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It's more difficult than you might expect to change industries after an MBA. Your internships and employers will still look for relevant experience. The best me

It's more difficult than you might expect to change industries after an MBA. Your internships and employers will still look for relevant experience. The best method would be to use the MBA to join a large consulting firm. You'll still need to network internally and beg to be staffed on projects outside your historical specialty.

hkmurakami 11y ago
Agreed that it's difficult. I think it's fair to say though that (1) it does increase one's chances of pulling it off and (2) it provides some lower risk ways of nudging your way towards relevance with coterm internships and (3) provides a path to a soft landing and saving face if things don't turn out exactly as planned. (3) is pretty appealing to the kind of individuals who consider these programs in the first place. edit: Worth mentioning is that the career offices of these programs definitely overstate the effectiveness of the "come to our program and get your dream job" aspect. In that sense it's similar to the misleading rhetoric of Law Schools.
ryandrake 11y ago
Definitely. Banks want former bankers. Consultant firms want former consultants. If you don't already have one of those backgrounds you're going to struggle in the job search. Have a back-up plan if you can't actually end up switching careers--make sure the $$$ adds up: You're blowing 2 years of opportunity cost and going into 6 digit debt for 10 years. Do the math and make it make sense. Also, regarding networking: 50-70% of your class-mates will not be career switchers: They'll already have banking or consulting backgrounds, already speak the language and know each other's firms. Make friends with them or you're not going to reap the much-touted "networking" benefits of MBA school. I went to a top-10 school, but happened to graduate the year Lehman and Bear imploded, and ended up right back in engineering. So, for me it ended up not being worth it financially--but for folks who graduated a few years before me it was totally worth it. Do the math and make sure you can deal with that risk.
- mcv 11y ago
  Consultant firms don't want former consultants, they want people with experience in what they consult on, preferably at the kind of companies they consult at. My wife (working for the government, currently doing an MBA and looking for a career switch) has received offers from two consultant firms that are currently hired by her at the government. They both love ex-government workers, because it increases their expertise on how the government works, and it grows their network at the government.
  - msellout 11y ago
    And therefore you won't get out of your industry. Whatever you're doing now, you join a consultancy and do the same thing. You do get paid more, which is nice.

hkmurakami 11y ago

Agreed that it's difficult. I think it's fair to say though that (1) it does increase one's chances of pulling it off and (2) it provides some lower risk ways of nudging your way towards relevance with coterm internships and (3) provides a path to a soft landing and saving face if things don't turn out exactly as planned. (3) is pretty appealing to the kind of individuals who consider these programs in the first place. edit: Worth mentioning is that the career offices of these programs definitely overstate the effectiveness of the "come to our program and get your dream job" aspect. In that sense it's similar to the misleading rhetoric of Law Schools.

ryandrake 11y ago

Definitely. Banks want former bankers. Consultant firms want former consultants. If you don't already have one of those backgrounds you're going to struggle in the job search. Have a back-up plan if you can't actually end up switching careers--make sure the $$$ adds up: You're blowing 2 years of opportunity cost and going into 6 digit debt for 10 years. Do the math and make it make sense. Also, regarding networking: 50-70% of your class-mates will not be career switchers: They'll already have banking or consulting backgrounds, already speak the language and know each other's firms. Make friends with them or you're not going to reap the much-touted "networking" benefits of MBA school. I went to a top-10 school, but happened to graduate the year Lehman and Bear imploded, and ended up right back in engineering. So, for me it ended up not being worth it financially--but for folks who graduated a few years before me it was totally worth it. Do the math and make sure you can deal with that risk.

mcv 11y ago
Consultant firms don't want former consultants, they want people with experience in what they consult on, preferably at the kind of companies they consult at. My wife (working for the government, currently doing an MBA and looking for a career switch) has received offers from two consultant firms that are currently hired by her at the government. They both love ex-government workers, because it increases their expertise on how the government works, and it grows their network at the government.
- msellout 11y ago
  And therefore you won't get out of your industry. Whatever you're doing now, you join a consultancy and do the same thing. You do get paid more, which is nice.