Should You Go To Harvard?

Stav: Welcome to the MBA show!!!!

I’m MiroKaz

i’m international MBA of mystery

[Miro & Stav intorduce themselves.]

Christina: And I’m TheRealTomRose!

Miro: So today we’re going to talk about pre-term. But first - Tom, do you want to introduce today’s headline?

Christina: (excitedly!) YES! Let’s get to it! “Should I go to Harvard?”

Stav: So there’s this guy who was admitted to HBS, but he’s arrogant enough to publicly debate his decision to accept the offer or not. He put up a website, Should I Go To Harvard.com, with two buttons on it and allows the public to vote Yes or No.

Christina: What? Why is he doing this?

Miro: Obviously, this is a publicity stunt for his startup! His press release mentions that he’s the CEO of CollegeBudget.com. The

Stav: As a mater of fact, I have a quote here from the CEO: quote: “I don’t consider this a publicity stunt.”.

[Group laughter]

Stav: Wait, wait, wait. I have another quote here. “It has been a meaningful way to get feedback.”

[More Group Laughter]

Christina: Well what’s the latest news with it?

Miro: This just in! Harvard just opened their own website: ShouldWeRejectThisDoucheBagOrNot....Dot EDU.

Stav: Seriously though, as of last week he had 25,000 votes. This seems to have been a good venture! But now - his domain reroutes to Harvard.edu

Christina: Well clearly he’s made a decision!!!

Miro: Well, that’s one possible explanation. I think someone has been receiving some pressure from the Admissions Committee.

(2) Jargon: Pre-term

Miro: Anyway, so - many of you are starting you MBA. Many schools offer some kind of “PRE-TERM”... For those of you who don’t know. Preterm is a special week of classes that occur before real MBA classes start. It’s a change to learn topics that you might not have skills in.

Christina: Yay! Class before class! This couldn’t get any better!

Miro: Are you going?

Christina: No (dead-pan face).

Miro: Why not?

Christina: Well I spent the whole summer going back and reviewing through my old economics notebooks, so I’m ready! I don’t need pre-term to learn the stuff again!

Stav: I hate pre-term for exactly that reason. I have been brainwashed to not participate in these things.

Miro: Are you going?

Stav: Of course! I’m not going to miss out on the strong american tradition of paying a bunch of extra money for something I have already paid tons of money for.

Miro: I have been to pre-term. I think that the value of pre-term has nothing to do with academics. It’s entirely a social event. A chance to meet people and start making friends.

(3) Business School Tip of the Week: Go to Pre-term

Miro: So what do you think about this?

Christina: Well you can never have too many friends! But what’s this thing I’ve heard about...like free-term.

Miro: Actually this is great. If it doesn’t exist, you can start a free-term program. It’s a better socializing experience. Plus, if you can teach one of the topics at free-term, you can build your brand of being a smart, capable person.





(3) Radar
Miro: Emma’s baptism
Stav: Pre Pre-term.
Christina: Movin in.

Close:
International MBA of Mystery

Will the US Downgrade Take MBA’s With It?

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/08/wharton-admissions-as-elitist-as-youd-expect/
http://www.stacyblackman.com/2011/08/08/evolution-of-the-executive-m-b-a/
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/08/05/hbs-grad-behind-viral-hit-leisure-diving-featured-on-tosh-0-thrillist-more-photos/

Welcome to the MBA Show.

Today we’ll unpack what the US credit down-grade means to MBAs.

[you creep up]

Ah! Who are you? How did you get here? This is a closed set. Security.

It’s me guys

Why the disguise?

I’m from over seas and I want to hide my true identity.

Ooh, that doesn’t sound like a good sign.

How do you feel about being an MBA?

I love it! I’m not going to work for the next two years.

Why would would you be embarrassed about that?

Well, I haven’t told my friends I’m an MBA yet.

Why not?

They’re engineers. Being an MBA is the ultimate sin.

Okay “vaguely international MBA”, what are our headlines for today?

