Reader concerned about his chances of getting a good job or MBA despite some great accomplishments

What’s going on, y’all. Looks like I broke a six-day consecutive blog posting streak over the weekend, but I’ve been pretty busy over the past few days. Now, it looks like I may have a bit of a blog posting drought over the next week or two because I’ve got several things popping up in the near future, including the upcoming holiday weekend. I’ll see what I can do between now and when Real Life decides to bury me in things to do…

The email below is a little different from most of the ones I receive, but pretty similar at the same time. In it, the reader expresses concerns about his chances of getting into a top investment bank or management consulting firm because he graduated from a “non-target” school. That’s something I’ve seen many times before, so I’ve got a whole arsenal of responses for that sort of thing. The unusual thing is that he’s about to start a year-long Fulbright fellowship, which, if you don’t know, is one of the most prestigious fellowship programs available to kids coming out of college. When I saw that, I was somewhat perplexed by the fact that this kid was buggin’ out about his undergrad institution with such a ridiculously great accomplishment in his back pocket. I tried to be as understanding as possible in my response, but I think I might have let a little of my “Huh? Are you for real?” reaction come out in my words. Hopefully, that won’t offend him and make him overlook the advice that I tried to provide.

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KC wrote:

“Hi Marquis,

I am a non-target aspirant who fears the only window of opportunity has closed.

I’m a new reader of your blog. Made my way through half of it but have to send you some ups as well as questions, both for making yourself available. “I’m an aspiring iBanker, Consultant, whatevermakesmethemostmoneyintheshorestperiodoftime,” ah, that phrase never gets old. Just out of undergrad I’m doing a Fulbright fellowship next year and while the opportunity is great I’m fearful I just blacked my own balls! Long story short, I studied my junior year in Asia, went to a non-target school <--- definite key here, and managed to claw my way to an internship in banking last summer. The internship was excellent. I made friends, identified potential mentors, made a first year analyst's salary, and successfully received an offer. But then shit hit the fan when I was recommended by my school to apply for a boat load of fellowships. Only receiving the Fulbright I thought, thinking long-term, it would help me get into a good MBA. But then I soon found out the bank would NOT be able to defer me a year "due to uncertainty in the economic realm and therefore hiring process." So now here I am, leaving on July 31 with an excellent credential as a Fulbright scholar but drifting gradually into the world of academia and (non-business) graduate schools. For example, I browsed literally over 100 Fulbrighter bios and only 7 of them were undergrad business majors. 7!!! I don't want to be a professor, I know that much, and I want to break into finance but I fear I just passed up a great short-term opportunity by working in NYC at a bank that I'll get done the Fulbright but be back on my parents' couch next summer after the one-year fellowship is over.

I’ve consulted a few people, one of which is the director of career services at an MBA. They are all consistent with “Oh, Fulbright! What an opportunity! Everyone will want you!” However, they are forgetting that not only am I from a non-target school, but additionally the only connection I have is with a career I have no real interest in except as a stepping stone into the more technical, demanding, dare I say…–better– world of equity research, investment banking, and management consulting.

I’ve read every Vault, LinkedIn, message board, blog, career services website Google has to offer, and I’ve gathered a 219 Excel worksheet of investment banks and consulting firms organized by headquarters location, specialty, and size, but despite literally obsessing over this ever since I was a lowely freshman in undergrad I can’t land anything because–and I know this sounds naive–I went to a non-target school! The reality is, what school you went to matters. When I have to click on the school drop down box and select ‘other’ I realize that immediately forwards my resume into HR’s Recycling Bin.

What a rant, my apologies Marquis. But can you offer any advice, strategies, suggestions as to how a kid with nothing but a laptop and $70k in student loans can make his way to the top if he simply did not go to the right school? And from Princeton I’m guessing you know a few people who may have received fellowships as well, how would you suggest getting back in the game now that I’d be classified as an off-cycle (not on-campus, out of undergrad) hire. I have the greatest appreciation for your blog, and hope whatever it is you want to do with yourself you get there and do it.

KC”
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My response:

KC,

I hope this message finds you doing well. By the time you receive this message you’ll likely be settled into your new home for the next year abroad. I’d like to start by congratulating you on the huge accomplishment of winning the Fulbright. I’m pretty sure you understand how big of a deal that is, but I just wanted to make sure I made a special comment about it. I never even thought about gunning for any of those fellowships because my undergrad grades wouldn’t have even given me a decent shot at them, so, as far as I’m concerned, you’re “kinda like a big deal”. Before I jump into responding to your issue, I’ve got to warn you that my comments below may have some “strong-ish” language, but I hope that won’t be too off-putting to you. I tend to do that sometimes when I’m trying to shake someone up a little and give them some truth and wisdom that I think they need. So, we’re all good, right?…Cool, let’s get at it!

