In speaking with many applicants and prospective students I have seen the issue of work experience come up often so I thought I would share my thoughts (thoughts that by no means represent the view of MIT or the admissions office) <- pseudo legal disclaimer
In my senior year as a Health Science major I knew I wanted to focus more on business and to transition from a science major I would greatly benefit from an MBA. That fall I applied to MIT, interviewed and was accepted to the Class of 2009. At that point I had never had an internship or any solid business experience. Heeding the advice of many professors I decided to request a two year deferral. It was granted and I ended up working for a private education company in different capacities for two year before returning to Sloan.
For me personally, I think getting an MBA without work experience would have been a mistake in my situation for four reasons.
1) Without having work experience I didn't really know what I wanted to do. For me it took working in the real world to find out what I liked. I quickly found out I liked sales and all things related to money and numbers, but had no desire to manage a part time staff or be responsible for hiring people. Without having tried all those I wouldn't have known what I was strong at or enjoyed.
2) Without work experience I am not sure how much I could have contributed to classroom discussion or had a framework to understand what we were covering in class. For example in finance when I am learning about Degree of Operating Leverage, I realize it is just the fancy term for what we called bleeding money because sales are way down and we can't just stop paying rent. I have found it extremely helpful to have some understanding of how a business works in practice so I can be skeptical of the fancy theories of how businesses should work.
3) Interviewing and Recruiting - If I didn't have work experience I am not sure what I would have talked about in my interviews; you can only talk about the Red Sox for so long. The "Tell me about a time..." questions would have been hard to answer for me without work experience.
4) Maturity - I consider myself mature for my age but there was still a lot I had to learn as a 22 year old. My job was a great opportunity to learn how to work for different types of bosses and with often challenging coworkers. I also had the "opportunity" to be laid off (twice) which taught me a lesson in perseverance and resilience.
For some people an MBA without work experience is a good idea. I would say in a situation where you have extensive internships or part-time work experience, are sure of what you want to do and have tried it, and are planning to recruit for companies that accept applicants without work experience. That last point is very important, most people go into an MBA program with the goal of getting a job at the end, so realize that while Sloan may accept students without work experience this is not always a view shared by employers.
Just to conclude, I know people at Sloan without work experience who are doing great and adding a lot of value to the class, so I am not saying that across the board not having work experience is a bad thing. I would just strongly caution prospective students to make sure this is the right time for you and not to just go straight through because you can.
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