Cut Costs on Business School Networking
Networking is prioritized as much as studying at many MBA programs.
There are how-to-network sessions during orientation, MBA career conferences that get going soon after school starts and events for students to meet employed alumni -- all in the hopes that the students will land a job, which is a top reason that many people attend business school. While shaking hands and exchanging cards can be critical for getting a job in consulting, marketing or finance, for example, networking can empty your wallet.
"It's costly to network," says Alex Leventhal, a Harvard Business School MBA graduate and founder of Prep MBA, which helps prospective business school students get into school.
Students often foot the bill when registering and attending conferences, traveling for career exploration trips hosted by student clubs or socializing with their classmates in more casual settings, such as a bowling night for MBA candidates in the same section. These activities occur year-round and a single event can sometimes cost students thousands.
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Before prospective and current MBA students resign themselves to paying a steep price as part of their job search, they can consider a few ways to trim the costs.
Taking advantage of networking opportunities organized and hosted by the school can be key, says Emily Anderson, director of the career management center at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.
"We really try to get the students engaged with the second-year class first, because that's zero cost," says Anderson. New MBA candidates are put in touch with second-year students who share their professional interests and goals, she says. Second-year students also help facilitate a practice career fair, which lets first-year MBA candidates sharpen their networking skills while learning about various careers, she says.
Owen also looks to new MBA graduates to help with networking.
"We try to bring alumni back as much as possible," Anderson says. Alumni may speak on career panels hosted by student clubs, she says, and help current MBA candidates expand their network beyond their peers.
Leveraging student activities that foster a long-term relationship with peers in the class below yours is also important, says Bhavik Trivedi, managing partner and co-founder of Critical Square, which helps business school applicants be strong candidates.
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"If there's a way for you to do mentorship, or career advisement, or any sort of longer lasting relationship with the people that are coming in the year after you, they'll obviously view you as a very core part of their network and you kind of get to do the same with them," says Trivedi, who received his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
If students are interested in leaving campus and attending conferences as a way to meet potential employers, they should think twice about how conferences will impact their network, he says. "Those conferences are far more useful for the people planning them."
If students can help run a conference, they're likely to be in close communication with keynote speakers and session leaders, he says. They'll have the best chance at networking. The average attendee, on the other hand, may collect a few business cards and meet a handful of people during a cocktail hour, but they'll likely have less time for real networking.
Some networking activities organized by the school can also take students far from campus and at the students' expense. Vanderbilt organizes local visits to companies that are of interest to students and trips that are further away.
"We travel to Atlanta for consulting, Dallas for marketing and New York for financial services and Seattle and San Francisco for technology," Anderson says. "They pay their own way out there, and they do pay their own lodging."
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Incoming and current students can cut costs on networking-related traveling by staying with family or friends and planning early for trips, she says. Most schools have calendars that include opportunities to travel, allowing students to plan early for which trips they want to attend and how they'll pay.
Current students can also network at a low cost by making the most of school paraphernalia.
"If you're traveling, wear a school T-shirt when you're on a plane," Anderson says. Someone may ask about the school name branded across a student's chest, and start a conversation that way, which opens the door to a networking opportunity. "You want to draw people into conversations as much as possible," Anderson says.
Prospective students who want a better idea of how much they'll spend on networking before school begins have multiple options for researching these things, says Leventhal.
They can visit online forums on websites such as gmatclub.com that discuss life at business school and business school admissions, he says. They can also speak with current or recent MBA graduates in their own network to get a feel for networking prices. If they don't know of anyone in business school or recent graduates, the schools they are considering can likely put them in touch with someone.
"If you've been accepted to a school, some of the schools have ambassadors or people who are students who are asked to serve as representatives and conduits, and those are conversations that you can have with them to try and figure out what some of the costs are," Leventhal says.
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Delece Smith-Barrow is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering graduate schools. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at dsmithbarrow@usnews.com.
