Negative perception of MBAs… who cares?

February 4, 2010 | In Business | View Comments

MBA’s sometimes get a bad rap in the start up world – and the negative perception may be worsening.

The debate has been raging the last two days after my friend Rafael penned a response to Charlie O’Donnell’s post about MBAs who want to work at start ups.  While his post had a bit of a negative tone, many of Charlie’s points held great advice and I think every MBA should read it.  A measured response was posted by Rob Go with some details as to how business schools should improve their programs to better prepare students to work at a start up (I especially agree with his comment on teaching sales).

Entrepreneurship – as defined by Howard Stevenson - is the pursuit of opportunity without regard for resources currently controlled.  Implictly, the entrepreneur needs a specific set of behavioral characteristics to be successful at this, the same characteristics VCs consistently say they look for in a founder and entrepreneurs look for in early hires: scrappy, resourceful, intuitive, adaptable, etc.  It only makes sense that when looking for a job at a start up, one needs to display these attributes in order to impress someone attempting to make something out of nothing.

Unfortunately, MBA programs are loaded with resources. Every top MBA program has a small army of ‘career services’ employees working to attract top-notch companies to campus to recruit and fill their ranks with students who just underwent a ‘transformational experience’.  In order to apply for one of these jobs, a student literally needs to just log in to an online database and click their mouse (at most) five times to submit a resume. If they get an interview, they traipse five minutes away to the career center and sit down with an interviewer.  The process is institutionalized, much like processes at large companies, and it is easy to utilize the resources.

Start ups are different, and the process for finding a job at them is as well.  Some may fail to realize this at first, but – lo and behold – they do figure it out. Much like figuring out what needs to be done to make payroll next week when cash is running low, the process for finding a start up job probably can’t be taught in a classroom.  Umair, in the comment section of Rafael’s post, said it best:

It’s important to remember that MBA programs are still schools in which people, surprisingly, are *learning*. As such, many students are still learning to make a transition from big corporate life to a start-up world. They are still going to be a bit rough around the edges when it comes to seeking start-up opportunities. Now that doesn’t mean that this group should be coddled, but it doesn’t make sense to write off MBAs as a whole based on this group.

While it seems unfair to bucket a whole group based on the actions of a few, it’s human nature to do so.  Those who are really dedicated will figure it out, the perception doesn’t matter.  So I guess my approach is to think: who cares?

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On a related note: Interestingly enough, the advice a few clever HBS entrepreneurial management professors give to students is two-fold: either start a company right out of school, or join a medium-sized, growing company and try your luck a few years later as you build skills, identify talent, and become an industry expert.  What’s not said is important.  They do not give the advice to join an early-stage start-up if you’re not starting it yourself.  Upside (at least financially) is limited and all the downside risk that comes with failure is present.  Just some fodder for thought.

On a semi-related note: I find it interesting that the term ‘start up’ has become synonymous with technology companies securing venture capital funding.  Every year there are upwards of a million new companies formed, but only 1,000 to 1,500 companies per year are backed by traditional venture capitalists. There are literally hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs out there securing resources through other means, experimenting and trying to make things happen. I think there’s a lot to be learned by looking at some of these entrepreneurs – stay tuned for another post on this topic later.

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