MBASchooled Guide: Recruiting: Do your homework, zero in, and wait for the right opportunity

Recruiting takes up a significant portion of the MBA experience. Whether it’s conducting company research, networking with alums, prepping for interviews or working on your casing, most students will devote a significant amount of time towards career and recruiting efforts. To help you prep for recruiting season (which starts right away) Sarah Rumbaugh, a Darden MBA Graduate, and CEO and Founder of Relish MBA, shares tips and best practices.

Name: Sarah Rumbaugh

School: University of Virginia (Darden)

Year: 2015

Company: Relish MBA (CEO and Founder)

Here’s what you need to know

The time between when your current job ends and when business school starts is a valuable time to prepare for business school and for business school recruiting.. In particular, you’re going to want to have time to relax; business school is a big change from the working world, especially if you’re moving to a new city. Once you’re on campus, MBA recruiting starts very early, so if you can take some time to explore the career opportunities (two out of three MBAs are career switchers), the better off you’ll be.

Before business school, I stopped working at the end of June, and started at Darden the end of August – looking back, that was not too much time! When you get started at school, it won’t just be school, it will be recruiting, a rigorous academic courseload, extracurricular activities, networking and building relationships with your classmates, and your own personal time. For any person, regardless of how hardworking or successful you are, this can be a lot to handle. Taking the time to adjust before school starts is helpful.

Advice

Take time for yourself between your job before business school and when business schools starts in the fall. Think about which industries and what companies you want to recruit with. Know that recruiting with every industry is really hard work and could result in spreading yourself too thin and not forging meaningful connections with the opportunities best for you. It can be tempting to want to recruit for everything, but it will also be very challenging. Keep a running list, and also think about questions you have, things you’d like to learn, or information you need to better understand that particular opportunity. These will help you when you start the on-campus recruiting process at school and when you begin networking on campus with companies, alumni, and fellow students.

Finally, don’t be afraid to hold out for opportunities that happen at later timeline. If those are the right things for you, trust your gut, hold out, great opportunities will come to those who are patient and persistent in their efforts. Remember that you will get a good job; MBAs are highly sought after by employers, but the MBA recruiting process is an intensely time consuming process, so being a bit informed before business school starts goes a long way.