The Biggest Mistakes Veterans Make

Selecting and Getting into an MBA Program

“Goal Picture” - Veterans can’t paint a clear picture of what they want to do with their degree

a. Yes, we know you are still figuring it out, and you just got out of the military and know very little about the civilian world. However, on the other side of the admissions window is a person who is assessing you based on who you are and more importantly, what you are going to do. “I’m still figuring it out” is not good enough. You have networks, friends, blogs, conferences, at your disposal. You have the entire internet.

b. Find something and stick with it as your story, your goal picture. No one knows exactly what they’re going to do, so you pick something and you research it. Try it out. Attend a cryptocurrency conference and follow up with fellow attendees or speakers, take a small class on French pastry, delve into the world of third-party logistics and talk to old classmates who are doing it now

c. Look up industries and how they’re structured. Healthcare is vastly different from CPG (consumer packaged goods), AI/Machine learning spans across industries, logistics serves other industries B2B, finance has many different levels of risk and reward for varying growth stages of companies. Some are more dynamic than others: pay more, riskier, more corporate, closer to helping people, better for the environment, infused with tech, etc.

Veterans don’t boast about themselves enough

a. It’s not boasting; it’s stating the facts of your accomplishments. If you don’t advocate for yourself, no one else will.

b. You can frame it as “I did XYZ, and what I learned from that was ABC. I hope to take that experience to the next level in my goal to start a social enterprise in saffron in Afghanistan to help those Afghan women I came across while deployed. Harvard Business School has a terrific track record of producing social entrepreneurs. I talked to ____ and ___ who are both graduates and they told me what great resources HBS offered: the iLab, Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Social Enterprise Fellowship…I am excited to do XYZ after HBS…”

c. You should talk about your accomplishments as it relates to how it supports your goals in the future

Veterans need to take more time to appreciate the strengths of each MBA school

Veterans sometimes target MBA schools superficially based primarily upon perceived program prestige or school location. What is often absent is doing the homework to fully appreciate the pros and cons of each school. It is important to have a good understanding of how each potential MBA school’s strengths really align towards individual personal and professional goals. Additionally, it is important to know these strengths in order to highlight sincere interest in an MBA school for MBA admissions essays and interviews.

Granted, having a strong appreciation of individual MBA school dynamics is something many prospective MBA students struggle with, veterans struggle with it more simply due to being less familiar with civilian career dynamics. The best way to navigate through information gaps is to simply ask the admissions office to talk to a military-connected student and most schools have student clubs or admissions programs dedicated to helping veterans.

Applications are too rushed

Veterans do not give themselves enough time. When they decide to leave the service, most active-duty soldiers and officers have been promoted a few times and have a very important and demanding duty position. It is very difficult to manage both the grueling applications process and the demands of leading soldiers or planning operations. Even more difficult, many veterans find themselves trying to apply to schools from Iraq or Afghanistan or trying to apply right after returning from such a deployment.

In balancing these demands, transitioning veterans find themselves on very tight timelines and try to mitigate their situation by working on applications for an hour a night or on weekends. This can work, but any snag, such as a low test score, can wreak havoc on an admissions packet. Further, veterans are often competing against folks who treat school applications as a full-time job.

The Solution: Preferably, a veteran can steer their career into a less demanding job such as being an ROTC instructor or working as an active component supporting the Army Reserve. Since such jobs are often difficult to get, and the operational tempo of many active units do not allow for such planning, the best solution is to plan alternatives:

• Cast a wide net for schools – if a veteran is determined to leave the service, then they need to make sure to apply to more than just one or two top schools.

• Plan for testing snags – Of course, veterans always ace standardize tests, right? But if they do not, vets need to make sure to plan for multiple takings of any standardized tests and for the ability to take an online or in-person preparation class (like Kaplan)

• War-game worst-case scenarios – If the worst happens, a veteran should still have a plan. There are other options to school such as Teach for America, going into industry, or just staying in the service another year. In the unlikely event that a veteran does not win gain admission – they should know what route they can take to make themselves more competitive for the next cycle

Some things to think about:

Career outcomes: What career fields are each school strong at sending graduates to?