(1) Headlines: US Gov’t Credit Downgrade

As you know Standard & Poor’s recently downgraded the credit rating of the United States government. In case you don’t know, Standard & Poor’s evaluates how risky different forms of debt are. Until recently the US government had (and has always had the highest rating). They are saying that US goverment is now risker than it was last

That’s bullshit! US debt is the safest debt in the world. Down grading it is ridiculous. S&P is just looking for a way to indicate that something has happened, but I think they’re just hurting their own credibility at this point.

GE is AAA rated. Does that mean my money is safer with GE than with the US.

Actually, there is a separate rating for sovereign nations. So you wouldn’t compare the US and GE’s bond rating. You would compare different countries with one another.

For example, it would be interesting, to note all the other countries which currently have a higher debt rating than the United States:

Australia
Austria
Canada
Finland
France
Germany
The Netherlands
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
Swiss Confederation
United Kingdom
New Zealand

New Zealand! You’re telling me that I’m better off loaning money to Frodo Baggins than I am with the United States.

In my country, Hobbits are considered to be quite trustworthy.

So, Interest rates are about to go up. Althought, if you have fixed rate student-loan debt, then you’re solid.

Who’s going to give me a fixed rate student loans?

Well the US gov’t gives fixed rate loans.

Fantastic. That’s really useful for me. I got all my loans from the mother land.

It’s good. With the us currency about to collapse, or at least downgrade. soon, you’ll be albe to buy an MBA with one month’s salary. Unless we have to political will to fix this, and I think we’ve proven we don’t, the US economy is busted.

The old school US economy is busted. But I’m buying a ticket into the new world of innovation, and for that - an american business education is still the best and still worth it. There is a reason New-Zealand didn’t come up with Apple, Google and Facebook all emerging from the US and not from all the other AAA rated countries, including New-Zealand.

(2) Business Porn

Recent HBS Grad Brian Thorne, and his friends John Lewis, Alex Scott, Ed Foy have created the wildly popular website LeisureDive.com

This is guys taking photos of themselves jumping into pools in poses that look really relaxed and casual.

Four of the worst stereotypes of HBS grads all coming to roost at once.

White guys,
White names
no redeeming value
Summering in the Hamptons.

If they’re doing this as a joke, then this is great, but if they are deluding themselves into thinking this is a legit business.

I love this! This is one of the first sports where bankers have an edge. Finally an athletic activity where I can participate in business attire.

I hope these guys are self-aware. I’m pretty sure

[Showing Pictures]

Give me an example of a leisure dive.

I think it’s better shown with a picture:

One raised elbow

A killer leisure face

An item that indicates leisurely attitude (in your non-raised elbow hand). Some acceptable items include: Red Stripe, White Russian, Paperback novel, Croquet mallet

(3) Radar
Miro: Wife’s away
Tom: Scam condo tour for a mythical free cruise.
Stav: I’m writing a business plan.

Your Salary = Your Business School Ranking

We have a great show this week. We’re going to tell you how one tweet can get your a free MBA.

but first...

(1) Headlines: Forbes Ranking

Forbes released it’s rankings this week.

More rankings? I’m so sick of rankings I don’t even care... Who won

Harvard, but that’s just a control. If it’s not harvard at the top it’s obviously just a calculations error.

Otherwise people start to get suspicious.

As tired as I am of rankings, I actually really like the Forbes rankings.

Why?

They are based entirely off of salary earned 5 years after graduation. I like it because there is no subjectivity. Cold hard numbers. And let’s be honest. Salary is the best proxy we have to day of measuring the value of a person.

which brings us to this weeks’

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/04/winners-losers-in-forbes-2011-mba-ranking/

(2)Business Porn

Let’s find out, who’s making what, five years out.

Graduates of Harvard made an average of $230K 5 years after graduation.
Wharton grads made $225: and then things start ot drop off pretty substiantially.

They barely even cleared $200k. I don’t even understand why they get up in the morning.

The poverty stricken Stanford grads made a mere $205K which is down $20K from the same cohort two years ago.

Startup loving, west-coast hippies.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/04/what-top-mbas-earn-five-years-out/
(3) The Tweet That Won A Free MBA
John Yates earned a a free MBA degree with just one tweet.

