So you’ve gotten accepted to business school. Congrats! Now is a time to dive into books or your Kindle and throw yourself into curiosity. They are also great ways to prepare yourself for the experience ahead in business school. As the author of MBA Insider, I spent a lot of time reading books that I thought were relevant to the MBA experience, especially around career planning and career development.
The following are books that I’ve read myself and that I would recommend to any incoming MBA student to help prepare them for certain aspects of the MBA experience, especially with respect to career planning and career development.
I’ve also included some details around what kind of students would benefit most, and why in particular I liked this book. If you have suggestions I would also love to hear what you’ve read, and what you’ve enjoyed too!
Career Development and Job Search
Pivot The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One – Jenny Blake
MBA students go to business school to make a career or life pivot – they want to make a change to a better future. While some can see that future, knowing how to get there is what can be challenging. Or, if you have multiple potential “future selves” knowing how to test and evaluate these can seem overwhelming. Jenny Blake’s Pivot: The Only Move That Matters is Your Next is a great book to help people with a methodical framework for identifying the pivot you want to make and making it happen. Blake has been famous for saying, “if change is the only constant, let’s get better at it” and that is what Pivot aims to do. This is an important book for pivots that you have to make while in business school and for the rest of your career.
Who is it for: This book is for MBA students who are considering career changes, or want help with a methodical step by step process for identifying how to change or pivot careers. Link Here
The 2-Hour Job Search – Steve Dalton
I remember reading Steve’s book when I was an MBA student. This is a great book for anyone looking for ways to jumpstart their job search. Steve created a system to help job searches quickly and efficiently find the right jobs to apply to and target. His book is a great read and even better to put into practice when you are in business school and in the middle of a job or internship search
Who is it for: Job searchers who need a system to help guide them through an internship or job search. Link here
Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life – Bill Burnett, Dave Evans
In this book, Bill and Dave, who both work at the Stanford Design school and are seasoned tech executives, show readers how we as humans can use the principles that designers use to build great products and experiences to then build a great life and career. This book combines both concepts from design thinking, as well as exercises and tactical steps you can take to start designing the lifee and career that you want. Many career management centers like this book and some schools even have Bill and Dave come to campus to do workshops.
Who is it for: MBA students who want both a conceptual framework and tactical exercises to designing their career.
Building Relationships and Networking
Stand Out Networking – By Dorie Clark
Many MBA applicants choose to go to business school to expand their network. Furthermore, most MBA students know that networking is an important activity, in order to take advantage of the fast pool of people that are in the MBA program at your school. That said, for many people networking does not come naturally, is not fun, or is confusing. Fortunately, Dorie Clark’s Stand Out Networking will help you understand what networking is, why it is important, and provide some tactical steps for how you can do it.
Dorie’s book is great because it’s practical and actionable. Dorie is also great at practicing what she preaches, just check her out on her social media, and you’ll see what I mean. I know not everyone loves networking, but I also know that most MBA students accept understand the importance. This book, will not only help you understand why it’s important, but how you can do it in ways that help you build relationships to be successful.
Who is it for: This book is for MBA students who are not familiar with networking, or are looking for ways to improve how they build relationships, with classmates, employers, alum, and hiring managers.
How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
This is a business classic written by the one and only Dale Carnegie. Carnegie outlines tactics and approaches for engaging with people, building relationships, getting others to like your ideas, and generally speaking, getting people to like you. If you are someone who has to work with others in business (read: everyone) this book is worth a read.
Give and Take – Adam Grant
For a long time, many of us thought career success relied upon what we could do as individuals and our own abilities and results. However, through his research and stories, Adam Grant shows how people can be successful in life and their careers not by focusing on themselves but by focusing on helping others. As someone who has always tried to help other people, I selfishly found this book as justification for believing that nice guys don’t have to finish last, and that the people who help others are often the ones who end up getting the most help.
While this book isn’t entirely about networking, it is a fantastic book to read if you are someone who doesn’t love networking and is looking for authentic and genuine ways to build relationships with others.
Who is it for: MBA students who don’t love networking, but understand the importance of building and maintaining relationships especially when it comes to career related matters. MBA students who are looking to find ways to engage with other people in unique ways. Link here
MBA Insider – Al Dea
Shameless plug for MBA Insider, which is a how-to guide for navigating the MBA experience. I wrote MBA Insider to help incoming and current MBA students understand the MBA experience, and provide tactics and strategies for successfully navigating the MBA journey, from the moment they step foot on campus, to recruiting for internships, picking the right classes, and getting the diploma. The book is filled with practical tips, lessons and stories from over 60+ former MBA students, and is a great pre-read for business school, or a way to access expertise for particular areas you are looking for guidance on.
Who is it for: Any incoming or current MBA student who wants expert guidance, best practices and practical advice for how to maximize the MBA experience. Link Here
Business and Management
The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton Christensen
Clayton is one of influential thinkers on modern business management. His book, The Innovator’s Dilemma highlights his theory of disruptive innovation which studies how innovation takes place, and why its common that incumbents fail to seize innovation and new ideas in their industries.
Who is it for: Any MBA student who is interested in learning about innovation, and especially those who are interested in learning about startups and tech companies. This is often a cited book by many tech CEOs and startups/entrepreneurs as a book that has influenced their own thinking.
