, they tend to be very high paying jobs, so it can certainly be a lot worse!

If you're looking for more answers than questions, I've written two other articles on the subject:

• First job after the military
• Picking a career
  

So what about me?

Some have emailed to ask what my plans are. In general I am pursuing entrepreneurial tracks and I have several great options on the table but have not committed yet. I've been given the opportunity to run a small business, join an extremely high potential start-up, and I've also been offered funding to start my own venture.

HBS has given me many powerful skill sets; one of which is the ability to say "no" to amazing opportunities. My first year I wouldn't say no to anything. I would proactively explore every function and industry and accept any invitation to learn about opportunities - and I recommend this educational approach - especially for those who don't come from the private sector. My second year I narrowed down my choices and sought out more focused opportunities, but I would simultaneously never say no to a PE or VC firm for example if they reached out to me. A couple of weeks ago I had an extremely prestigious firm reach out to me to discuss a potential position. We were very quickly able to agree that it would not be a good fit for me and I was able to move on to other discussions without regret.

Before HBS I never would have even had these opportunities, and my first year at HBS I wouldn't have been able to know if I wanted to pursue them. But now after two years, I know myself well enough to have the confidence to not pursue every shiny ball that bounces in front of me. This frees me up to focus and pursue the best fit and use my time most productively. So HBS has not only given me the skills to succeed in whatever I pursue, it has also helped me prioritize and reduce the white noise of life. These are just a few of the many great things that HBS has given me.

HBS, Veterans, and where do veterans go after business school?

HBS Military Prospective Students Day

This past Monday, March 7th 2011, HBS hosted its first ever Military Prospective Student Day. We had about 35 prosective students in attendance and they received a full day immersion in the HBS experience. The day included an introduction by Dee Leopold, class visits to observe the case method, a presentation by Career & Professional Development, a lunch mixer with current students, exclusive guest talks by distinguished AFAA alumni, a student run AFAA panel, a presentation by the AFAA, and an end of day mixer with current AFAA students and alumni from the area (with guests going back to HBS military veterans from 1971).

HBS's interest in military applicants

The intent of the day was to help answer questions and dispel myths about what it means for a veteran to attend HBS. By the end of the day most prospective students indicated how surprised they were that HBS had such a pro-veteran environment and how greatly their military experience was valued by the school and the students. It didn't hurt that all prospective students were given a complementary copy of the Harvard Business Review with the cover of "Leadership Lessons from the Military."

Most prospective students said this was the best experience they've had with any MBA program, and as a former prospective student myself, I know of no other school being this specifically proactive to attract the best and brightest of military candidates who have decided to pursue an MBA. I believe this reflects HBS's efforts to emphasize the leadership component of its mission statement: "To educate leaders who make a difference in the world."

If HBS continues this practice of holding Military Prospective Students Day, I would expect the number of visiting prospectives to grow quite rapidly as this opportunity becomes more well known within the services.

During the presentation from the HBS Career & Professional Development (CPD), employment data was presented to the prospective students showing where their military predecessors are going after HBS. The last full set of data available is from the Class of 2010, and CPD has agreed for this data to be posted here.

Where do veterans go after business school?

HBS military veteran graduation job selection by function

What we see in the above first of all, is that the two are not extremely different. Of the general class, 61% went into finance or consulting, while 62% of veterans went into finance or consulting. Within this category, veterans tended to go slightly more into consulting than finance (compared to peers), and 4% more went into general management... though one has to remember that 4% represents one person in the data set, so these figures are not to be taken as long term patterns. That said, I don't find these results surprising. Veterans tend to be slightly more interested in general management, and many find consulting to be a great way to gain the business experience (and credibility) before moving on to their follow-on industry of choice.

HBS military veteran graduation job selection by industry

The above industry breakout shows that veterans don't tend to enter "niche" industries as often (ie retail, real estate, healthcare), but rather stick to more generalized career options (ie consulting, finance, manufacturing). I believe this reflects the same career choices made for the first job function; most veterans are seeking positions to give them a broad business experience right out of school. I would certainly expect that after 5-10 years, many more HBS AFAA alumni are leading companies or departments in a very wide range of functions and industries.

