After a 2019 MBA summer internship in healthcare analytics, Matt Ng (Fuqua, ‘20) spent his second year at Fuqua reflecting on his career goals and planning for just-in-time recruiting during his Spring semester. When COVID-19 hit, Matt’s goal of landing a job remained the same, but like other job seekers, adjusted and learned on the go to adapt to the new job search process, and landed a job in May. During our interview, Matt shared his experience job hunting during COVID-19, and his advice to others navigating their own job search.
MBASchooled: What did you do for your MBA Summer internship, and what did you decide to pursue for Full-Time opportunities?
I interned at IBM Watson Health conducting healthcare analytics for government clients. Most of my internship was supporting key accounts and helping them better understand their healthcare costs by analyzing historical claims data. I analyzed population health trends, identified cost drivers, and developed cost savings recommendations. Overall, I had a great experience, team, and supervisor, but the work was similar to what I had done pre-Fuqua as a health and human services consultant.
Moreover, I accepted the internship with the understanding that it would not convert into a full-time role. Given that, I had to re-recruit for full-time opportunities. My broad objective was to work for a mission-driven firm in a role that was closer to the “impact.” Initially, I pursued strategy and/or operations roles in healthcare technology, tech firms with healthcare-focused business units, or mission-driven tech firms with a focus on Boston, Chicago, and the Bay Area.
MBASchooled: You decided to recruit for more Just-In-Time (JIT) roles. How did you utilize your second year since you weren’t as focused on recruiting in the fall and early spring?
Like many second-year MBAs, most of my time was spent reflecting on my first year and refining and working on my academic, social, and career goals. On the academic front, I served as a Career Fellow and TAed a few core courses, which was a great way to give back to the Fuqua community and professors as well as meet the Class of 2021. Moreover, I planned to take electives outside of my focus areas, something I didn’t do a great job of during undergrad. I took Managerial Improv (a real, two-credit, class!) and a blockchain and cryptoventures course. I still don’t know much about blockchain, but I’ve now added countless terms to my jargon dictionary.
While having “social” goals sounds a bit unnatural, it’s how the goal-driven introvert in me approached having ~830 classmates. One initiative I undertook was having lunches with “friendly acquaintances” plus “strangers” (i.e., friends I hadn’t met yet). I would invite one person (from a different background and section) to lunch where we’d each invite 1-2 “friendly acquaintances” who weren’t revealed beforehand. As MBA students, sometimes we’re too focused on the deadline-driven nature of academics, clubs, and recruiting that we neglect everyday opportunities to connect with and learn from our classmates.
With respect to career goals, my recruiting activities fell into three categories:
- Learning about my classmates’ internship experiences: My classmates were a wealth of information and definitely the first “tier” of re-assessing my career priorities. They helped me better understand what an MBA-level role would be like in a particular function or industry. As MBA students, I think there’s a tendency to group interns at a particular company as a monolith rather than unpacking what makes a particular function, team, or department unique (good or bad).
- Connecting with recent alumni who had re-recruited: Based on my personal knowledge and guidance from Fuqua’s Career Management Center, I connected with recent alumni that successfully re-recruited in similar functions and roles. No two recruiting journeys are exactly the same, but they were able to share best practices, whether recruiting-specific or strategies on how to stay focused while classmates were signing full-time offers.
- Networking more outside of the Fuqua network: In my first year, on-campus recruiting was heavily emphasized which, naturally, aligned with a focus on networking with then-second years and recent alumni. However, Fuqua has limited on-campus opportunities for second years, so I spent more time reconnecting with my other networks. This included past colleagues, my undergrad network, and professional associations I was a member of.
MBASchooled: When COVID-19 happened (mid-March) where were you in your recruiting process?
For just-in-time recruiting, March is still on the early end of the recruiting cycle. I was still having informational interviews and some initial screens but no late-stage interviews. Admittedly, student loan debt-induced anxiety started to adversely impact my focus and perspective. However, as a recent alumnus reminded me, the very definition of a JIT role is that it’s an immediate need, not a vacancy seeking an MBA two+ months away from graduation.
MBASchooled: How did COVID-19 impact your recruiting process? What stayed the same, and what did you have to change?
Overall, COVID-19 didn’t change the fundamental objective of my recruiting process. I was still seeking the same functions and industries. However, COVID did impact recruiting in three major ways:
- Restricted my geographic focus: Although most industries were working remotely, multiple recruiters expressed that they were not open to someone starting remotely. I learned that the companies were uncomfortable with the uncertainty of when COVID would “end” and, by extension, when I would be able to move to a new city. Thus, I pivoted my search to focus heavily on Boston where I’m from.
