Where we are going next (Veterans of HBS Class of 2011)

We didn't know each other when we started, but we moved forward with confidence and we quickly bonded. What was true for our general class was even more true for the veterans of the HBS Class of 2011.

Despite drastically different backgrounds; from Naval intelligence to Marine infantry, those of us from different corners of the military quickly united as we attempted to navigate through what to many of us was some of the most unknown terrain we had ever faced.

The uncertainty did not preclude success however, and our small group of veterans claimed two Baker Scholar Awards (awarded to top 5% of HBS) and several awards of Distinction, including one of the handful of Dean's Awards given to students who demonstrate exceptional leadership and contribution to the school while on campus. In short, the veteran community did not only do well, it thrived.

For those of you curious where the Class of 2011 veterans are heading, I've compiled the following data for you:


Industry/Function: The most popular destination is consulting, a favorite blogging topic of mine. Of those going to consulting, 4 are going to McKinsey, 2 to Bain, 1 to BCG, and 1 to Deloitte. There are also 8 going into finance, with 5 going into investment banking, 2 into investment management, and 1 directly into private equity. General Management, Bus/Corp Dev round out most of the others, while a few are breaking ground into their own niches in real estate and startups. One AFAA member is receiving $6m from a VC to start his own materials science company. Others are seeking similar funding to start other business, though the vast majority chose to pursue a traditional post-MBA position. In general, I think it's fair to say nearly everybody got exactly the industry and function they sought. See my previous post on "So What Does Business Mean Anyway?" for a beginner's guide to the recruitment process.

Geography: While the industry/function is not completely out of alignment with the general HBS class, the geography is noticeably different. Across all of HBS, New York City is by far the most common destination for US citizens, while London tends to be the most common destination for international students, or at least it certainly appears that way. That is largely because those cities are the financials hubs for their respective continents, and more HBS students enter finance after business school than do their veteran counterparts. Our #1 location, Washington DC, is not too much of a surprise, considering the natural draw to political and government interest by those who served. San Francisco was a popular destination in general this year due to internet/tech jobs, and the military pool was no exception from the trend. Also in general, a lot more military end up in Southern cities such as Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas.

General Notes: It should be noted that those are are still in the "TBD" category are there by choice. One veteran turned down a position that would most likely pay over $300k/year and is seeking entrepreneurial ventures instead. In broader terms, I don't know anybody in my class who tried but did not receive a top job offer. However, given the wide array of options and tensions associated with all of them, it doesn't mean that students did not have plenty of anxiety about recruiting and which job would be their first civilian position.

Salary: I don't have official numbers, but I'll make approximations. I only do so not because it is something to boast about, but because I still hear from so many military veterans who are concerned about the financial implications of not having income for two years and question whether they can afford to go to business school. For one thing, the Post 9/11 GI Bill makes a huge dent in school costs, and second of all, a school like HBS simply pays for itself. The average total annual compensation (signing bonus, salary, annual bonus, etc.) the first year for my veteran peers is around $175k-$200k/year, and of course, it only goes up from there. That said, don't let the numbers fool you. For many, the job hours are brutal, the work only marginally fulfilling, and for quite a few us who previously led under the greatest of stakes, many would rather be at the point of the spear one last time. That said, nearly everyone is excited about what the future holds, how our careers will unfold, and we are unbelievably grateful for the opportunities that HBS has given us.

"I’m thinking of getting out of the military. What are my options?"

Evaluating the options available to you outside the military can be a useful approach in determining whether exiting makes the most sense for you individually. However, before diving straight into such an evaluation, I’d strongly recommend that you take the time to understand what it is you’re hoping to find on the outside. You don’t necessarily have to “know what you want to be when you grow up” to know what sort of environment you generally thrive in, from where and how you derive meaning from your work, and how you hope to define work/life balance in the future. Maybe the answers to those questions suggest staying in the military. But regardless of the outcome, running through an analysis of that sort will help you evaluate all the options available to you in a meaningful manner, and will give you confidence in whatever decision you ultimately make.

