Should you pursue an MBA if you want to eventually work in a venture capital job? Alex Taussig, a Harvard MBA grad and Principal with Highland Capital Partners, offered his opinion recently in a guest article for Fortune.
Taussig was visiting his alma mater and drooling over the entrepreneurship curriculum that Harvard professors have planned for this year’s crop of MBA students. At the same time, he wished that he’d had three pieces of advice before he had started his own MBA, to get more out of the experience.
The first is to use your MBA program as an “excuse” for developing relationships with really important people. Influential people are more likely to return an email from a student at their alma mater than from a cold caller. Especially if the email is well written, short, and cites some common connection. Making that connection while in b-school could be the first step toward developing a mentor relationship that lasts your whole career, he says.
“You don’t find a mentor; they find you. Initially, you have to take the initiative to put yourself in front of great mentors, and business school gives you a great platform to do that,” Taussig says.
Second, start your job search while you’re still in business school. The best jobs in the industry are incredibly competitive to land. You need to be able to convince the interviewer that you’re passionate about their industry, and why you’re the best person to solve a particular problem they have. And while you won’t have actual experience in that industry, per se, speaking intelligently and passionately about a particular industry can go a long way toward convincing people you’re the right person for the job.
So, Taussig suggests you should start doing things that build your expertise. Such as setting up an RSS reader that follows top industry blogs. Schedule coffee meetings with classmates who have worked in your industry of interest. Cold call influential executives in your network. The goal: by the time your actual venture capital job interviews roll around, you should have amassed a real body of knowledge that enables you to speak intelligently about the industry.
And finally, Taussig says to take some time during b-school to develop a few lifelong friendships. Take the time to have some meaningful discussions with favored classmates, to learn from them and develop relationships that will last your entire career.
What about you? Do you have an MBA and work in venture capital? Do you think your MBA experience gave you an edge? Add your comments below.
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