- Challenges scheduling informational interviews: As you might imagine, COVID adversely impacted outreach success. Layoffs and hiring freezes increased the volume of job seekers while dramatically reducing the quantity of firms hiring. Moreover, outreach recipients often had increased workloads and personal responsibilities in addition with having to cope with a global pandemic. There’s no way to mitigate this perfectly, but I ensured all of my outreach was empathetic, precise, and specific to the recipient.
- Application speed was more important: As noted above, open roles seemed to get inundated with applications, reducing the likelihood of a response and the duration a job posting was active. This led to a game theory-style situation of balancing investing in networking vs. wanting to “cold” apply before a role closed.
MBASchooled: How did you eventually find the role you landed? What was that process like?
I’m a firm believer in the cheesy quote that “Success is when preparation meets opportunity.” My preparation had been developed and refined over the past two years at Fuqua. My “opportunity” was pure luck; one my my daily job alerts had flagged the recently-posted Corporate Strategy & Development role at athenahealth.
Drawing upon my Career Management Center’s lessons and Career Fellow training, I…panicked and cold applied without networking, afraid the role would close. Post-application, I was fortunate enough to connect with several alumni that had worked at athenahealth and were able to provide insight into the role, team, and company.
After a few weeks, I hadn’t heard back and actually had to follow up on my application, which I suppose directly contradicted my fear of a quick hire. Once I connected with the Talent Acquisition team, the virtual process took about a month and was fairly standard: 30-minute recruiter screen, 30-minute hiring manager interview, and a three-hour final round (four interviews).
MBASchooled: Based off what you know, how different was recruiting and trying to land a job during COVID-19?
Based off of my personal recruiting experience and professional experience having just supported a hire at athenahealth, two things stand out:
- Reluctance towards non-local candidates: I mentioned this above, but my sense is that many employers are envisioning a time post-COVID where the “traditional” in-person office culture will return. Given COVID’s indefinite nature, there seemed to be a reluctance towards hiring non-local candidates, all else being equal, unless the firm had announced permanent remote policies.
- Previous experience mattered more: During this time, most employers were working remotely, and there seemed to be a much stronger preference for relevant experience, as the remote environment would make a career pivot more challenging. In addition, there was (and is) an increased skepticism of a functional and/or industry pivot during COVID. Given layoffs and hiring freezes, I think there’s a perception that some candidates may be seeking any job that’s “good enough” and may be at higher risk to leave post-COVID.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for MBA students as they think about recruiting and landing career opportunities during these times?
“Your value doesn’t decrease based upon someone’s inability to see your worth.” I know, cheesy quote #2. However, it’s critical to remember that you only need one job; one firm’s inability to see your value should not be extrapolated to the job market as a whole. I know MBA candidates that graduated without a full-time offer and went on to land jobs at top-tier firms like Amazon, LinkedIn, and Tesla.
In the interest of being less cheesy and more tactical, here are three pieces of advice:
- Focus on the fundamentals: As someone that recruited during COVID, I understand the urge to “spray and pray” cold applications. However, focus and precision is invaluable as you network and apply for roles. While tailored networking sounds redundant to your career service’s guidance, it’s even more important now. Since starting full-time, I’ve received numerous messages that spelled my employer’s name incorrectly, requested a referral in the initial message, and sought insights for an unrelated role (e.g., software engineer). Due to bandwidth constraints, I’ve had to prioritize requests and typically focus on the outreach where I can add the most value. Before sending an email or application, take the additional time to highlight a common interest, identify a specific outreach reason, or refine your resume to align with industry terminology.
- Expand outside your program’s network: Don’t forget all your pre-MBA networks! This can include your undergrad network, past colleagues, or fellow members of professional associations. For example, as a Net Impact (business + social impact) member, I connected with other mission-driven members outside of Fuqua’s chapter. LinkedIn allows you to message members that you share a group with, so why not leverage the feature?
- Engage with LinkedIn professionals in your industry: Follow and engage with senior leaders and subject matter experts in your desired industry. This will help LinkedIn tailor your feed towards your desired industry’s content, helping you stay updated on market news and trends. In addition, engaging meaningfully can provide leads on firms that are actively hiring or professionals that are offering assistance to those impacted by COVID.