Final Thought

Several prospective students told me that after the day's events, applying to HBS seemed much more achievable, whereas before they thought it was out of reach. While obviously applying to HBS is very difficult, and getting in is incredibly difficult no matter what one's background is (military or finance wizard), I hope that nobody who wants to come to HBS would ever self-select themselves out of the application process. If coming to HBS is your goal, you should pursue it to no end... the last reason you shouldn't come to HBS is because you didn't apply!

"Control your destiny or somebody else will" - Jack Welch.

How many military go to HBS?

I've recently collected some data very closely approximating the level of veterans at HBS... basically membership numbers for the Armed Forces Alumni Association (the veteran club on campus) over the past decade or so. It shows that the average number per year (this includes a few non-US veterans) to be 40, with a range of 27-50. It's probably fair to assume about 4-6 of the veterans are from non-US militaries, often from conscripted services but not always.

Below is a chart of the AFAA strength since 2000:



If one was to look for meaning in the patterns though, it can be deceiving. For one thing, one has to look at the year of application (assuming the Fall of the year counts for round 1 and round 2, and thus the bulk of the applicants). If one therefore subtracts 3 years from the graduation year to look at the application year, the following is observed:


The fewest number of veterans were admitted in late 2002 (and early 2003). But what does this mean? Does this mean that fewer military people applied that year? Does that mean it was more competitive that year? Or perhaps it was less competitive because so few applied? Is the reverse true in 2003-2004 when the most were admitted? I don't think one can conclude any such position given just this information.

The data shows a mean of 40 with a standard deviation of 9. Most likely, the minor changes year to year are mostly random, and reinforces the fact that HBS does not have "hard" quotas.

Please also note that I don't have data on HBS class sizes going back all those years, so that could have a consequence if military numbers change with class size. To the best of my knowledge, HBS class sizes don't change very often.

This data may be interesting to provide historical context, but shouldn't be interpreted to mean much more than that.

Start Ups at HBS

While most (i.e. 99%) of HBS students don't start their own business coming out of business school, the school likes to publicize that about half of the HBS alumni at some point in their career get involved in a start-up, and about 5% may join a start-up after graduation.

The HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship is a great resource and the school in general provides many great resources for those interested in starting a business. While highly encouraged, it is seldom followed because 1) It's really really really hard, and 2) The opportunity cost of not accepting a job out of school is very significant. Many students claim that they are also burdened with debt and therefore cannot start a business, although I would say this is more of a way for somebody who is naturally risk averse to justify it to themselves. It's tough to walk away from a nice signing bonus and lucrative compensation with a prestigious firm in return for a mountain of debt, uncertain future, and a diet of ramen noodles.

There are of course students that make use of the resources offered at school, mostly mentorship and networking, and experiment with start-ups while still in school. These are often very low capital business ideas that students can use to experiment with and incur very little downside. If the business gains traction, the student can pursue venture capital or other ways to grow the business. Many of these businesses are built in conjunction with a "Field Study" structure sponsored by a professor, and therefore the students also receive course credit.

I'll list businesses started by classmates of mine in the Class of 2011. I'm not aware of an official master list anywhere, but these are businesses I have come across through personal discussions and meetings. There could be more, and I will keep a running list on the left column of this blog from here on out.

Class of 2011 start-ups (not complete list):

• SaferTaxi - Helps rate, share, and schedule taxis
  
• Athena Advantage - Provides personal security training my military special ops
  
• Pushpins - Provides instant grocery store coupons through a smartphone app
  
• FashionStake - A place to discover new fashion designers and to purchase from fashion collections
  
• K+E Advisors - School admissions consulting
  
• CleverBootz - Travel planning tools
  
• KlickPlan - Group coupon discounts and event planning
  
• Farm Builders - Provides long-term financing and agricultural management services to support tree crop farmers in West Africa
• GobbleBus - An online bus hub for transportation planning
  
• SenseCheck5 - Online users can sample new products/services for free or deep discount in exchange for their feedback
• Crooster - Advanced survey designs
  

Some may be surprised by the breadth and variety of these businesses. Needless to say, it is not easy to start your own private equity fund or investment bank at business school, and the above (for the most part) represents relatively straightforward and low cost business models that students can build in between class and on weekends. Some are more developed than others... some are profitable and some are still building their site.... so please recognize that the above are works in progress.

