4 Must Know Tips For Drinking at MBA Recruiting Events

Jeff Blake explains how to stay sharp during an open bar recruiting event, and Columbia Business School unveils a secret MBA program allowing you to get your degree behind your employers back.

(1) Headlines: Columbia Unveils the Secret MBA

For people who don’t want their employer to know they are getting an MBA, Columbia is offering one of the first “Saturday Only” Executive MBA Programs.

That’s right. It’s the secret MBA!

Yup, with classes on Saturday, you don’t need to take off work and can get your entire MBA without letting your employer know.

For those of you married to your job, but still want a little piece of MBA on the side.

There are a lot of advantages for you who have been seduced by a secret MBA.

This MBA program is younger,

your job is nice, but it’s taking you for granted,

you’re probably just not as excited by your job as you used to be.

And let’s be honest, there’s a thrill in the danger of sneaking around to get your MBA.

So that’s why we’ve prepared some tips for those of you flirting with getting a secret MBA

1) Remember to tell your Secret MBA never to call you on your work phone.

2) Develop a credible cover story for your job ahead of time. Yeah my grandfather is in the hospital again … every Saturday from 8 to 5.

3. Enlist the help of your good friends to cover for you at work.

4. At some point, your secret MBA is going to start pressuring you to leave your job. And you need to be very honest with your secret MBA that you are going leave your job at some point, but just not now.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522132505136178.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_Careers_EXECUTIVEMBARANKINGS5_6


Our next guest is going to teach you some tips for recruiting events that you won’t learn from your career office.

(2) Interview - Jeff Blake

Jeff Blake is a 2nd year MBA at MIT Sloan in the Biomedical Enterprise Program.

Today we’ll be talking about drinking at a recruiting event. Jeff is going to help us help you survive recruiting event.

Recruiting event etiquette.

Hold the drink with your left hand.

Hold the drink by the bottle with a napkin.

Drink Lime and Soda Water to blend in without drinking and keep your edge

If you hold an empty drink, you can go into a circle and you always have an excuse to leave to “get another drink”.

Prop list:
Soda Water with Lime
Scotch on the Rocks
Nearly empty glass.
Beer

(3) Jargon: Deadfish

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: De-prioritize school-work, and make sure you pick a team that matches your priorities.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: A finance test, an accounting test, etc.
Tom: Taking it easy.
Jeff: I’ll be hitting the clubz with TRTR for some official MBA recruiting.

Studies Prove American Business Undergrads Are the Dumbest Of All the Majors

Tom and Miro interview Swiss business student Firat Aslan, international student of mystery, about the benefits of a global education. And today’s jargon will get you hugged in northern Switzerland and beat up in southern Switzerland.

This episode is brought to you by Venture Cafe. Because great things happen when smart
people bump into each other. Every Thursday from 3-8 pm at One Broadway in Cambridge Mass.


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(1) Headlines: Business majors are dumbest

The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education reported the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement. They discovered what me and any of my phi Beta Kappa friends could have told you. Business majors are dumb.

Undergrad business majors had the Lowest GMAT Scores of any other major taking the GMAT.

What? that’s supposed to be their thing

That’s like saying Sprinting Majors from the Cambridge School of Running are finishing last at NCAA running contest.

Also, they don’t actually do any actual running, they only do tons of group projects about running.

Out of all undergraduate students business majors spend the least time studying and improved the least over their careers in writing and reasoning.

But they were statistically tied with education majors.

Oh great, the only people as poorly educated as business majors are educators.

But, wait, I can explain all this. Why do you choose business as a major? Because you want to get a kick-ass finance job.

And we all know that those jobs are not given out to people with good grades. Networking is what gets you those jobs.

What they should really be judged on is salary. They get higher salaries than average coming out of school. How is that not success?

Scientists and engineers do even better than that, and some majors , like philosophy close the gap by mid career.

That’s why we need to get rid of the undergraduate business major. You can learn bean counting at the bean factory when you graduate. Spend college to learn how to think.

Get rid of it? Business is the biggest undergraduate major. The marketplace is calling for MORE business undergrads, not less. And they’re making more money too, which means they’re basically better people.