University of Iowa’s Tippie business offered students the chance at a free scholarship for creating a tweet on “What makes you an exceptional Tippie Full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire?”

Tell ‘em what the tweet was.

“Globally minded (5) 
Innovative and driven (7)
 Tippie can sharpen (5)”

For those of you who are interested in profit, but not poetry, I should point out that that tweet was also a haiku!

[Someone does counts on hands] Globally minded

Ah the universal symbol of haiku interpretation

I love how he included a syllable count in the tweet. Because there is no way the admissions staff would detect haiku-ness on their own.

So how many tweets were there overall?

58.

What? Wow, applciations took the entire GMAT, wrote a full application and still couldn’t get their applications in early enough to write an additional 140 characters.

This should be a lesson to MBA applicants everywhere. If the admissions staff decides to hold a creative, out-of-the-box, experimental application stunt. You should definitely play along!

Because no-one else will.

MBA’s are so freaking conservative! Write a damned tweet! Good lord.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/04/the-tweet-that-won-a-free-mba/


(3) Jagon: A-Player

Here’s a term you might have heard before that you’ll be hearing often in business school … and in banks … and consulting firms … and basically everywhere that hires MBAs.

An A-player is that top notch worker who does what it takes to get the job done. A-Players become the drivers of your business. They’re the people that you can’t let go. Or as I think of them … bankers.

(4) Business School Tip of the week:

A-players hire A-players and B-players hire C-players

Well, I haven’t been working out lately. so I would say that I’m currently employing a pair of A players down there.

No, what I’m saying is that really good people hire other really good people. Mediocre people, hire losers.

The idea here is that mediocre players are afraid to hire people that might make them look stupid, so they only hire people that they know they can intellectually dominate.

You only have to let one mediocre person in the door and its’ a downward spiral from there.

Can I have one??

No. Not even one.

Tom, I’m going to have to let you go.

Well if we fire all the C-players too, then it’ll just be an empty table.

Radar
Tom: 6-Flags.
Miro: Meditation workshop

Episode 43: Serving Up Hot Cups of Coffee Chat

What’s going on TRTR? Well MiroKaz, the recruiting season has officially started.

I was talking with an incoming student the other day and I mentioned the idea of a coffee chat, and he said, “What is a coffee chat”

[miro laughing smugly]

I realized, someone has to do something to help these youngsters out.

Well, I have a tip. (Something about beans)

Woah, there Joe Starbucks.

Contrary to how it sounds, the coffee chat has little to do with coffee, and is actually a formal part of the interview process.

Coffee chats exist for big firms only. They make employees available to students for brief chats about the company.

You’ll be signing up at your career center for a time slot with said employee.

It is often the first contact between you and the firm. (unless you happen to have been an info session already.) In the coffee chat, a rep will speak with between 1 and 3 candidates.

It will be billed as a casual conversation, despite the fact that

THE OPEN

Miro: Well, I guess we’ll get started with out him.

Consultant: Richus Exhausticus

Candidate: Whore-itus desperatus

[Miro sitting in front of glass wall speaking to imaginary interviewee.]

[Tom outside banging on wall screaming]



Tip: Don’t miss your sign up and get stuck with the 5:45 am slot.

Tell me about yourself...

Miro: So, tell me a little bit about yourself.

[Tom face:] Struggle to think, go crazy and spout gibberish.

Miro: At consulting co, we welcome people with diverse backgrounds.

Tip: Make sure you have well-practiced 30-second pitch for yourself.

Your turn to ask questions

Miro: Do you have any questions for me.

Yes, I have a great question for you. As a person who prides himself on client service, data analysis, and actionable results, (which you may have noticed are the top three bullet points on your website), I have often wondered how a person of your stature handles the logistical supply chain optimization in this increasingly global world. I’m particularly fascinated by techniques for applying the newton raphson method to facilities that have traditionally employed news vendor optimization. I think this is specifically important considering the rise of the BRIC countries and the shift of the world’s reserve courency away from the US dollar and towards the Chinese renminbi (or the ‘yuan’ as it’s colloquially called.) What I’m really trying to say here is, ‘Tell me about work life balance’.