I don't know how many businesses were launched last year, but I'm familiar with four that are still going:

Class of 2010 start-up survivors (not complete list):

• TroopSwap - A private marketplace for US military personnel
  
• LearnBoost - Tools and gradebooks for teachers
  
• RelayRides - A neighbor-to-neighbor carsharing program
  
• Birchbox - Delivers beauty sample products by mail

Business Plan Competition

In April of every year HBS hosts a business plan competition. While I wouldn't say it has been a great predictor of who might succeed or fail, it is a great showcase of ideas and more than anything encourages students to improve their business models and offers solid exposure and feedback. A list of past winners can be found here.

Where this leads to...

While some might, it's unlikely that many of the current Class of 2011 start-ups will lead to blockbuster businesses. They do however provide a great learning platform for entrepreneurs to refine their skills and undoubtedly many of those entrepreneurs will be at the forefront of new ventures in the years to come. When I think of successful start-ups by HBS grads in recent years, most were started after some post-MBA work experiences. Off the top of my head, these include companies like TheLadders.com, Care.com, Military.com, and Gilt Groupe. Gilt Groupe is a fashion clothing sample sale site launched in 2007, and now supposedly worth well over $500 million.

I hope this has helped shed some light on start-up opportunities at HBS, and I would guess similar articles could be written about other business schools.

And with that... I am about to board my plane to India. Good luck to all the round 2 applicants!

End of semester.. and some thoughts on consulting

Only one more semester to go...it's a cliche... but I have to say "I can't believe it's nearly over." Last year I discussed what HBS students do over the winter break. This year is of course no exception. Most students are traveling, and mainly overseas.

I'm going to India for almost three weeks with three sectionmates. Despite India having a population of over a billion people, I have no doubt that I will be running into other random HBS students on a regular basis. I don't know how many HBS students are going to India, but it's probably in the hundreds, and everyone tends to go to the same sites. It's interesting to see that many HBS students take a vacationing interest in countries perceived to have the hottest growing global economies: India, China, and Brazil. I take it as a positive sign for the global interest of people here and would be curious to see a study of trends in HBS overseas travel. I wonder if there would be any sort of correlation with GDP growth, and whether it is a leading or a lagging indicator.

I also want to share some interesting articles I've read recently. One is from an HBS 2010 graduate who posted some really interesting statistics on the top employers of HBS graduates and particularly insightful numbers on management consulting hires over time at HBS. For the actual statistics, you should check out the InsideHBS.com blog.

Another really interesting blog is Our Consulting Problem, a case of a Kellogg/HBS husband and wife team who decide to quit their management consulting jobs and do something completely different with their lives. The subject of whether one with little prior business experience "needs" consulting after business school and whether the option value generated is worth the time invested is a topic of regular discussion here (or at least with my circle of friends). Anyway, the essay on Option Value is both funny and highly descriptive.

I recently spoke with a very senior partner at a management consulting firm who is also an HBS grad. His firm had given me a full time offer and we were chatting about how I was thinking about the decision. Perhaps because I am considering such starkly different options, that I am also willing to be very open and transparent about it. He claims that he enjoys his work so much, that he was "shocked" when I told him that relatively few HBS grads going into consulting do so with passion for the business. About the only thing HBS students are less passionate about than consulting is doing investment banking, so it is very ironic those are the top two most common jobs coming out of HBS. These truths may be rarely discussed outside of business school, but they are readily recognized from within. Perhaps people who enter those businesses eventually learn to like it or change their outlooks; I'm not the person to speak about that.

Everyone is always speaking of finding their "passion." The catch is of course, that nobody can find his or her passion by searching the web or reading books, not any more than one can fall in love by simply searching dating sites or looking at magazines. All this leads to some very dynamic forces; heavy pressure to achieve great things and change the world, while at the same time dealing with short-term forces that challenge our better judgments about ourselves. I suppose these dynamics will never change for those of lucky enough to attend this school, so in that regards, HBS is a good place to practice!

Relatively few people come to HBS because they genuinely want to be a consultant or an investment banker, yet the overwhelming forces here places most people either in those positions or on the edge of them. It is a very difficult force to fight. Some of us are still hanging in there.

