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| Graduation Day with Mom and Dad |
There are a lot of great things that can be obtained from attending a full-time MBA program, but for everyone the main goal is career improvement. Many students need the MBA to completely switch career tracks. Others go to business school to help them build the network and skills to turn their business idea into a fully functioning start-up company. For others (such as myself) it is a little subtler, and a way of jump-starting a stagnating career by making themselves more marketable and increasing their movement within their current industry. So from a purely financial/career standpoint, I can't yet evaluate whether the MBA experience was worth it or not. If next week (or next month, or even sometime next winter) I land an awesome job that I really enjoy, that pays well, and that really increases my long-term career prospects, then it'll be easy to say business school, and specifically Anderson, was a great decision. On the other hand, it's very possible that I'll continue to contribute to the poor US employment numbers for a while longer, or end up taking a less than ideal job just to start working again. In that case, it might be tougher to justify the two years of forgone salary, excessively high tuition and other student expenses, all of the time and energy spent, and the mounting levels of debt I was so willing to take on.
However, I tend to be an optimist by nature, so I'm pretty sure that in the grand scheme of things I'll look back on the whole Anderson decision as very positive and worthwhile. Even if the initial job situation doesn't work out as ideally as I may have wanted, there are so many other intangible aspects to business school, and so many experiences that I wouldn't have had without it, that I think the positives will heavily outweigh the expenses, and the time and effort of getting the degree. Since I'm in reflective mode, I wanted to highlight several of the ones that really stood out:
Cross Country Road Trip: Ah, this was where this whole blog and this whole business school adventure began way back in August 2010. 4,700 miles traveled through 15 states over 20 days. Every now and then I look back at my old blog posts or pictures (I only saved my favorite 1,049 from this trip on my hard drive) and get very nostalgic. I still consider this one of my most personally rewarding trips. As I wrote in a blog after the trip: I think contributing to this is that I planned almost the entire thing myself, the activities and sites were so varied, there was a sense of accomplishment (the distance involved, the planning required, the strenuousness of the hikes, etc) and that it happened during a major transition point in my life. I'd really love to do another large road trip some day. So many places left to explore.
Spring Break in Ghana: The road trip may have been my most rewarding trip, but ten days in Ghana may always be the most memorable and unique trip of my life. It really opened my eyes to a part of the world and life that I had never seen or realistically thought of before. One-part MBA business project, and one-part sightseeing tour, it was thoroughly enjoyable and felt like we were doing something really productive.
Living in LA: One thing that attracted me to choosing UCLA over Maryland or UNC (the other MBA programs I got into) was that I would get to live in LA and experience the west coast for the first time. I had no idea if I would ever have that opportunity again, and it was a chance I didn't want to pass up. I think now I can agree with a lot of people and say that I have a love/hate relationship with Los Angeles. As an active, outdoorsy person, the year round beautiful weather and the proximity to both the beach and the mountains are huge pluses for me. Surfing is fun. I also think there is more of a laid-back attitude in SoCal that fits my personality better than on the east coast. However, I also prefer to walk than to drive, and I hate wasting time sitting in traffic and looking for parking, but that's unavoidable out here. My stance has been that I'd love to remain in LA a little bit longer, because I feel that I haven't fully experienced the city yet, and it would be nice to experience the city while also getting a paycheck every couple of weeks.
I met Warren Buffet: That was cool. And I have a picture to prove it.
Expanding Network: I've often said that the student body at Anderson is easily the smartest, most successful, hardest working group of individuals I've ever been around before. Although I may not have forged as many close relationships as I initially thought I may, the number of acquaintances and potential business contacts that I have has significantly multiplied in two years, spanning the entire globe. I got to know a lot of great people here that I hope to keep in touch with for years to come.
Improving My Soft Skills: One thing I've recently learned is that personal improvements are a lot more subtle than expected. For example, I seemed to think that attending business school with its nonstop emphasis on networking, leadership, group work, and class participation would transform me from an introvert to a A-type personality. Two years later, when people meet me for the first time they still think "really shy" and when they get to know me they may only upgrade the description to "kinda quiet." That's who I am, and I realize now that's never going to change, certainly not from a two-year masters program. But that's not to say that I didn't improve in a lot of these "soft skill" areas. I think my communication and presentation skills are much improved I successfully led teams organizing numerous events and activities such as career nights, alumni banquets, and Anderson's first ever national stock pitch competition. Especially evident in leading my consulting team for six months as the main client contact, I learned that I can play those roles when I need to, and I'm a lot more comfortable in these situations than I had been in the past.
It was Fun! "Work hard, play hard" is such a cliche, but it really is true in this case. We all worked extremely hard during the duration of the MBA program, but when you put a group of 370 students, most of them in their mid to late 20s together, good times will be had. Beach days, camping trips, bar crawls, sporting events, Casino Night, Halloween parties, Dis-O, turtle races, and tailgates are just a small sample of the organized Anderson events. I spent much more time with Anderson students in non-Anderson events, usually just simple evenings hanging in friends' apartments or at bars, but also in bigger events such as the Sundance Festival trip, going skydiving, and driving race cars. I can't imagine another time in the future where I will know this large of a group of people to hang out with and do this many fun, varied activities again.
And, on a personal note: I've never been one to share much about deeply personal stuff, and certainly not on the internet, but a list of best aspects of my business school experience would be incomplete if I didn't at least mention it. Obviously I met someone very special at Anderson and ultimately this alone could be reason to say going to b-school was worth every penny, no matter what happens with my job search.
It's made the stress from school and recruiting over the last year much more manageable, and the times outside of school (such as my trip to Taiwan and our spring break California road trip) so much more special.
Like I said earlier, it's a little tough to fully evaluate the worth of the MBA experience, at least financially, until I get an offer and know where I'm heading next in life. However, I still believe that the job search will sort itself out eventually, and after going through this list and thinking back on all the amazing adventures and other positive aspects of the last two years, its even tougher to think of it as being anything but a great experience.
