The Crossover

One of the most challenging things that many of my MBA colleagues and I find as we wrap up the second year of our experience is "the crossover period" back into the work environment. On the surface, it certainly does not seem like a challenge. After all, I am guessing that most of the readers for these blogs have several years in the workforce and view going to grad school for two years as a small piece of vacation from their regular lives. To some extent this is true...my life in grad school has been more "footloose and fancy free" than my life was prior to Owen.

The real challenge becomes deciding exactly when to give up that re-found freedom. Many companies that are hiring graduating MBA's typically extend offers (and require their acceptance) far before the end of the academic year. Nearly 60-70% of graduating MBA's have accepted a full time offer by March of their graduation year. Larger companies (Fortune 500-esque) typically have standard entry programs for new graduates from undergraduate and graduate schools into their program and the guidelines are flexible but established. Folks going to these jobs traditionally have their decision regarding start date and company engagement prior to graduation decided for them. It is all part of the program.

However, a good number of MBA's (myself one of them) chose to work for smaller organizations that are more traditionally suited to "just in time" hiring of employees. These companies tend to bring in MBA's at more senior levels of their organization because they are looking for a specific skill set to satisfy a need. Sometimes these companies even ask graduating MBA's to start work one or two days a week prior to graduation. In my case, I was asked to attend quarterly meetings and help with recruiting intern candidates. With these organizations, the second that students say "Yes, I am coming." the company hears "I'm ready to go."  Not necessarily a bad thing, but just something to be aware of depending on the type of company you are thinking about working for in the future.

The actual start date (the full salaried start date) is something that should be negotiated up front and should not be left "up in the air." Myself and others I know have been challenged when we did not wrap up this discussion up front. My advice is to think about how much time you need to decompress after grad school and ask for it. You may not get it...and it will certainly be a negotiation...but discussing it with your future employer early will lead to less heartache and stress on the back end.