Who is it for: Everyone
The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
This book teaches Eric’s framework for creating and validating new business ideas via a process of learning by testing and experimentation. Eric’s approach, which was inspired by lean manufacturing, has taken hold in Silicon Valley and many startups as a way to test and learn your way into developing a product. It’s often also a book that’s used in may entrepreneurship type classes where you take Eric’s framework and put it into practice through actually trying to take an idea and turn it into a business, product or service. Regardless of whether you become an entrepreneur or not, Ries framework is worth learning and employing.
Who is it for: Those who are interested in becoming an entrepreneur, product manager, or working at a startup.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t – Jim Collins
When writing this book, Jim Collins, a former Stanford Professor, sought to answer the question “what separates good companies from great ones?” Through an exhaustive research methodology, Collins studied thousands of companies and determined the characteristics that separated the good companies from the great ones.
Who is it for: MBA students interested in learning what it takes to build a great company or organization
Radical Candor – Kim Scott
After serving in a number of leadership and managerial roles at tech companies like Apple and Google, Kim Scott wrote Radical Candor as a way to help others understand how to be an effective manager/leader/boss.
At the heart of her book is the notion that the role of a manager or boss is to provide guidance, foster team building, and drive positive results. And the best way to do this is through the concept of radical candor. Radical Candor is “Caring Personally while Challenging Directly. At its core, Radical Candor is guidance and feedback that’s both kind and clear, specific and sincere.” The book has so many tactical and practical examples to use as both a manager but also as a teammate. In Business school, you’ll have countless opportunities to not only give but receive feedback, and this book is a great guide to help you do just that.
Who is it for: MBA students who want to know how to both give and receive feedback either in a school setting or a workplace setting, or students who have a desire to improve their managerial skills. Link here
The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google – Scott Galloway
In today’s day and age, it’s hard to read the news without the mention of each of these four companies and it’s hard to take a class in business school without a nod or reference to these companies. That’s why this book is a great read and primer for MBA students. Galloway takes the reader through each of the four companies and helps people understand who they are, why they exist, and why they are “so hard to quit.”
Who is it for: Anyone who is interested in learning in the nuances of these tech companies. Also, anyone who is interested in working in the Tech industry, or at one of these companies
Personal Development
Life’s Great Question – Tom Rath
When it comes to careers, there is a lot of advice. We often hear things like “follow your passion” or “do what you love” or do something “you’re good at.” Some career advice is certainly better than others, and there are certainly limitations with each of those phrases (and many others) but through studying lots of research and his own independent research, Tom Rath, author of Life’s Great Question, urges us to choose a career based off of how we can contribute to others.
According to Rath, ““Life is not what you get out of it, It’s what you put back in. All the talent, motivation and hard work in the world will not be valued or remembered if it does not help another human being.” This book will help you think about how to find a career that is engaging and meaningful based on how you can find ways to contribute to the community and the world. If you are someone who is using their time in business school to think deeply about their priorities and values and how they align to choosing a career, I would recommend checking this out. Another alternative (which your school may recommend) is Rath’s other book, StrengthsFinder.
Who is it for: MBA students who are wondering about how to prioritize choosing the next career, and who plan to use their time in business school to reflect and think deeply about what they want to define as career success. Link Here
Edge: Turn Adversity into Advantage – Laura Huang
We’re told that the secret to success is hard work. But the truth is, hard work alone doesn’t always pay off.
Career advancement isn’t always neatly tied to your skills, effort, or even the quality of your work.
We’ve all had experiences where we worked hard and still ended up losing out on a new job or a key promotion,” says Harvard Business School Associate Professor Laura Huang, who studies early entrepreneurship, where failure is common. “You can take two people who work equally hard, and one person will naturally have an advantage and achieve success, while the other can’t climb the corporate ladder.” And while at times, biases and stereotypes factor into these perceptions, Huang encourages us to focus on finding our “edge”—the unique qualities that set us apart—and take strategic steps to make other people see our value and open the doors that will take us where we want to go.
I think this is a great book for MBA students because there are so many times in business school when you are meeting new people and where you have the chance to guide and shape their perceptions of who you are, what you stand for, and what you are capable of. Whether it’s being able to articulate your strengths and unique value proposition in an internship interview, or, tell a compelling story during a conversation with an alum to build rapport and trust, Huang’s EDGE framework is very helpful in helping you coming up with your narrative to shape the perceptions others have of you. Furthermore, Huang’s book covers numerous MBA topics such as imposter syndrome that every student should understand.
Who is it for: MBA students who are interested in learning how they can identify their unique skills and talents and to use them to their advantage in school and in the future career. Also for students who have ever had trouble articulating their skills and strengths to others, whether that’s in a job interview, on a project team, or in the workplace. Link Here
Winners Take All – Anand Giridharadas
This is a thought provoking book that might make some uncomfortable, especially those who believe strongly in capitalism. Anand Giridharadas is a former McKinsey consultant turned researcher, writer, and thought leader, who through his book takes on numerous elite individuals, corporations and non profits who claim to be solving the worlds problems and making a difference in the world, but in reality are advancing their or their institutions own personal interests.
Given that a good portion of MBA students have some feeling toward corporate social responsibility or social justice, as well as a desire to work for many of the companies that Giridharadas criticizes in his book, this is a good read to stretch and challenge your thinking, as well as to help you think about if you are the future employees and leaders of these companies, how you might act and lead.
Who is it for: MBA students who are interested in learning about the limits of capitalism, the desire for companies to “do well and do good,” and who that want to truly make a difference in the world after they graduate. Link Here
Are you reading any books that are great? Let me know what is on your list, or check out MBA Insider
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