After working in politics, Ben Leiner came to Darden to pursue a career in technology. Through his time in business school, he realized he wanted to pursue a career in product marketing, and landed an internship and full-time offer in this field, but not without challenges along the way. In this episode, Ben talks about how he found his interest in product marketing, how his full-time job search went viral on LinkedIn, and his advice on how MBA students can focus on their strengths to find opportunities and navigate challenging job searches.
Show Notes
- 2:30 – Ben talks about why he chose to go to get an MBA
- 3:50 – Ben talks about his experience recruiting for Technology industry roles while at Darden
- 7:40 – Ben shares how he identified the skills and experiences from a career in politics helped him position himself for a career in product marketing
- 12:10 – Ben shares how he decided on what roles he wanted to target for full-time product marketing opportunities
- 15:40 – Ben provides one question about how to determine your unique strengths and abilities so you can ace the interview process
- 17:00 – Ben shares why students can’t truly be good at everything, and why finding your unique strengths are important to landing a post-MBA job
- 23:05 – Ben shares what happened when his full-time offer fell through, and how he responded
- 24:55 – Ben shares how he used LinkedIn to fuel his job search
- 26:30 – Ben talks about what he learned from re-starting his job search after getting his offer rescinded
- 31:25 – Ben provides 2 pieces of advice for how to navigate adversity in the job search
- 36:20 – Ben shares some of the challenges of business school, and how to overcome them
- 37:40 – Al and Ben talk about the insecurities and challenges that MBA students face, and sometimes struggle to admit
- 43:25 – Ben shares his advice for navigating a job search during challenging times
Other Notes