To Grow Your Career, Think Like an Entrepreneur
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The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is an organization comprised of leading graduate business schools around the world. GMAC is the owner and administrator of the GMAT® exam. |
This week, students, entrepreneurs, businesses, and governments across 127 countries will celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, the world’s largest promotion of entrepreneurship. Activities for the event aim to connect innovators with potential collaborators, mentors, and investors to explore new ideas and provide information on what it takes to build new enterprises—a goal shared by a growing number at business schools worldwide.
Schools recognize that whether you plan to launch your own business after earning your degree or intend to work for an established company an entrepreneurial education and mindset can make you an attractive business partner or new hire.
Be a Change Agent
If you are intent upon launching your own business ventures, a graduate management degree can provide the business knowledge, management skills, and leadership discipline to help bring your innovative visions to reality. But skills related to effecting change, taking risks, being innovative, and solving problems are sought by employers as well. The chart below illustrates the traits on the leadership-managerial continuum that companies recently selected to describe the business graduates they were looking to hire in 2012.
A Business Education Reveals What’s Possible
Recent GMAT testing data show a growing number of GMAT examinees intend to concentrate on entrepreneurship in graduate business school. What these prospects hope to gain from their degree is illustrated in a few comments from business school alumni:
“Building a solid background at a good business school is a great way to expand your opportunities, come up with new ideas, and really take your business to the next level,” commented Brooks Dame, a 2006 graduate of the Thunderbird School of Global Management, CEO of Proof Eyewear, and finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s Emerging Entrepreneur of 2012.
Sumit Vohra, founder of Lonerider Brewing Company and a class of 2007 grad of the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business, advises would-be business owners to “Effect change—don’t just be an audience. Going to business school made me see what’s possible—I realized that if I truly want to do something, it can be done.”
Visit mba.com to get more information and watch a video featuring more graduates and experts from business schools.
Programs Pave the Way for Business Creators
Business schools worldwide are offering more courses, degree programs, and other educational content related to entrepreneurship. Today there are nearly 50 business degree programs in entrepreneurship, innovation, and related areas among those that accept the GMAT exam and 400 programs in the mba.com school search service offering entrepreneurship as an area of elective study or concentration.
Want to learn more?
Join us for an MBA Chat (via Twitter) on entrepreneurship Wednesday, November 14, at 1:00 pm EST/10:00 am PST. Matthew Moll, associate director of MBA admissions at Columbia Business School will host the chat fielding all your questions. Participate by following , our guest host , or the hashtag and by using in all your related tweets.
Our Facebook Video Q&A on entrepreneurship from the perspective of three successful entrepreneurs will also be available starting Wednesday, November 14. Access the content at https://www.facebook.com/OfficialGMAT/app_319048788177675
