Bain consultants meeting in a lobby
How Bain Is Recruiting MBA Talent
The tech industry is exploding. Now, consulting firms – a destination for MBA royalty – is increasingly competing with tech giants like Google and Apple, in recruiting. Despite this, MBA recruitment is at an all-time high at Bain & Company.
“Last year, we hired more consultants than we’ve ever hired in the 41-year history of Bain & Company,” Keith Bevans, a Bain & Company partner who leads the company’s global consulting recruiting efforts, tells Poets & Quants. “This year, we’re going to hire more. We’ll hire north of 400 consultants this year…It’ll be our largest class to date.”
Tech’s Growing Popularity Among MBAs
That said, large tech firms are making in-roads at the top business schools. At Stanford Graduate School of Business, for example, Bain is one of the top five employers of grads. However, according to Financial Times, Google and Apple are also in that list.
Dustin Clinard is the managing director of the Americas for Universum Global, which has been tracking worldwide employer popularity among business students. In an interview with Poets & Quants, Clinard says the rise of tech has given MBAs more options than ever to choose from.
“The range of options for graduating talent is getting larger,” he says. “Where you used to have primarily banks and consulting companies, now you have a whole lot of startups and a whole lot of more traditional tech companies.”
The Reasoning Behind Choosing a Tech Company
But why are tech companies so popular among MBAs? Clinard says it’s an increased emphasis of having purpose.
“MBA grads are placing an increasing amount of importance on companies that have an inspiring purpose,” he says. “They do more than simply make money. They make money with a purpose of greater good to it.”
Bain’s Fight To Recruit The Top Talent
For a number of traditional MBA-hiring firms, high salaries and benefits won’t be enough to win over MBAs anymore.
At Bain, a number of recruiting initiatives have been put in place in recent years to try and attract more MBA talent.
Bain has an entire blog, known as Bain Voices, dedicated to Bain employees discussing their passions.
“We’re talking about how they’re balancing their career and their families and pursuing their passions,” Bevans says. “We had one partner write a blog entry a couple of months ago on swimming across the English Channel and talking about the training and commitment involved in doing that. So it’s a real neat cross-section of the type of people you’d be working with at Bain.”
In addition, Bain is focused on differentiating itself from other consulting firms. According to Bevans, the company has a program called “Connect with Bain” – a program dedicated to building upfront relationships where prospective Bain applicants can talk with Bain employees.
“It’s a chance for them to meet with the people from Bain and, more importantly, get to hear about the type of the work that we’re doing and get a sense for what the industry is and what type of work Bain does,” Bevans says. “We’re not interviewing people during those sessions or anything like that. But it’s a good chance for them to plant the seed in their mind that this could be an exciting career for them post-MBA.”
Sources: Financial Times, Poets & Quants, Poets & Quants
What You Need To Know About An Online EMBA
Many professionals don’t want to give up working for two years – or give up every weekend for class. For them, the online executive MBA was created.
Jordan Friedman, an editor at US News, recently covered some facts about online EMBAs that prospective applicants should know before applying.
EMBAs are Best for Working Professionals
An EMBA can be especially useful for seasoned professionals on the fast track at their firms.
“Partially or fully online EMBAs typically cater to working adults who don’t want to quit their full-time jobs to further their education,” Freidman writes. “This may be especially true for prospective EMBA students who already hold higher-level roles at their company.”
Dave Bellomy is a 2015 graduate of the blended EMBA program at the University of Arkansas. In his program, EMBAs visit campus once a month and continuously complete coursework online. In an interview with US News, Bellomy says the EMBA was an option that fit his career.
“With an established career, and I had three kids at the time and am married, the full-time program wasn’t an option for me, so I decided to go this route,” Bellomy tells US News. “It allowed me to work and to continue to advance in my career at the same time as getting my degree.”
Acceptance Rates are Higher for EMBAs
At some of the toughest MBA programs, such as Wharton, Chicago Booth, Northwestern Kellogg, and Columbia Business School, the acceptance rates for EMBAs is much higher than normal full-time MBAs.
According to Poets & Quants, Wharton accepts more than twice as many EMBA applicants as it does candidates for its full-time MBA program—and Wharton is the toughest EMBA program to get into.
However, that’s not to say that it’s necessarily easy to get into an EMBA program. Some schools have different requirements. At University of Virginia Darden School of Business, for example, applicants are required to submit GMAT, GRE, or Executive Assessment test scores. Darden also prefers applicants who have seven years of professional experience. At Howard University School of Business, applicants aren’t required to submit test scores, but they are required to have eight to 10 years of professional experience, according to US News.
EMBA Students Have Diverse Backgrounds
Experts say that the EMBA student demographic allows for a unique classroom learning environment. Since a majority of EMBAs are working professionals, students tend to come from a wide array of industry backgrounds.
“That diversity of experience, both in years and industry and geography, leads to a different component of the classroom learning,” Mike Waldie, director of the graduate school at the University of Arkansas’s Walton College of Business, tells US News.
Sources: US News, Poets & Quants
Design Thinking In Business Schools
What is one of the most popular concepts being taught at business schools? Design thinking.
Design thinking, according to MIT, is an “innovative problem-solving process rooted in a set of skills.” Originally an approach taken by designers, the term has gain heavy traction in the business world in recent years.
What is Design Thinking and How Does It Apply to Business?