Veterans Day Celebration at HBS

This past Thursday (Nov 11, 2010) the HBS Armed Forces Alumni Association (AFAA), a student club, held its annual Veterans Day celebration on campus. We had about 400 students, family, faculty, and friends show up for the event, which highlighted two outstanding keynote speakers: David Gergen and Senator Scott Brown.

Veterans mostly wore their dress blues and we also opened up the event to students of MIT, the Kennedy School of Government, and members of the Harvard Veterans Alumni Organization. An introductory slideshow showed HBS students what their veteran classmates did while in the military, and the event also featured tributes to all services, a static display of military equipment and gear, a POW/MIA presentation, a presentation of the colors by a local ROTC unit, the playing of the national anthem, a USMC birthday cake cutting ceremony, a bagpiper, student remarks, and of course, an open bar and appetizers served to all. An after-hours party followed in Harvard Square.

This annual event definitely marks one of the highlights of my time at HBS, and many members of the AFAA put a lot of hard work into making it a success, marking the highest profile event that the veterans club on campus holds every year. The purpose of the event is both to celebrate and recognize the service of veterans at HBS, and also to create an inclusive environment for the HBS community to learn more about their veteran classmates and the experiences they bring.

Our guests were presented with AFAA club T-shirts, which have the words "West Point of Capitalism" on the front. The club t-shirts are in high demand on campus, and are sold in the spring to students as part of the AFAA charity drive raising money for the New England Center for Homeless Veterans (last year we raised over $10,000).

A few more pictures from the event:

Military Prospective Student Day at HBS

The cover of the latest Harvard Business Review has a picture of soldiers and the front page title:

"Leadership Lessons from the Military - Extreme Conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq have become a testing ground for adaptive management skills that every CEO should understand."

Much like WWII, although to a lesser degree, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are shaping many of America's future leaders. Outstanding military leaders routinely distinguish themselves in business, and the nine years of continuous fighting has produced a massive talent pool of confident leaders who have been through the test. Business schools have known this for a long time, and continue to place emphasis on getting the right kind of veterans in their classrooms. However, just because somebody worked at a bank doesn't make them a good financier, and just because somebody served in the military doesn't make them a good leader. Business schools are looking for much more than just experience - they are looking at the complete person - just as they do for every industry. In this arena, HBS has been making a particularly noteworthy effort...

I'm therefore pleased to promote HBS's newly created Military Prospective Student Day, which is scheduled on the HBS campus for Monday, March 7th, 2011. This is a forward thinking event run by HBS to reach out to prospective military applicants and I strongly suggest you contact the admissions office if you would like to participate. This will also give them a better idea on the number of people to plan for. If you have any recommendations for the event, feel free to write in to me as well and I will consolidate and pass along. Either way, stay tuned for more information.

Lastly, I'm also pleased to announce that this blog recently surpassed 20,000 hits and about 10,000 unique visitors since launching in April of 2009. That's about the same number of applicants that HBS has had over the same time period. Looking at statisitcs of repeat readership is also really interesting, as it shows that 480 visitors have returned to the site over 200 times, and that around 3,000 visitors have returned over 25 times. The original intent of the blog was to serve as a source of information and insight to prospective students and all those contemplating career changes, so I'm glad to that the blog has been useful to so many. Military To Business has also been read in 128 countries representing over 42,000 pageviews.

That last year in school: 18th grade

We've all experienced the ups and downs of "back-to-school" moments in our lives. The fun of catching up with friends that we haven't seen all summer, the curiosity of figuring out what our new classes and professors will be like, and the sinking reality of daily homework.

In all likelihood, I have just finished the last back-to-school week of my life, and doing so at Harvard Business School is not a bad place to finish things out. I found out I made first year honors, I got my official full time offer from the summer, and got to catch up with people who have been doing and continue to do incredibly impressive things with their lives.