Tip: Don’t be a dick, ask real questions.

The close

Miro: That’s very nice, but …

Tom:

And that’s when I realized I was on the wrong greenline!

And I’ll never eat that many hotdogs again.

And that’s really the only time my herpes have been a problem

Have you considered using a facial mosturizer

Which is why, I never ever play poker with a four fingered person

Seriously feel how soft my skin is

That’s how I found myself down at fraggle

Tip: You should end the interview
-Thank the interviewer for their time
-Ask if you can follow-up

-Get a business card

-Write a thank you note

It’s a week of top 10 lists here at The MBA Show

Title: The 10 Best Places to Work and the Most Expensive Places to Learn.
42-The-Top-Ten-List-Episode-Youtube
It’s top 10 week at the MBA Show. Tom and Miro review the best places for MBAs to work and the most expensive business schools in the country. Also, find out the easiest way to generate content for your personal brand.


(1) Headline: It’s a week of top 10 lists here at The MBA Show:

First up: The top 10 jobs for MBA’s.

This is a Universum survey:

Google
McKinsey & Company
Apple
Goldman Sachs Group
The Boston Consulting Group
Bain & Company
Facebook
Amazon.com
J.P. Morgan
Nike


http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/mba100/2010/full_list/

Google? That’s not a consulting firm, OR a bank. I don’t understand it...



Moving on.


(2) The top 10 most expensive private MBA programs.


Business School, Tuition & Fees,
1. Havard University (MA), $56,204
2. Columbia University (NY) $55,588
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), $54,009
4. Stanford University (CA), $53,118
5. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (PA), $52,500
6. University of Chicago (Booth), $51,680
7. Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL), $51,680
8. Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH), $51,000
9. Yale University (CT), $51,000
10. Cornell University (Johnson) (NY), $50,992


http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/articles/2011/07/19/10-most-expensive-private-business-schools

(3) The top 10 reasons to go to business school.

10. Education

9. Find a mate

8. The Experience

7. The Network

6. Getting a Job

5. Escape

4. Pedigree

3. Money

2. Money

1. Money


http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/mba100/2010/full_list/

(4) Jagon: Boilerplate

Boilerplate. Boiler plate is a slug of text that never changes. It is commonly used to refer to clauses in legal contracts that are used over and over again, but can also be used euphemistically to refer to things that are boring or un-original.


(5) Business School Tip of the week: Write top 10 lists

Radar
Tom: At the beach, in NJ
Miro: Clambake at my place

Not recruiting yet? You're late!

(1) Headlines: This week’s headline comes to us from viewers Brian Jones and Zach Cohen. Recruiting season has begun!

[Cheering, Whooping]

I love recruiting. I can already smell the coffee chats and padfolios greese.

Dude, you’re looking at the wrong month of your calendar again. Recruiting doesn’t start until september.

Not true my friend. Two major recruiting events have already happened.
In the last week:
Bain held a global info session and JP Morgan started up the MBA Advantage recruiting program.

They can’t do that, there’s a moratorium.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Miro is referring to a mythical limitation on company recruiting which protects students from aggressive company recruiting events.

You can’t be telling me that the moratorium is BS

Well it’s going with or without you. You can sit this one out if you want. There will be plenty of interviews for startups at the END of the year.

Ahh damit.

So should incoming students freak-out?

That’s a great question. And we’ll answer it... In this weeks bonus content!

Check it out by subscribing to our newsletter at www.TheMBAShow.com

Sneak preview. Don’t worry about it too much. We’ll tell you what you do need to do in the bonus content. You can subscribe at www.TheMBAShow.com

J.P. Morgan MBA Early Advantage program
http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/recruiting-process/mba.asp

(2) Jennifer Fremont-Smith
Jennifer is a true serial entreprenur. She has founded a whole boatload of companies before getting a mid-career MBA as a Sloan Fellow and is currently the CEO the super-hot Boston area start-up Smarterer.

How may companies did you start?

Is the limiting factor was your interest?

Give us an example a company you didn’t care about?

Recommend for curent MBAs thinking about Entreprenurship?

How do you package yourself as an MBA?