Ileana Stigliani, an Assistant Professor of Design and Innovation at Imperial College Business School, breaks down the concept of design thinking clearly in a Financial Times article.
“When BMW sells a car, it knows what customers want,” Stigliani explains in her article. “But the company also steps back to understand why they want it. What does a car mean to someone? How does it fit his or her lifestyle? How will people feel about their cars in the future?”
These are the types of questions that design thinking tries to highlight. Questions that go beyond simply using analytical skills to attack a problem, but actually understanding the basis of the problem and how to address it.
“At the heart of design thinking is the ability to empathise with the people you are designing a service or product for,” Stigliani writes her article ‘Design thinking is the key to successful innovation.’ “As we progressively move towards a world dominated by technology, preserving products and services which are operated by humans rather than machines has never been more important.”
The design thinking process, according to MIT, is broken down into four steps:
- Understand the problem at hand
- Explore a wide variety of possible solutions
- Iterate extensively through prototyping and testing
- Implement through the customary deployment mechanisms
How Business Schools are Teaching Design Thinking
A number of business schools have implemented design thinking into their studies. At Imperial, design thinking is offered as a core module in the full-time MBA program, according to The Economist.
The eight-week module focuses on experiential learning and students are encouraged to utilize thinking across various disciplines, The Economist reports. Simply put, the module is created to push students to look at problems in a unique way and going beyond simply using analytical skills.
At UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, a course entitled “Applied Design Thinking for Business Innovation: The Netherlands” provides students an interactive, experiential approach to learning about user-centric innovation. Students can partake in fieldwork at the THNK School of Creative Leadership in Amsterdam where they will focus on a client and business issue. Through the course, students utilize design thinking techniques to generate new ideas and solutions. Ultimately, students pitch their ideas to company executives.
Design Thinking Goes Hand-in-Hand with Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, has become the newest requirement amongst MBA programs. At NYU’s Stern School of Business, applicants are required to submit an EQ endorsement. In an article for Harvard Business Review, Tim Brown – CEO of IDEO, discussed design thinking. He says empathy and collaboration are two integral components of a design thinker’s personality portfolio. Empathy, Brown says, is taking a “people’s first” approach. Think stepping into another’s shoes. On top of empathy, collaboration is another quality of a design thinker.
“The best design thinkers don’t simply work alongside other disciplines, many of them have significant experience in more than one,” Brown writes.
Betsy Massar is the founder of Master Admissions. In an interview with Poets & Quants, Massar says schools are increasingly seeking applicants who have high EQ.
“I think they (schools) are looking for traits and potential, and some people will show more self-awareness and emotional intelligence than others,” Massar says. “Still, both those characteristics are really important indicators of success in any organization, whether it is a business school or a place of employment. I think they are looking for maturity, and emotional intelligence can be considered on measure of that trait.”
Sources: Financial Times, Imperial College Business School, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, Poets & Quants
How to Get Money for Your MBA
Just four years ago, no MBA program cost more than $200,000. That reality is now long gone. With nine total schools over the $200K threshold, MBA applicants should ensure that they are getting the most money from b-schools.
Roughly 48% of two-year MBAs received a scholarship, according to data for the FT’s 2017 ranking. So, what’s the best way to get the most money out of your scholarship?
Matt Symonds, a contributor at Forbes, recently reported on key tips applicants should know if they intend on getting the most financial aid from their acceptance.
Special Circumstances
Every applicant has a unique background. This is what personal statements and essays intend on conveying. Yet, financial circumstances should also be highlighted. Circumstances such as income drop, divorce, death in family, student loans, or dependents should all be brought to attention.
Symonds recommends that applicants highlight special circumstances that are relevant to paying for business school.
“It is up to you to bring these circumstances up to the schools you’ve been accepted to and ask them for reconsideration of an aid offer,” Symonds writes.
Detail Your Requests in Writing
Symonds recommends all requests be detailed in writing rather than over the phone to financial aid officers.
“At most schools, the Admissions Office controls merit-based scholarship funding and the Financial Aid Office controls need-based grant funding,” Symonds writes. “If both types of assistance might be in play, it wouldn’t hurt to send an email to both offices.”
Target Scholarships That Fit You
A number of scholarships are available to applicants with specific profiles.
Caroline Diarte Edwards is a Director at MBA admissions coaching firm Fortuna Admissions and former Director of MBA Admissions at INSEAD.
In a Poets & Quants article, Edwards highlights the importance in targeting scholarships that may fit your specific profile.
For instance, at NYU Stern, a new scholarship entitled “Advancing Women in Business Scholarship” focuses on reducing gender inequality and covers the first year of tuition for women applicants. At INSEAD, the “Mexico Excellence Scholarship” values diverse cultural perspectives and belief in “open borders.”
Creative Tactics
Outside of applying for scholarships, applicants should find creative ways to fund their MBA. Edwards recommends students to turn to crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo or GoFundMe to invest in their MBA degree.
“This DIY fundraising tactic may be appealing to those with particular marketing and social media savvy,” Edwards writes.
In addition, Edwards recommends applicants to look into government-sponsored programs such as the Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives loans for grads who go into the public-sector industry.
Submit Early
Above all, Symonds says it’s important to submit requests for aid early.
“More often than not, funding dwindles as time goes on and deposits start rolling in,” he writes. “Submit your appeal early, while schools are still working to recruit their classes and are likely at their most generous points.”
Sources: Forbes, Poets & Quants, Poets & Quants
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