A common conversation people are having, besides how fantastic the weather is right now, is who is signing for full time positions and returning to their summer employer and who is not. Many summer employers are offering nice signing bonuses, and in the face of increasing student loans, most offers are very attractive. The feeling of being able to sign onto a job, have some cash in one's pocket, a guaranteed income stream to pay off loans, and perhaps best of all, the peace of mind of not having to go through recruiting the second year, are some extremely compelling reasons to take a full time position early. An even better reason is if you have found the ideal employer for post-HBS. Regardless of the motivation, the question of "have you signed" and "are you going back to XYZ" is as common of a question as "what did you do before business school" was a year ago. It seems that some people have found a great employment fit, some people just don't want to deal with recruiting again, and of course, many others are in between.

While I have some great potential employment options, I've decided I'm going to explore the job market a little further. I am constantly viewing things with two schools of thought:

• Take a position which has incredibly career enhancing potential, brand reputation, and great compensation, but is not necessarily something I would be extremely excited to do.
• Take a position which I would love much more, but has ill-defined career progression, possibly much lower pay, and more questionable long term benefit.

The idea with the first option of course is that you buy optionality, gain skill sets and credibility, and can later catapult to what you "really want to do." The idea of the second option is that although it doesn't have as much of a defined career progression, prestige, or compensation, if you always do what you love doing, you will be more successful and opportunities will just work themselves out. Ideally, one's passions are aligned between both tracks, but that is certainly a rarity.

Many people have emailed asking how my summer went, and there is a ton I could write about my experience at Goldman Sachs and BCG. Both are great firms, both provide opportunities for amazing careers, and both are a great fit for the right person. They may or may not be the right fit for you, and they may or may not be the right fit for me. The latter is a question that I have decided to take some time to continue to reflect on.

For the time being, I am comfortable dealing with the uncertainty, and taking more time to reflect on career choices. It means a little more stress my second year, but not a bad dilemma to have all things considered.

MBA Admissions Consulting for Non-Traditional Applicants

I never intended to monetize anything when I set this blog up, but by the shear volume of emails I receive, it's obvious that there are a lot of military and non-traditional candidates who are hungry for information about the business world, and Harvard Business School in particular. If you fall in these categories, and are still interested in help, shoot me an email and we'll try to work something out that is appropriate to your situation.

My strengths:

• Helping junior military officers and non-traditional candidates
• Particularly helping people figure out when is the best time to apply, which schools to apply to, and how to handle the career transition
  
• How to position yourself (essays, letters of rec, academics, resume, etc.)
  
• Perhaps most importantly, how to translate your non-business experience in a way that admissions committees can understand and appreciate
• I've also helped many discuss career decisions beyond Harvard Business School. If you think I can help, just write in with some details of what you need...

militarytobusiness@gmail.com

If you're not looking for admissions advice but just want to chat about military careers or something in general, feel free to drop me a line as well, though I can't guarantee to reply to everyone. I also suggest reading the previous advice I've put on this blog regarding admissions:

1. Defeating the GMAT
2. Application Resources
3. Deciding on which schools to apply to
4. Application strategy
5. Letters of Rec
6. B-School Essays
7. Interview Prep

Good luck to everyone out there! We all make our own luck.

The Harvard Age Curve - Part II

Last year I published an article about the age of matriculating students for the Class of 2010 at HBS versus other schools. Dee Leopold recently published new data on the HBS admissions blog for the Class of 2012 as follows:

Since I got a lot of positive feedback after my last article, I decided to briefly revisit the topic given this new information.

I'll make the same assumption I made last time, which is that students on average graduate from undergrad at age 22; the numbers who graduate later probably roughly balance those that graduate earlier. I then subtracted a year to calculate the approximate age at time of application (average time from application to matriculation is around 9 months). Comparing the two data sets show little change:

The data compares class sizes of 900 and 909, so I normalized the data and made the followng observations in the difference between the two years:

• Age group 23 and under: Down 23 students
• Age group 24-26: Up 29 students
• Age group 27-29: Up 17 students
• Age group 30 and over: Down 5 students
• Overall mean age change: from 24.9 up to 25.1

Don't forget this is age at time of application. It means that the average HBS grad is 28 years old. While the age average technically went up slightly, it's not a very significant difference. More significant is the slight drop in students with under 2 years of work experience, which looks like it got absorbed by those with 3-5 years of experience. Although I would emphasize that these are very small percentages changes and it's very likely that none of the slight differences are intentional.