Among MBA schools, there are some noticeable differences among schools on what careers each of them historically is strong at sending their graduates to. Sometimes it aligns with general brand perceptions like how Stanford GSB has a strong history of graduates entering technology venture capital firms. Other times it is more nuanced such as how Vanderbilt Owen has an exceptionally strong pipeline to the healthcare/hospital management industry or how both UNC Kenan-Flagler and Georgetown McDonough have strong real estate pathways. As industry exposure is becoming more and more important for hiring, going to the program that gives you good industry access will only matter more.

Location outcomes: What are the regional strengths of each school?

Every MBA program has relative regional strengths in terms of where the brand and alumni base provides career leverage and it is smart to tap into that. For example, if you want to live in Seattle, it might be smarter to go to the University of Washington Foster rather than Emory Goizueta.

School Learning Dynamics: How does each school program its education delivery and what is the range of learning opportunities?

Although the MBA core curriculum is nearly universally the same, how the curriculum is delivered and additional learning opportunities can vary greatly. Personally, I am a big fan of the “case method” of learning made famous by Harvard Business School, but I also fully appreciate that it is not for everyone. I think most veterans have at least a sense of how they learn best and it is smart to dig into the prevalent teaching approaches of each MBA school to make sure it is a good fit. Additionally, each MBA school has a different portfolio of learning opportunities based upon what is internally available at the MBA school and what MBA students are eligible to partake in via partnered learning opportunities (other schools within the University or neighboring University experiences). For example, if a veteran is really interested in sustainability, it makes sense to go to Duke Fuqua or the University of Michigan Ross, as they can do a dual degree with an environmental program or have a good suite of elective learning opportunities.

Mustering for Success Once You Accept Admission

Veterans don’t take enough time to prepare themselves for the MBA experience

Once you accept admissions into the MBA school of your choice, it is smart to take some time to set yourself up for success. Some key things I recommend that veterans should do is:

Take time to appreciate the civilian career landscape

MBA admitted veterans have often been witnessed to highlight interest in finance or consulting, but they struggle to highlight a baseline understanding of potential post MBA career trajectories. The best position to be in coming into an MBA program is having a good idea of what career fields are of interest and can coherently speak to it based upon a strong understanding of the industry and career trajectories. The best way to get there is to do your homework. Between Google and talking to veterans in career fields of interest, veterans can learn a lot to better focus their career interests.

Get your personal life in order (as best as you can) for the intensive MBA experience

MBA school is intensive and can be all-consuming, especially in the first year. You want to ensure that you minimize your life distractions so that you can fully take advantage of the MBA experience. It is smart and healthy to proactively make arrangements with your family and close friends to best support your success for your MBA experience. Veterans often present questions about conducting a part-time job or a major time-consuming extracurricular activity while pursuing a full-time MBA - which is ultimately something strongly recommended against.

Veterans sometimes rest on their laurels

Some MBA veterans go into MBA school with the mentality that between their military experience and their attendance of an MBA program, they should be set for acquiring recruiting opportunities in a competitive job market. There are military career impressive MBA students (Special Forces, Aviator, #1 Surface Warfare Officer on a ship, and etc.) that struggle with recruiting every year. Oftentimes, this is an issue with not taking sufficient time and mentorship to properly message military experiences for the job market. The important thing is to take the time to appreciate what it takes to be the most marketable and make the necessary effort to get the desired position.

Dismissing Pre-MBA career/recruiting opportunities (if it works with scheduling)

Increasingly, there is a broader range of pre-MBA recruiting and career preparation opportunities out there that every incoming veteran MBA student should take advantage of if possible. Speaking specifically to each type:

Pre-MBA recruiting:

Pre-MBA recruiting is becoming more prevalent. Historically, many of these Pre-MBA events and programming catered towards diversity groups (which military veteran is often considered a target diversity area), but are increasingly occurring for the general population. For some companies, they do the bulk of their MBA internship hiring for non-core schools via pre-MBA recruiting. Some MBA students start school with summer internship offers stemming from these activities, which is an envious place to be.

Pre-MBA civilian professional experience

Any credible civilian professional experience on top of a quality military career strengthens both the resume and narrative. For those leaving the military, programs like the Army’s Skillbridge are terrific opportunities to gain that civilian exposure. Some firms are offering pre-MBA summer internships/mentorship programs targeted towards MBA accepted students, and it is very smart to jump on those opportunities if possible.