Dear Sam,
Thanks for your reply. Please see my thoughts below:
Thank you for the nice post Graham!
>>My pleasure!
If I may follow-up with couple of questions; in terms of work experience:
- What would, in your opinion, be the minimum work experience for a solid application to a top 10 school?
>>Technically, there is no minimum due to the fact that some schools (like HBS, Stanford and Wharton) take a handful of candidates directly from college. Of course, even those candidates have to have demonstrated superb leadership experiences via part-time work, campus involvement, etc - so perhaps a better metric to employ is the quality of leadership/team experiences the applicant can present to the adcom - regardless of the duration.
>>My guess is that you are looking for a more concrete response, however, so let me try and provide one. If we ignore technicalities, like Wharton's sub-matriculation program and the fact that HBS and Stanford accept some folks directly, the basic answer to your question is that the vast majority of admitted students have between 2 and 5 years of experience. This means that the "minimum" experience for a typical applicant is usually 1 year at the time of application (2 years upon matriculation). Keep in mind that this is merely a guideline, and that it does vary somewhat from school to school.
- How is the work experience viewed in terms of number of companies worked for? e.g. One applicant who has 2.5 years experience at the same company with the same title, and same responsibilities vs. another applicant who also has 2.5 years of experience but working for 3 companies (6 months, 1 year, 1 year) progressing from one job to another or maybe moving from a small corporation environment to a multi-national...etc.
>>This really would depend on the candidate, employers involved, roles held, etc. Having said that, if I had to offer a point of view based on the limited information here, I'd say that the adcom would prefer the first candidate. The reason for this is that admissions officers typically steer clear of applicants who 'job-surf' and can't seem to stay in any one position for more than a year. The commonly held perception is that it takes a good deal of time to adjust to a role and carve out leadership opportunities or achieve milestones with an employer. If one moves around every 6-12 months, it's hard to really put down roots and demonstrate advancement. It's also hard to have recommendation letters that showcase a deep level of familiarity with the applicant.
Thank you once again.
>>You are quite welcome!
Best of luck,
Graham
