Ahhhh, a short email from a reader…it’s so much easier for me to address these kind of messages 🙂 This one is from an MBA aspirant who is considering entering the military prior to applying to business school. He’s currently an HR consultant, but doesn’t think his current path doesn’t give him an opportunity to advance. So, he’s thinking of the Navy as a way to get some strong experiences after which he would apply to business school and pursue a position in a strategy consulting firm. He’s looking for my perspectives on what he’s planning, so I tried my best to give him a thorough response. I hope it’s not getting to him too late to be useful to him.
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JF wrote:
“Dear Marquis,
First, thanks so much for sharing your experiences and providing great advice for those interested in b-school or consulting. I don’t think anyone can say enough how valuable a resource you have been.
I have a simple question. What do you think of military experience as preparation for b-school and consulting.
To give you a little background. I have a bachelors in math and a masters in public health and have been working in human capital consulting for about a year. I am thinking of leaving to go to the navy to do a three year stint before I apply to b-school. The reason is that although I am getting great experience at my current company and like consulting, I don’t have much opportunity in terms of advancement (no MBA, no previous experience). I think I could pick up great management skills, see the world, have a great brand on my resume, all while serving my country in the navy. My real concern is will I be poorly positioned to re-enter consulting or get an MBA after serving in the military. My current company is not in the top tier of consulting companies but many have heard of it. I know the military is not my only option, but one I am seriously considering. Hope this was not too long winded. Thanks for your advice.
JF”
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My response:
JF,
Hey there. I know it’s been a while since you emailed me, so I hope this response is arriving in time to be useful to you. It sounds like you’re considering something truly life-changing by joining the Navy, so I’m glad that you’re not taking it lightly. This is a great question to ask and I hope that I can be helpful to you in some way. I know a lot of former military folks who went on to top business schools, so I’ll leverage interactions with them to inform what I’ll say below. Also, I’ll pull some ideas from what I’ve seen and heard to come up with something *hopefully* good for you.
Your first concern was about military experience as a preparation for business school and I’d say that it is a GREAT lead-in for business school, as long as the rest of your application package is good. Business schools look for examples of leadership potential in applicants and I can’t think of any better leadership training than what one receives in the military. Officers are trained to lead groups of soldiers from a range of backgrounds toward a common aim, which would put you head-and-shoulders above many of your B-school classmates in terms of leadership experience. There were several former military guys in my class at the GSB and they were superstars. In fact, many top business schools have student groups devoted to former soldiers, so you’d have a community of folks in your school with those shared experiences. Since you’re going to enlist after a year of working, you’ll want to address the reasons behind this transition in your business school applications to show that you fully thought through it. You’ll have to find some way to make the Navy experience to fit into your overall MBA story, but, if you can do that, you could have a dynamite application on your hands.
Once you’ve taken care of B-school admissions, you’ll have to make your way into consulting and having a military background is a big plus for consulting. As mentioned earlier, there aren’t many better pre-MBA leadership experiences than time in the military and you should get a lot of run out of your time in the Navy. Some former military guys have told me that they were pushed harder on the case interviews to prove out their problem solving, but, if you practice enough earlier in the process, you should do fine. You would likely leave the Navy with a collection of experiences that would make you into a superstar on the fit interviews. If you have any worries about your positioning for consulting gigs out of the military, I’d say that you should let those concerns go because your experiences should make your profile “pop” to recruiting teams.
I’ve got a quick question that you might want to consider. Do you REALLY want to join the military? You’ve probably thought this over many times, so my asking it is probably unnecessary. For some reason, I just got the sense that picking up management skills, seeing the world, and adding a great brand was more of a motivator for you than serving the nation. If that’s the case, it’s totally fine, but you could gain those benefits by taking any number of career paths aside from the military. The military is not your average “new job”, rather it’s one where you could be asked to put your life on the line. If you TRULY want to do that to help protect our nation, then I am honored to have made your acquaintance via email and wish you well on this next stage of your career. If you have any doubts at all, I’d encourage you think long and hard about it before making a commitment.
Good luck with your decision about joining the Navy. This is definitely a heavy choice for you, but it’s one that could have lasting impact on the rest of your life. No matter what, I hope you’ll keep on striving to be great in whatever you do. Take care.
Marquis
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