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southhobart
- Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:20 pm
Hello, all! Can anyone recommend a book/blog/forum/etc for MBA candidates seeking to chart a career path post-business school? I know this is primarily a website for people on their way *in* to business school...but it was so helpful when I was taking the GMAT and preparing applications that I thought I would stop by and ask.
Specifically, I am a part-time student at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia, and I will be finishing my degree in the next 12-18 months. I have spent the past eight years working in the development office of a non-profit org, and I want to change careers--or at least jobs--in the worst way. I've been job-hunting for over a year, and have had a very sobering experience in the labor market. I'm finding that I'm overqualified for most jobs in my current industry (non-profit management), and that most of the jobs in my target industries (accounting, finance, business analytics, or perhaps operations management) won't even consider me because I don't have any professional experience in those areas. All this is complicated by the fact I am now well into my early 30s--and thus too old for most "entry level" positions that would allow me to rack up some experience--and by my part-time status, which doesn't offer me a chance to spend a summer as an intern like most full-time students.
I know all this will work out fine in the long-run--and indeed, the degree has already paid for itself through raises and advancement at the company I want to escape, and I am on track to graduate completely debt-free--but right now I feel like I have dug myself into a very deep hole. It seems like the MBA program has only compounded the very problems I set out to resolve when I decided pursue the degree. I felt "stuck" then, and even more trapped now that I have moved farther along my pre-MBA trajectory. I doubt I am the only person experiencing this kind of dilemma, though, and there must be some sort of resource out there for navigating the transition between a degree program and a career change. Anything come to mind?
Specifically, I am a part-time student at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia, and I will be finishing my degree in the next 12-18 months. I have spent the past eight years working in the development office of a non-profit org, and I want to change careers--or at least jobs--in the worst way. I've been job-hunting for over a year, and have had a very sobering experience in the labor market. I'm finding that I'm overqualified for most jobs in my current industry (non-profit management), and that most of the jobs in my target industries (accounting, finance, business analytics, or perhaps operations management) won't even consider me because I don't have any professional experience in those areas. All this is complicated by the fact I am now well into my early 30s--and thus too old for most "entry level" positions that would allow me to rack up some experience--and by my part-time status, which doesn't offer me a chance to spend a summer as an intern like most full-time students.
I know all this will work out fine in the long-run--and indeed, the degree has already paid for itself through raises and advancement at the company I want to escape, and I am on track to graduate completely debt-free--but right now I feel like I have dug myself into a very deep hole. It seems like the MBA program has only compounded the very problems I set out to resolve when I decided pursue the degree. I felt "stuck" then, and even more trapped now that I have moved farther along my pre-MBA trajectory. I doubt I am the only person experiencing this kind of dilemma, though, and there must be some sort of resource out there for navigating the transition between a degree program and a career change. Anything come to mind?
