Why Finance Experience Is Less Impressive To Adcoms - Poets&Quants

Why Finance Experience Is Less Impressive To Adcoms

Nowadays, financial services experience won’t give you much of a competitive edge when applying to an MBA program.

What will give you that edge, according to Stacy Blackman Consulting, is taking a more critical approach to MBA application strategy.

“While MBA admissions committees do accept applications from oversubscribed populations, they are now focusing more on diversity of profession, gender and nationality, because it enriches peer-to-peer learning and contributes to their success in the rankings,” Blackman says in a new article for efinancialcareers.

A SATURATED APPLICANT POOL

A couple years ago, financial service experience held more weight for an MBA applicant.

According to Blackman, this advantage stemmed from, in her words, “the strong work ethic associated with investment bankers and money managers and the prestige that comes with working for a big brand are attributes that business schools such as Harvard, Wharton and Stanford covet, as they demonstrate readiness for the rigors of the MBA classroom.”

But the MBA environment has shifted. As diversity has grown increasingly appealing, a number of b-schools are focusing more heavily on applicants with unique backgrounds.

And that means if you only have financial service experience to show, it’s not going to look as impressive as it once was.

“The default among financiers is to assume that their strong work ethic, employer brand and high stats will get them into a top school, but that is not the case today,” Blackman argues. “About 50% of our finance inquiries do not realize that the bar is higher for their cohort, and that their application must be more compelling to differentiate themselves from the competition. Accepting that truth is the first step to securing a place on a top MBA program.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF HOLISTIC INTERESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

If a strong work ethic, big employer brand, and high stats won’t cut it anymore, what does?

Having personal qualities, interests, and triumphs.

In a study done by Stacy Blackman Consulting, 21 MBA candidates were charted from private equity firms as they applied to Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton.

“Our study concluded that past academic background nor GMAT (admissions test) scores could reliably predict whether candidates were admitted or rejected,” Blackman says. “Success — defined by either an admit or interview invite – was rather predicted by how interesting the candidate was to admissions officers.”

“Successful” applicants, Blackman says, tend to convey their interests through activities outside the classroom environment.

“For example, debate leadership, athletic activity and a remarkable thesis were undergraduate experiences that correlated with admits to GSB and HBS,” Blackman says. “Emphasizing earlier life interests that show character and values can differentiate finance candidates vying for top MBA programs.”

RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP CREDENTIALS

While credentials and titles look impressive, showing collaboration and teamwork skills is even better, Blackman says.

“Many business schools also want to educate people who will lead society, not just business, and consider how their career impacts the environment around them,” she writes. “Schools are thinking about employability when reviewing applications – a critical factor in MBA rankings – and whether candidates will use the MBA to achieve their career goals.”

Showing that you can lead, responsibly and collaboratively, is a huge plus. That’s especially true when it’s in a field that you’re passionate about.

“Illustrate how you will contribute to your new community at business school,” Blackman says. “Convey that you will be active and engaged on campus — how you will take on a leadership role within a club that you are passionate about, for example.”

STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS

Having strong recommendations in addition to a high title can give you a huge competitive edge.

Blackman suggests applicants use recommendation letters to highlight certain skills.

“Use your recommendation letters to convey what made you stand apart from your peers at the firm — including project or people management, and evidence of high performance, such as receiving promotions more quickly than others, which are all valued by MBA admissions teams,” she writes.

Having the financial experience is the first step to getting ahead in the MBA admissions race. But, knowing how to sell yourself strategically, is what will ensure your acceptance to an elite MBA program.

Sources: efinancialcareers, Stacy Blackman Consulting

Business Schools Step Up in #MeToo Era

B-schools are now taking their place in the #MeToo movement.

The Boston Globe reports that schools like Stanford Graduate School of Business, MIT Sloan, Georgetown McDonough, Vanderbilt Owen, and Carnegie Mellon Tepper are all introducing their own variations of workplace harassment education.