For those wondering about the best time to apply, let's look at percentage of students matriculating by age groups at time of application:

• Age 23 and younger: 10%
• Age 24-26: 78%
• Age 27-29: 12%
  
• Age 30+: 1%

The numbers definitely speak for themselves and probably don't need any added insight. I will say that over my year at HBS I have come to form an extreme respect for the institution and its methods. There are certainly those that question the age skew at Harvard, and I think it's always worth discussing, but I will say that after a year at HBS, I have come to give them a high degree of trust. They've been the best at what they do for a long time!

HBS Military Class of 2012

While I'm on the subject of discussing admit demographics, I'll also follow up on the post I made last year regarding the military Class of 2011 at HBS.

HBS has made a very genuine effort to provide active duty military personnel the opportunity to attend and succeed at HBS. The new HBS Class Co-President is former military, and military personnel continue to be regarded in very high regard on campus. It's definitely our responsibility not to take that for granted and to continue to earn that respect by contributing to the Harvard community and upholding its long tradition of excellence.

In addition to increasing the GI Bill Yellow Ribbon package to $10k/year (matched by the VA for a total of $20k), the Class of 2012 also shows a 19% increase in former active duty US military personnel.

At 4-5% of the total class, HBS has taken a leading position among the top MBA programs as a school that places a premium on military experience.

I'll note that there were also three foreign military personnel from non-compulsory service nations to be admitted as well (2x Britain, 1x Greece). There are also at least three women matriculating from the military, compared to none in Class of 2011 and two in the Class of 2010.

So it looks like soldiers and sailors really increased their game this year, and unfortunately I won't be around HBS next year to report on the Class of 2013, so this will have to be the best information out there for a while.

Note: As usual, I'll clarify that my data is not from admissions and is therefore not necessarily perfect and is definitely not official. It is however very close.

Let the summer begin...

I wish I could take more time to write about some of the great experiences here... I'm writing them down as I go and will hopefully have more opportunities to share them with you. This post will be more of an update than any great insight.

We had our last final exam yesterday which concluded a 5 day period of 5 hour exams each day. My section had an end-of-year-dinner at a local Cambridge restaurant (which hosted about 70 of us), and then most of us went on to party the night away with about 300 other HBSers at a Boston club. These kinds of big Boston parties were a relatively routine occurrence during the school year, but I generally didn't leave Cambridge on weeknights. I felt however that finishing the last final and our amazing first year warranted a little bit of an extra celebration. What a great way to finish off the year! I feel very close to my section and am so grateful to have met so many wonderful people here. I really underestimated the value of the "section experience" when I first applied to HBS. It's been integral to my entire experience.

Tomorrow I fly to Israel for a student led 10 day tour with 80+ of my first year classmates (that's about 9% of the class). Another large group is doing a Japan student led trek, and other students are going home for a week or two before starting their internships. Some students are even starting their summer internship next week so they can have their vacation on the back end. Summer break is 14 weeks and most internships are 10 weeks, though some (like myself) are doing two internships. I have 2 weeks off on the front end, then 12 weeks at Goldman and BCG that will take me straight into my second year.

I hope to continue updating the blog over the summer with more lessons from HBS. For those of you who have emailed with questions... I will do my best to get to everyone. Thank you for the great feedback.

Let the summer begin!

Cost of one minute at HBS

Today was my last day of first year cases at HBS and we begin our finals on Thursday. There are so many takeaways to write about, it's difficult to know where to begin and I doubt I will even scratch the surface. It's been an incredible year.

One of the skills many students learn and/or improve thanks to the case method is oral communication since half of one's class grade is based on class participation. There are about 30 cases per course, and the average student speaks every other case per class, so around 15 comments per semester for each student per class (though it probably varies from 10-20).

This means that the professor determines half of your grade on an average of 15 comments over the period of 3.5 months. That's not an incredibly deep well of information to help differentiate 94 highly talented students. It's for this reason that oral communication is so important. One must learn to briefly and persuasively speak in front of a crowd if he or she is to excel. Most class comments last under a minute, and more often they are only a few sentences. I therefore think this is an excellent laboratory to hone persuasive public speaking, and I firmly believe this is a key skill for business leaders. Even if one is great at giving public speeches, knowing how to inject 30 seconds of persuasive wisdom in the proper context is a different story and a different challenge. Preparation can also only go so far, because to be effective, one has to comment "in the flow" of the discussion, and it's difficult to really prepare for all permutations of arguments that will emerge. A terrible comment is one that was brilliantly prepared the night before and presented totally out of context of the comment preceding it.

