EMBA Career Support: 5 Ways to Avoid Disappointment

Recently, BloombergBusinessweek ranked Executive MBA programs, and some of the EMBA students’ comments were recapped in an article on the Poets & Quants for Executive web site. A common disappointment expressed by many EMBA students was a lack of career management support from their programs. For example, some students were unhappy that their schools did not bring employers on-campus to interview EMBA students in a similar process to what these schools do for their full-time MBA students.

Based on my experience (I have been an administrator and teacher in Executive MBA programs for 18 years at five business schools in three countries), I believe there are five ways that anyone considering joining an EMBA program (or current EMBA students) can avoid disappointment with the career support provided by the program.

No. 1: Match Your Career Goals to the MBA Program

Are you a “career switcher” or someone interested in the advancement of your current career? Career switching is not simply looking for a new job - it’s about a whole new career path. Career switching is never easy. Moreover, the farther you are into your career the more difficult it is to switch careers.

If your goal is to switch career paths then you may be better off in a full-time MBA program rather than an EMBA. Full-time MBA programs typically include the opportunity for elective courses that allow students to study the field into which they’re hoping to switch. EMBA programs, in contrast, have relatively few elective courses as they’re intended for experienced managers who want a general management MBA experience. That makes sense for anyone hoping to remain in their industry but move into a more senior role.

A classic example of a career switcher is someone who finished an engineering undergraduate degree 3-5 years ago and joins a full-time MBA program in order to get a job on Wall Street. The good news is that full-time MBA programs are well suited for career switchers. The engineer in this example could probably enroll in 6-10 finance courses in his or her full-time MBA program. The companies attracted to business schools for recruiting don’t come looking for candidates who already possess deep and extensive expertise in their industries. Instead, recruiters are typically interested in people with the right training (both MBA and pre-MBA) and the potential to be successful: engineers do well on Wall Street thanks to their comfort with quantitative models.

No. 2: Understand Hiring Practices

As mentioned above, employers do not come to university campuses looking for experienced managers and professionals to fill senior positions that require extensive industry experience. Instead, they come looking for large pools of similarly qualified candidates who are early in their careers to fill entry-level roles in management.

Read just about any description of the average amount of work experience that full-time MBA students bring into their studies and you will see that number falls in the 3-5 year range (e.g, US News). That translates to an average age of students at the start of full-time MBA studies of 26-28 years. This is no accident: these demographics are entirely a function of the profile of the candidates that on-campus recruiters find ideal.

On average, students in Executive MBA programs have racked-up about 10 more years of organizational experience than their counterparts in full-time MBA programs. This leaves EMBA students over-qualified and ill suited for the kinds of positions that on-campus recruiters want to fill. The “want-to-be” career switchers in EMBA programs usually respond to this observation by saying they are willing to take a step backwards in seniority and salary in order to compete for these jobs. As sincere as anyone making such a claim may be, it is wishful thinking to believe that employers will expect an over-qualified employee to be as happy and productive as one better suited for an entry-level role.

Employers looking for experienced hires look first within their industries. For these roles, it is the previous experience that is of primary importance. Once a short-list of candidates with the right experience is assembled, those who have also earned an MBA will likely stand out. For example, it’s more efficient for an insurance company looking to fill a position that requires 10-15 years of industry experience and an MBA to look within the insurance industry for ideal candidates rather than start looking through EMBA program rosters for the students with insurance industry experience.

Of course, EMBA students know this already. In conversations with EMBA students over the years, I have asked how often they have hired over-qualified candidates for a job or why their employers have chosen executive search firms to help fill senior roles rather than on-campus recruiting in EMBA programs. The same observations about fit and efficiency that I have mentioned above come out of their mouths too. That’s why I call hoping for different hiring practices wishful thinking.

No. 3: Do Your Homework

EMBA students have the right to be disappointed in program career support if they are not provided what they were promised. Research the program’s track record in delivering what it promises and understand what is not included in career support before you enroll.

EMBA students who are disappointed about a lack of on-campus recruiting targeted to their programs may not have done their homework. Anyone looking at an EMBA program as a vehicle for career switching need only ask program staff to find out about career support and on-campus recruiting. The observations I shared above regarding hiring practices and on-campus recruiting are not dirty little secrets: EMBA programs are keen to share these observations in order to manage expectations.

Several of the comments reported by BloombergBusinessweek from EMBA students specifically address the lack of on-campus recruiting for EMBA students. I’m willing to bet that the programs being criticized for this would be happy to tell any applicant that on-campus recruiting is not part (or, at best, a limited part) of EMBA career support because employers do not regularly use this channel for experienced hires.

No. 4: Use the Services You are Provided

Some years ago, while I was the director of an EMBA program, we often observed a strange outcome when we polled the EMBA students about career support services: a greater percentage of students expressed some disappointment with these services than had actually used them. In other words, there were students who had never contacted the career support staff who were nonetheless disappointed with career support services.

Good business schools hire smart and enthusiastic career support staff who are dedicated to helping EMBA students be successful. Don’t let their skills and resources go unused or even underutilized. Everything from help with résumé writing, developing interview skills, and understanding how to use your networks for career opportunities are available in good EMBA programs. Take advantage of the resources you have and you’ll be better informed to provide feedback to EMBA programs on opportunities for enhancing these services.

No. 5: Accept that You Own Your Career

No one but you is responsible for your achievement of your career goals.

Owning you own career means understanding where you want to go and what’s required to get there. The new skills you learn in EMBA classes and the resources you can access in EMBA programs outside of class are tools that support your career advancement efforts. The EMBA experience is not a “magic bullet” that will create the career results your looking for without that work.

EMBA career support services are just that: support services. They are intended to support your efforts to achieve your goals. Of course, that doesn’t mean that every EMBA program has all of the career support services right or has delivered what it promised. Good EMBA programs will continue to seek feedback from EMBA students to improve. As an EMBA applicant or student, if you follow the advice in these five observations you’ll improve the chances that you will be able to identify and utilize the resources you need to achieve your career goals.