Why go get an MBA?

Did theory pan out?

How will the job search look different in the future?

Is network not important anymore?

I thought there were people who played the game and people who didn’t? Is that changing?

We who are you are funded by?

(3) Jargon: Slipping the noose


(4) Business School Tip of the Week
Write a review of the product of a company you are interested.


What’s on your radar this weekend
Miro: Making Cheese
Tom: My wife Tracy’s birthday
Jennifer: My daughter Lucy's 8th birthday

INSEAD Reveals Its Secret US Invasion Plan

We have Great Show today.
Business school essays are about to get much, much shorter
and say goodbye to a relaxed summer before business school

But First: breaking news!

(1) Headline: The French are Coming the French are Coming

INSEAD Announces that they are invading the US and plans to offer a degree on US soil!

What kind of degree?

They won’t say

When are they opening the campus?

No timeline as of yet.

Well will they go indepenant or continue their parnternship with Wharton.

Unclear.

This is like academic vaporware.

Miro, are you listening? Our sovereignty has been challenged! They’re not setting up shop in one of our expendable territories such as Puerto Rico. We’re talking about the main land.

I’m not that worried. The whole point of INSEAD is that it’s international. as a commentor pointed out in the aritcle about this on Poets and Quants It doesn’t make any sense to get a 100% US INSEAD education. That sentence barely make sense.

Why would you take one Europe’s best B-schools and bring it to the U.S.

INSEAD is a great school with an amazing education. By coming to the US, INSEAD finally gets rid of the one thing that has been holding them back:

What’s that?

French People.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/07/01/can-you-tweet-your-way-into-b-school/


(2) Headlines: Tweet your way to an MBA

University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Business is adding a new requirement to their MBA application: the Tweet.

It never ends. Am I required to friend their Dean on Facebook.

They are asking everyone to submit a tweet as part of their b-school application.
140 characters to answer:
“What makes you an exceptional Tippie Full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire? Creativity encouraged!“

the question itself is over 100 characters.

The thing that makes me an exceptional Tippie Full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire is … damn I ran out of characters.

The school is offering a full scholarship for the best tweet.
Wait a minute, the article says, “The school plans to ask five or so finalists if their tweets can be shared with others via social media and the winner will ultimately be announced on Aug. 4 on both Facebook and Twitter.

So they’re not actually tweeting the essays? Hahaha. They have finally taken the ‘social’ out of social-media.

God forbid a low quality tweet, escape the lips of an MBA candidate without prior review by an admissions committee.

(3) Jargon - Eat your own dogfood.

For instance, if you are a blogger at blogger you better be using blogger to blog your own blog … rather than wordpress

Huh?

So eating your own dogfood is when a company uses it’s own product. The rason this isn’t called feasting on your own filet migon. Is because you usually find out that your product sucks in a bunch of ways. But this way, you can make it better.

Let me give you a different example using my job.

Miro, you have a job? That’s amazing! How much to you make?

well, I have a start-up called Testive.

They’re not paying you anything are they.

It’s called equity! Its an investment in my future. Why can’t my father understand that?

So tell me about the dog food at Testive.

Anyway, we make software that we sell to test prep companies. So we started a subsidiary company that does test prepartion, just to be a customer of our own software.

You started an entire subsidiary company just to be a customer of your own product.

Yes

So how’s it going?

We were right. It sucks! But this is fastest way to make it great.

(4) Business School Tip of the week:

Do a pre-MBA internship.

Are you sick and tired of only having one internship during you MBA?

Do you wish you could destroy yet another summer with three months of work?

Want to invest your time on a project someone else is going to get the credit for?

Well look no further!

The pre-MBA internship. It’s like a regular internship, but it PRE!

Business week is covering students how quit their jobs in the spring before the MBA and spent the summer before they start school doing an internership.

As patrick henry once said: I regret that I have, but only 1 summer to give to Goldman Sachs First Boston, Singapore Branch.

http://www.businessweek.com/business-schools/a-farewell-to-summer-the-premba-internship-06302011.html

What’s on your radar this weekend
Miro: Tutoring
Tom: Coding Coding and more Coding