Dude, I’m a better person because I can evaluate history through the lens of the Hegelian dialectic, not because I can read a balance sheet.

I’m not so sure.

How else could I have written that Marxist critique of the NPV equation?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17business-t.html?_r=1&hpw

(2) Interview - Swiss, Turkish Undergrad

INTRO: Firat is an Undergraduate business major at University of Applied Sciences, Northwestern Switzerland Current on tour in the US with swissnex. A trully international man of mystery.
Networking New York

http://nwny.ch
http://swissnexboston.org/
http://www.xing.com/profile/Firat_Aslan11

(3) Jargon: Gruezi

Hello in Swiss

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Learn A Language

BONUS CONTENT TEASER
If you are looking for a cheap and easy way to build a community sign up for the newsletter for access to our bonus interview with Carrie Stalder, manager here at the venture cafe.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: 2 hour meditation workshop
Tom: 2 minute meditation workshop proving that I’m 60 times more efficient than MiorKaz.
Firat: Going to NY to visit Wall Street!

How MBAs Can Save Thousands of Dollars on Taxes

Warning: this episode could save you money. With tax day approaching, MiroKaz and TheRealTomRose walk MBAs through how to deduct tuition on their tax returns.

(1) Headlines: MBA - 1 IRS - 0

A maryland nurse has outduled the IRS and won a court case allowing her to deduct the expenses from her MBA on her personal taxes.

MBA’s not paying taxes. Yes! Another way that MBAs can screw the common man.

Tom, this is just a loophole that MBAs are exploiting. This write-off was designed to encourage that blue-collar worker struggling at night school to build better life for his family.

Blue collar? Hello. What color is this?

You shouldn’t feel bad about taking this deduction. School is a business expense. Why do people go to school? The main reason is to secure employment. Are printing resumes a business expense? Then school should be a business expense too.

Tax deductions are a way for the government to inceitive certian behaviors. Doctor’s and lawyers are clearly excluded from this deduction because we don’t need tax breaks to get people to go to med school. . We don’t need to provide tax breaks to encourage people to get MBAs.

Did you take it?

Of course.

(2) Business School Tip of the Week

How to take advantage of the MBA Loophole. We’re going to show you exactly how to save thousands on your taxes.


Wait wait wait wait. Before we start, it’s important that we use protection.



What are we about to do?

I’m talking about legal protection.

We are not tax professionals.

So, we have prepared a quick disclaimer that we need you to read.

That’s great. I’ve boiled it down to it’s essance : DON’T SUE US.

No seriously, we barely know what we’re talking about half the time. So, don’t sue us.

If you’re going to sue us, stop watching now. We’ll wait.

Now that it’s just Canadians watching the show...

First, figure out if you’re elegible:

1) Do you need you your degree to qualify to perform the job you want to do?
- Correct answer: NO
-This excludes Doctors, lawyers, and accountants.

2) Are you career switching?
- Correct answer: NO
- Crap, all MBAs are career switchers, that cuts out tons of people.

Well, not so fast. I worked for an web traffic measurement company before this and i’m becoming an education entrepreneur, but I think of it as extending what I did before. It’s online, and it extends all the skills I learned in my prior job.

I get it, I used a cell phone at my last job, and i’m planning to use a cell phone at my next job, so that’s really an extension of the same career.

Are you TRYING to get me audited?

Audited? Dude, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re not going to make any money.

Well, just in case, I prepared this... [IRS, Take him! banker]

Oh please, I’m bullet proof. I have tax lawyers up to here. What’s the point of being rich if you can’t afford OJ style justice.


3) Is this required by your employer or does it improve skills required in doing your work?
Correct Answer: Yes
- Can’t write off your yoga classes.

Unless your school offers them.

4) Are you carrying on your ‘business or trade’ while in school
Correct Answer: yes

Doesn’t this exclude ALL full time MBA’s?

No, because the courts have ruled that almost anything counts as “carrying on”.

TEASE: In bonus content we’ll talk about how full time MBAs can deal with the the issue of carrying on and how this works for consultants and bankers where firms primarily recruit MBAs.

