3 month after MBA graduation - and no job
Hi everyone!
Graduated in December from a top MBA program, but still no job with loan repayments approaching. Lack of the work permit/EU citizenship, unusual background and being a male from the-middle-of-nowhere country was a big stopper.
What would you do on my place? Which companies would still hire (particularly, international students) at a post-MBA level?
My big concern is also going to some crappy place will signal a lot to my future employers and all those nice ladies who will be reviewing my resume in 3-4 years. I am feeling quite desperate here, any advice is appreciated.
up
If you interned somewhere: hit them up and ask for a referral to a FTE post (regardless of location) If you had work experience, same thing - ask as many Linkedin/Facebook contacts as possible to take your resume further for consideration regarding open positions.
Does your school offer placement services? They might know someone hiring atm.
I am assuming you have a few languages under your belt, especially with an exotic country in your past. Reverse search on job portals for the languages you might have in combination (I have seen some funky job postings where you had to be fluent 100% in Japanese/German/Spanish in a single role).
IMO your first step should be getting an employer to consider you as a candidate and file the Visa sponsorship agreement. If that won't work out you'd have to leave, I guess? Avoid that situation by all means. (Alternatively you could always go back, if that is something you would consider?)
ps: Looking through WSO members might also help!
edit: Looking back I remember quite a few candidates in this position. Top credentials but no Visa sponsorship or job 90+ days after top-tier MBA. Both in the US and EU. This worries me.
Thanks for the good advice! I have interned in a small hedge fund in SE Asia, got a verbal semi-offer from them (they still need to raise a new fund sometime in Q3), but asking for a referral may be a great idea.
As for the Visa, unfortunately, I had to leave recently...Which is very bad, I know, but I was out of cash anyway, so even with a Visa I could not afford staying.
PS I believe at least 90% of CIS citizens (in my batch) had to go back home without a single job offer. My compatriots from Duke, LBS, Yale are also packing their bags...
Was it a formal internship organised through your school or something more casual? From your experience how important was it for students to land a solid internship during the MBA to lead into a full-time offer?
Have you been working the alumni network of your school? I thought you can search an alumni database and find people of interest to contact, presumably including in your home country. Sounds from your situation like your best bet may be to find something back in your home country (there must be a demand for skilled people in CIS) while you plan your next move.
What industry were you looking to get into? Have you shifted your job search strategy at all? I find it weird that if you are at a top MBA program your country of origin is making a difference in recruiting, unless your social/language skills are poor as a result.
Not all companies sponsor work permits, regardless of degree or industry. This is the same for the US, EU or other locations. Then there are quite a few companies that "are theoretically open to sponsorship" but they know how much of a pain that is and try to avoid the situation (but won't tell the candidate where they stand).
If you look at the current political situation in the EU (brexit, levels of immigration, unemployment in some key regions, ..) OP might as well be a great candidate with a charming personality but still struggle with the legal and HR hurdles thrown at him (in addition to the linguistic and cultural specifics of European countries).
As an example, I got a call from a London executive search firm a few weeks back and pretty much one of the first questions raised was whether I hold a British passport or not. Technically this is not an OK question to ask (as all EU passport holders are legal to work in the UK atm), but obviously their clients are planning ahead...
In 95% of cases as an international I just get automatically screened out by HR bots which parse the applications. Most of the IB/MC shops which theoretically easily can sponsor an employee, in reality currently do that quite rarely in EU, mostly for diversity candidates. At least in my school.
Country of origin does play a role when you are coming from a noname country without a work permit. Especially now getting a job in Europe without the EU passport is simply a lottery...There are other biases as well which we have to encounter on a regular basis that are unknown to US/EU citizens.
Is your MBA a top 20 school? If so, that is plain scary. Hope you get something soon OP.
Think of LBS/INSEAD.
I wonder if it was INSEAD as the December finish date indicates. In the latest employment report the 89% of graduates had a job within 3 months is a scary statistic, most top schools are in the mid-90's. The consensus on other forums is that is because those 11% of graduates had so many premium opportunities in front of them that they decided to delay starting work to consider all their options. That seems overly optimistic. I certainly feel for your situation as a first-world tuition debt without a first-world income is a scary prospect. Hopefully the suggestions here help, I'm a couple of years behind you so unfortunately not experienced enough with it to give advice, but your example is valuable for others to learn that its not all smooth sailing as the schools would have you believe.
That sucks. Look those are top ranked MBA programs but I personally know people who struggled after graduating from the schools you listed.
Do you think if you graduated from a similar school in the US- Yale, NYU, Cornell etc you would have had problems to a similar extent?
My view would be no. OCR would have made it work for you.
there is always a point when even a "McKinsey feeder" INSEAD brand doesn't matter. Networking in your authentic, personal style does the job in an unique way.
Yes networking may indeed be better. Look I'm totally honest when I say this but I've heard of a few bad luck stories about grads from INSEAD, from some of the grads themselves.
Don't get me wrong - it's a top ranked MBA - not disagreeing with that
You have a horrible banana to monkey shit ratio so I am not surprised.
I got almost all my monkey shit for a posting like yours actually. Probably, need to spend more time on this website,flaming & flooding , that should increase the ratio and eventually help me to find a stellar job placement.
What kind of job are you looking for?
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