First off, you’ve got to stop whining and complaining about having gone to a “non-target” school…and I’m being deliberate in my usage of the terms “whine” and “complain” because those are the words that popped into my head as I read through your email. I don’t mean to belittle your concerns, but I KNOW for a fact that folks from non-target schools CAN GET great jobs with great companies. At this point, you’ve already finished college and there’s nothing you can do to change where you went to undergrad. Plus, it looks like you’ve done a fantastic job of building upon the foundation you established at [your school], so don’t sell yourself short. Clicking on the school drop-down box on a company’s online application and selecting “other” doesn’t automatically send your resume to the HR recycling bin. I’m not sure about the investment banks, but I know that several consulting firms have programs that look for top talent at their non-core schools. You need to figure out the best way to get your resume in front of the people who matter in the process and have confidence that your background and profile will impress the recruiters. All you’ve got to do is get your foot in the door and then let your performance get you across the finish line.

OK, point #2…you do realize that winning the Fulbright fellowship is a RIDICULOUS accomplishment, right? Do you understand how far above the rim you’re playing by having been selected for that joint? I know several highly-qualified Princeton grads who didn’t get it and I bet any of them would have bent over backwards to win it coming out of school. It seems that you’re overlooking the long-term benefit of having the fellowship because of some perceived short-term difficulties, like [your summer employer] not letting you defer your offer for a year. You’re kinda-sorta right when you say that where you went to school matters, but I’d say that only factors in when it comes to how easy it is to get your foot in the door. I know plenty of graduates of smaller schools who’ve kicked butt and received offers from some of the top companies in the business world…and none of those people could drop the F-bomb (I’m referring to the “Fulbright-bomb”, not what you probably immediately thought…get your mind out of the gutter, man) :-). If I were in your position, I would start reaching out within the Fulbright program network to build connections that could lead to job opportunities to follow that year in [your new location]. As the old adage goes, it’s not necessarily what you know…it’s often who you know…and you’re part of a pretty exclusive group of people in having won that fellowship. Who cares where you went to school at that point? I would think the common achievement of having been a Fulbright Scholar would get you a lot of run with people in that network. You mentioned that many of the Fulbrighter bios listed non-business majors, but does that really matter? I’m a perfect example of someone who started off in that boat and righted my ship by earning an MBA. Don’t think about your current ingoing cohort when thinking about your career possibilities…think about the folks who were Fulbright Scholars 10, 15, and 20 years ago. If you can find someone like that who is well-placed in an investment bank or management consulting firm, you could leverage that to get your resume into the hands of the right people at your target firms. Focus on the fact that the Fulbright puts you into a special category that literally thousands of people would kill to be in each school year, not on the “shortcomings” that you see in your profile.

So, once you think about all of this, then you’ve got to start believing that you CAN get into a top business school. I’ve posted several entries where the reader displays a self-defeating attitude that makes him- or herself sound like the war is lost before engaging in the first battle. In all of those cases, I advise the person that he/she needs to go into the B-school application believing in his/her own candidacy. If not, then it isn’t worth it to go through the expense and time required to apply…at least, I wouldn’t think so. You might think that you’ve made an early career misstep, but it sounds to me like you’ve got some good building blocks for an MBA profile. Your undergrad performance had to have been strong to win the Fulbright, you’ve got international study experience, you completed an internship at [a major investment bank], and you do have that Fulbright as a sparkling part of your profile. I know people who have gone straight from undergrad into a top MBA program who didn’t have those type of assets backing them up. It seems like you’re stuck on the fact that you went to a “non-target school”, but there’s nothing that you can do with that now and it isn’t necessarily a roadblock to getting a good job and gaining admission to a top business school. If you look at the student body of top B-schools, you’ll find people from all types of undergrads and the common denominator among all of those students is that they had a strong application package…and they weren’t all Ivy grads. Hell, I had a reader post a comment a couple of years ago describing his admissions to Kellogg and Chicago-Booth with an undergraduate degree from the University of Phoenix. If he can make that happen, then I’m pretty daggone sure that you can gain admission to a top business school with that Fulbright, even if you graduated from a “non-core school”. You’ve just got to KNOW that you can kill it and then go out there and make it happen. It’s just that simple, man.

Good luck on your Fulbright year. You owe it to yourself to stop beating yourself up about having attended a “non-target school” and to start giving yourself credit for this HUGE accomplishment. Make sure you enjoy your time over there because you’ve been given an opportunity that thousands of your peers would kill for right now. You have to adopt the mindset that you WILL be successful and know that others have emerged to be successful with far less sparkling backgrounds than yours. Seriously man, take a deep breath and pat yourself on the back for what you’ve been able to do. Stop worrying about what you can’t change and enjoy the ride ahead because I’m sure that it’ll be a wild one with a nice pot of gold at the end 🙂 Take care.

Marquis