“People are waking up in business schools and realizing we’ve had a blind spot,” Daena Giardella, an MIT Sloan senior lecturer and leadership consultant, tells the Globe. “Teaching students how to respond to sexual harassment is not just a nice little soft skill to add on. I think it is actually now an imperative. We can’t have leadership without this being taught.”

BY 2030, WOMEN ARE EXPECTED TO MAKE UP 50% OF MBAS

Currently, according to the Forte Foundation—a consortium of business schools and companies working to promote women in business — women make up nearly 38% of MBA students nationwide. That’s a large increase since 2001 when the number was 26%.

By 2030, that number is expected to increase to 50%.

B-SCHOOLS WORKING TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY

As a result, b-schools have been increasing awareness around gender issues through sexual harassment training in curriculum that focus on ethics and values.

At Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, a facilitated conversation series includes topics on the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.

At Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, a popular session on the #MeToo movement was featured in part of its “Fiery Topics” series—which “provides an opportunity for the Johnson community (faculty, staff, and students) to engage in open conversation about a current ‘fiery’ topic,” according to Cornell.

UC Berkeley’s Haas School Business is implementing sexual harassment training for its incoming fall students. The training will be led by current MBA students, who will serve as mentors in teaching how leaders can create safe workplaces.

“At Berkeley, we have a shared interest in sustaining a community that is safe and affirming,” Fiona M. Doyle, vice provost for graduate studies, says in a previous press release. “Each of us plays a vital part in supporting the University’s commitment to a campus environment where all persons are free from sexual violence and sexual harassment (SVSH), including behaviors such as retaliation, dating and domestic violence, and stalking.”

Next Spring, MIT’s Sloan plans to offer a course on advancing equity and inclusion in the workplace.

Sloan’s course will be dedicated to advancing equity and inclusion in the workplace that delves into responses to sexual harassment and conditions that allow it to fester.

Shamir Tanna, an MBA student at Sloan and a member of the school’s Males Allies program, tells the Globe that addressing sexual harassment means bringing it the forefront of the curricula. 

“How can we really be part of the solution and fixing some of the systemic things that are going on?” he tells the Globe. “We need to make it as important as any other topic that we learn here.”

Sources: Boston Globe, Forte Foundation, UC Berkeley

Knowing Your Boss’ Pay Makes You Work Harder

You find out you make less than a coworker with the same job title. You decide to put in less effort. In fact, you may even think about calling it quits.

That is, until you find out just how much your boss makes – especially when it’s even more than you expected.

A new Harvard Business School study finds that if your boss makes more money than you thought, you tend to work harder.

“Employees are motivated rather than embittered by their bosses’ higher salaries,” the authors of the study write. “The higher salary is aspirational. Employees have an extra incentive to work hard so they can be promoted and perhaps one day make their bosses’ pay.”

THE EXPERIMENT

The study was produced by HBS’ Zoe Cullen and the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Richardo Perez-Truglia. It focuses on a sample of 2,060 employees from a multi-billion dollar corporation. Through surveys and administrative records with data, the authors disclosed the salaries of others to tested employees.

“First, we document large misperceptions about salaries and identify some of their sources,” the authors write. “Second, we find that perceived peer and manager salaries have a significant causal effect on employee behavior.”

The study found that employees decreased their effort, output, and retention when peers had a higher perceived salary. In contrast, a manager’s higher perceived salary boosted these three outcomes.

THE IMPLICATIONS

What do these findings mean?

For one, pitting employees against each other, especially when it comes to pay, has negative impact on effort, output, and retention.

“That is, firms may want to motivate employees with the prospect of a higher salary upon promotion rather than through performance pay,” the authors write.

The evidence may also shed light on why employees tolerate pay discrimination, such as gender-based wage gaps, especially when it’s done so vertically.

“For instance, in the firm where the experiment was conducted, 92% of the gender pay gap comes from vertical differences and only 8% through horizontal differences – a similar decomposition has been found in firms in other countries such as the United States,” the study reads.

Sources: Inc, Harvard Business School

 

 

The post Why Finance Experience Is Less Impressive To Adcoms appeared first on Poets&Quants.

from Poets&Quants
via IFTTT