Another way to analyze how important one can take his/her class comments is to compute how much other people are paying to hear you speak.

HBS Class of 2012 tuition is $48,600. There are approximately 30 cases per course, and 10 courses in the first year, so 300 total cases. Assuming that the entire tuition goes towards a pure learning environment, that means we pay $48,600/330 or $162 per case. This doesn't include $4,850 in support fees which goes toward buying the physical cases themselves and other support material.

Much of the value of being at HBS is captured outside of the classroom through networking, recruiting, and the lifetime value of brand itself. However, let's make the extreme assumption for a moment that all of the tuition cost is captured in its entirety during the actual HBS class hours. Each case is taught for exactly 80 minutes, so one pays roughly $2 for every minute of an HBS class. There are 94 students in my section, so if you decide to speak for one minute, other students are effectively paying $186 for every minute to hear you speak. When I presented this analysis to some of my classmates at the start of the year, they began taking their comments much more seriously.

One of my personal lessons was that if you have 5 minutes of absolutely fantastic points to make, and you only have 2 minutes to do it in, you shouldn't give the same 5 minute speech but at 2.5x speed. Similarly if you only have 1 minute, one shouldn't simply cut out half the speech and rush as much as possible into one minute. One has to tailor all of his comments to fit the format (length) and obviously the audience. One may feel like he has 3-4 amazingly brilliant points to make to support an argument, but he can actually be more persuasive if instead of rushing through them he makes a single overarching comment that captures the greatest impact. Students have to sometimes get over the desire to "hear themselves talk" in order to actually be more effective.

This is indeed an art form. The case method is therefore one of the highlights of my HBS experience thus far.

HBS Learning Teams: Then and Now

It's 7:25am when I walk on campus; a thousand determined students wearing backpacks and carrying a coffee mug are darting back and forth seamlessly crossing each others' path. They are all heading to their learning teams to review the day's cases. There is only an hour before the first class of the day.

I arrive precisely at 7:30am to meet with my learning team. We've secured a coveted room in Spangler Hall thanks to our assigned team member who arrived at 6:50am to squat and stake learning team 122's morning place of study. I see the dejected look on the faces of other teams who only sent a squatting representative to arrive at 7:15 or 7:20am, and could not secure a study room. Those poor teams will be relegated to hold their study session in the noisy cafeteria, or the first random set of steps they find. Real estate at 7:30am at HBS has a lot more demand than supply.

That was the scene in September, the first month of the school year. It is in stark contrast to April.

Now I still arrive precisely at 7:30am, but as I walk on campus I sometimes wonder if there is a holiday I was not aware of. I'll see an occasional squirrel dart across the grass, or a maintenance worker pull up to the parking lot. Occasionally I'll even see another student from the across the field. We look at each other with an immediate feeling of understanding, as though we are the last human survivors in an apocalyptic movie scene.

I walk into Spangler Hall and up the stairs to the study rooms. I pass one cold dark room after another, heading to the beacon of light emerging from our study room's semi-translucent door; finally a sign of life. I'm usually not the first member of the team there, nor am I ever the last, and I'm generally always on time. We chat for a few minutes about our previous evening, and then crack open our notes and engage in a great discussion about the day's cases. Our discussions can become quite passionate and we usually extend past 60 minutes, leading us to rush to our individual classes at 8:35am for our 8:40am class start. We bid each other goodbye "...have a great day. I'll see you tomorrow!"

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Confused by what I'm talking about? Let me briefly fill you in. HBS assigns semi-randomly chosen 6 students from across different sections to form a "learning team." Every first year student is assigned to a learning team in the same fashion. The idea of the learning team is to build a support structure, a safety net, and to enhance the learning process. Learning teams meet for an hour before class starts to review the cases of the day. HBS provides opportunities to discuss how to best go about spending this hour, but ultimately every team decides for themselves how to run their meetings. Furthermore, these teams are not mandatory, so students only attend for as long as they desire. They are also free to leave one team for another.