To get the bonus content, go to www.TheMBAShow.com and sign up for our newsletter.

http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/108550/nurse-outduels-irs-over-mba-tuition?mod=taxes-advice_strategy
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/when-you-can-deduct-the-cost-of-your-mba/
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/more-on-mba-tuition-deductions/

3 Reasons Why All MBAs Should Teach

MBAs are applying to Teach for America in record numbers. Babson's Olin School of Management launches a satellite campus in Silicon Valley, and Tom & Miro talk about how you should give a lecture in something you know nothing about.

Welcome to the MBA Show teachers edition.

Does that mean we have all the answers in advance.

I think the only think we know for sure is that we DON’T have all the answers.

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(1) Headlines: MBAs do TFA

MBA applications for Teach For America are up 7x over the past three years from 91 applicants to 641. TFA takes students out of top schools and matches them with underserved public schools.

I thoguht they only recruited undergrads

They’re do.

I thought they were a NOT-for-profit.

They are.

I thought they only paid public school teach salaries.

They do.

You know I hate it when people are motivated by things other than money! [disconnect]

I know. It’s okay.. But there are a bunch of great programs out there. Education Pioneers and The Broad Foundation also have great programs specifically aimed to get MBAs into educational system.

And if that doesn’t work out. You can always get a job in banking

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2011/bs2011041_412443.htm
http://broadresidency.org/
http://www.educationpioneers.org/


(2) Headlines: Babson Opens Satellite Campus

Babson’s Olin School is opening a satellite campus in Silicon valley. Well actually, San Fransisco.

Schools have satellite campus? What is the plural of campus? Campooses? Campusi?

Well if you remember back to your Latin …

What Latin?

I don’t have time to lecture you on the genitive neuter but

let’s just stick with Campuses.

I think the basis of this conversation highlights the absurdity of this plan. This is basically designed to milk the brand.

Noooooo, They are reinforcing the brand. Babson has a really tight focus on being the entrepreneurship school. You want to be the entrepreneurship brand, so you go to be in Silicon Valley. It enhances their credibility.

Is anyone else doing this?

Wharton has had a program there for a decade.

They do?! How come I haven’t heard of it?

Becuase it’s basically an Executive MBA program designed to milk the brand.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1051cd96-5c6a-11e0-8f48-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1Ifzz5f4k


(3) Jargon: Teaching
Our jargon this week is a word most MBAs don’t know, and you should because its a career path and something you should consider: Teaching

1. Give back
2. Help Children
3. Contribute to society

I was just kidding. [defeated look from miro]

Banking..

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Teach something.

Give a formal talk or presentation

What do you mean?

Engineer a situation where you get to be the leader giving a talk, lecture, or presentation.

Why would I do that?

Build Credibility.

Don’t I already need to be credible to give a talk?

Credibility is a chicken and egg thing. No one is credible until they give their first talk. Afterwards, then you’ll have credibility. In job interviews, you’ll be able to say, oh I actually used to teach social media.

Build expertise

Tom, I came to business school to transition to being an entrepreneur. I don’t want to give another talk about how do to market research?

You should give your talk in something you want to go into. It’s okay for it to be a stretch topic, because after you commit to giving the talk, psychologically it will be a very powerful motivator to BECOME an expert in that topic.

Network

How so?

When you’re prepping for the talk, you can reach out to anyone. For example. suppose you’re giving a talk on M&A in education. That’s a great reason to reach out to Andy Rosen, the CEO of Kaplan.

So you ARE thinking about giving a little back in non-profit.

No, I’m actually thinking about A-ing someone in education.

What’s A-ing?

Acquiring.

Is that a thing?

No. It could catch on.

BONUS CONTENT TEASER
If you’re interested in more on-the-ground steps to give one of these talks, check out the bonus content where we’ll discuss a step-by-step guide.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Polishing up our application for Mass Challenge. This is a start-up accelerator, and we need your help to make it to the next round.

Go to Bit.ly/Testive and vote us as 5 star, on the star ranking on the upper right of the page.

Lord knows, we don’t ask you for much. And while you’re there, remember not to vote for anyone else.