Letter to an MBA (written by my man Jullien)

Hey, everyone. By now, my long-time readers should be familiar with my friend Jullien Gordon, who was a year behind me at Stanford GSB. Since graduating from the GSB, Jullien has become a career and life coach of sorts and maintains his own blog to provide content to help people reach their life goals. In a recent blog entry that he titled “Letter to an MBA”, Jullien wrote an entry targeted toward MBA applicants, students, and alums describing how MBA’s often end up underemployed due to their propensity to succumb to the expectations placed on them by the business school environment. As a result, those MBA’s end up feeling unfulfilled and can get caught in a seemingly-unending cycle of frustration. Jullien is a natural entrepreneur and feels that the way out of this malaise is to follow that sort of path, which is the perspective from which he wrote the blog entry.

I’ve posted the link to Jullien’s “Letter to an MBA” below along with some of the introductory text to the essay. It’s a long read, but it is DEFINITELY worth reading if you’re either applying to, currently a student at, or have graduated from a business school. I first read it a couple of weeks ago and have re-read it a few times since…Jullien has really hit the nail on the head with this one. I never cease to be amazed by the insights that he comes up with, so I’m always down to get the word out about his stuff.

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“Letter to an MBA”

Author: Jullien Gordon, Stanford GSB 2007

Source: http://julliengordon.mvmt.com/2009/11/26/letter-to-an-mba/

Introductory excerpt:

“Dear MBA Student,

These are my thoughts as a 2007 Stanford GSB grad after sitting on a career panel at The Columbia Graduate School of Business. Let me know what you think.

This has not been checked for grammar. It’s a freewrite. Thanks for reading.

MBAs are risk averse.

Business school students are among the smartest and hardest working, but they are some of the most risk averse people in the world. Many of us were driven by fear of not having, not succeeding, and not “making it”. We’re running as hard as we can, but we’re not necessarily sure where we’re running to. Sometimes it’s best to just stop, be still, and listen to your voice within. The greatest risk in the world is not taking any risk at all.

MBAs are some of the most underemployed people in the world.

Underemployment is the biggest issue facing MBAs and the world. Underemployment is when you’re working below your full potential. Anyone who has said they hate their job is likely underemployed. Underemployment has nothing to do with income. It’s about how passionate you are about your daily work.

Imagine having a sample economy of 100 people where 10 are unemployed and the other 90 are only 50% engaged or underemployed. 90 x 50% ~ 45 people being unemployed which makes it 4.5 times bigger of an issue than unemployment. In addition to being some of the smartest and hardworking, MBAs are equipped with an amazing set of leadership and business skills that position them to building teams and solve the world’s greatest problems. The sad part is that most MBAs don’t seek professional paths that tackle the world’s greatest problem. If not us, then who?”