At the beginning of the year students are a little stressed out about their cases and classes, and feel like they will be disadvantaged by not meeting with their team. Practically everyone starts with a serious intent to maximize their experience. Within a few weeks though, it's no longer necessary to arrive at Spangler early to secure a study room. Learning teams still meet, but real estate supply meets demand. By the end of the first semester, and for a variety of reasons, many learning teams disband. This process continues throughout the second semester, especially during the internship recruiting period, to the present point in which the number of learning teams meeting probably represents single digit percentages of the student population.

Why does this happen? I think for any number of different reasons:

• It's easier to sleep in another hour when you're out partying until 1-2am
• You've become comfortable enough reading cases that you feel adequately prepared to handle the class without the benefit of peer discussion
• Inter-personal problem among team members
• People in your learning team are not at your level of commitment, and you don't want to feed "freeloaders"

One of the silliest reasons I've heard someone justify learning team break-ups is "I simply don't have time for it anymore. I'm too busy!" I think this is awkward because I would say the reverse "I can't afford not to come to my learning team. It saves me so much time!" Indeed, if a 60 minute learning team which starts at 7:30am doesn't save you over 60 minutes of preparation time the night before, I too wouldn't come to my learning team. I didn't continue to attend my learning team out of some transcendental or spiritual obligation, but because we acted as an effective unit, each benefiting from the other more than we put into the process. I was able to study much more efficiently the day prior, knowing that I would have an hour to discuss the cases the following morning.

In general, teams with voluntary participation can only hold together if each person receives more out of the team than he or she puts in. It's a simple balance of interests in life. A well functioning team will output more for its participants than the sum of the inputs, but this often takes a deliberate and coordinated effort. I'm therefore very grateful my team was able to achieve this early on. I believe it certainly enhanced my overall first year experience at HBS.

HBS Talent

When recently asked what has been the most surprising upside of coming to HBS, I answered the following without hesitation: the unbelievable skills, talents, and personalities of my classmates. Coming here I expected to be surrounded by highly intelligent and business savvy people, but what I didn't expect was how talented and multi-dimensional everyone would be. This was again demonstrated this past weekend when I led some of my sectionmates and partners on an overnight backpacking trip through the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

The hike was meant to be of moderate difficulty, but turned out to be quite challenging; it would have been tough even for a decent infantry squad. Knee deep snow at places, ice cold river crossings (boots come off!), climbing of nearly vertical rock faces, a very poorly marked trail that required plenty of cross-country movement, and even night hiking (including down rock faces), all while carrying a good sized overnight pack made this a 21 mile hike covering over 5200 feet of elevation change a weekend to remember!



But did people ever complain? Or try to free load at any point? Never... it was amazing. Instead, people were volunteering to spread load equipment, encouraging each other, and smiles and laughter accompanied us every step of the way. When we finally set up camp around 10pm we each had a MRE (Military Meal-Ready-To-Eat), and exchanged stories and jokes. We even had a student who had never been in the woods and this was his first experience. I was truly amazed by my classmates' determination and good spirits. The point of the trip was not to be a physical challenge, but when adverse conditions came our way, they were easily handled (physically and more importantly, mentally).

It's not that I'm impressed that my classmates are in good shape or know how to hike in the woods. It's that people in this group could probably also play musical instruments professionally if they chose to, that they are involved in non-profits, launching businesses, and can speak intelligently about anything from the US current account deficit to financial put options, all while carrying a heavy backpack and climbing up snow covered mountains. So kudos to all my classmates. You guys inspire me to better myself everyday!

My first cold call!

Five courses per semester. Approximately 30 cases per course. 150 cases in the first semester and not a single cold call. Now, half way through the second semester, after a total of about 225 HBS cases I finally got my first cold call! Statistically, everybody in my section has already been cold called an average of 2.4 times before I finally got mine.

My class participation grades is pretty strong across the board, which is the only reason I can think of to explain these statistics. Nonetheless, I thought it was pretty funny. I really enjoyed the opportunity to anchor the case discussion for the class period, and in the back of my head was thinking "Seriously? Are you really calling on me?" An HBS milestone!