While there are literally hundreds of things you could do with your life should you decide to exit the military (travel the world, live in a foreign country for a period of time, get involved in politics, etc.), I will focus on the two most prevalent options that military officers tend to pursue: going straight to work or going to graduate school.

Option 1: Get to work
For many military folks, this is the first option that comes to mind. You’ve gotten used to having a steady paycheck for some time, and the thought of that going away can be extremely unsettling. If going straight into the workforce is something you’re considering, evaluate all of the possible ways to do that before committing yourself to any one of them.

• Recruiting Firm. More than likely, you’ve already been contacted by at least one of the recruiting firms that exist to help place junior military officers and accomplished NCOs with one of their partner companies. They are good at what they do and present their opportunities in a very compelling manner. I have plenty of friends who have worked with these firms and ended up very happy with both their companies and their initial positions. But do be aware that you are limiting yourself to the companies that your recruiter of choice serves. Furthermore, many of the locations for which these companies are hiring are not the most ideal. I’m not suggesting that these are inherently bad things, but they are what they are and you should be aware of them. JMO recruiters are a means to get onto a new and well defined career track; they are not necessarily a means for you to attain a specific career goal or always the best way to maximize your individual skill sets.


• Individual Networked Search. For many who are considering career paths outside of those typically available through a recruiter, or who want a guarantee with regards to location or industry, an individual networked job search may be the best option. When I was in the Army, the word “networking” had a hugely negative connotation. However, getting out and talking to people who work at or know people who work at an organization you’re targeting should not be looked down upon. So long as you present yourself in a professional manner and go in with a plan, you could very well end up with the job you want in the city of your choice. LinkedIn and your undergrad alumni directory can be extremely useful tools in helping you get started down this path; however, my best advice is to reach out to veterans working at the organizations in which you’re interested. For people like us, the veteran network is probably the easiest way to gain an introduction or get one’s foot in the door. Veterans are literally everywhere and are almost always willing to make time for and help out other vets.
  


• Entrepreneurial Venture. Have an idea? If yes, spend the time evaluating whether and how you should attempt to commercialize it. The crazy thing about good business ideas is that almost every single one of them is disguised in overalls and looks like work. Yet, the world is ripe with people who’ve been able to build wildly successful businesses without a fraction of the experience you have under your belt. With some research, a lot of networking, and an unyielding commitment to seeing it through, you could very well become a successful entrepreneur. Short on ideas? There are plenty of fantastic franchise opportunities out there that will enable you to also work for yourself. Everything from Subway Restaurants to CrossFit gyms are available should you be interested and convinced that a local market need exists.

Option 2: Go back to school
When I first started thinking about what to do after the Army, returning to school as a full-time student wasn’t even on my radar screen. Being married with (at the time) one child seemed to necessitate that I go out and get a job. However, there are significant advantages to investing in yourself by going back to school to earn a graduate degree.

• First, graduate degrees tend to substantially widen the career opportunities available to you. The new body of knowledge you learn and the skills you develop while in grad school augment your leadership experience nicely and open doors that otherwise might remain closed (real estate, hedge funds, etc.).
  


• Second, the pursuit of a graduate degree provides you with the time to really think about your future, experiment with different ideas, and assess multiple opportunities. In essence, it allows you to delay the big career decision while you gather more and better data.
  


• Third, the two or three years spent back in school will allow you to dramatically expand your network. Developing friendships with talented, successful, and ambitious people can pay dividends in a number of ways throughout a career, and graduate school can certainly help you in building out that network.
  


• Finally, compensation packages (base salary, bonuses, options, etc.) immediately out of top graduate programs tend to be much higher than what one could expect to receive in a corporate role right out of the military. This is due largely to the fact that the level at which you enter an organization out of grad school is higher than the level you’d enter coming straight out of the military. This also tends to have trajectory implications in terms of what roles you can likely attain within certain time frames.

But as I mentioned above, this option is at its root level an investment. Graduate degrees from top institutions are expensive, both in terms of real cost (tuition, living expenses, etc.) as well as opportunity cost (foregone salary for the 2-3 years while you’re in school). Thus, it’s important that you spend time considering the program and schools that will not only satisfy your personal goals and objectives, but will also provide you with a commensurate return on your collective investment (monetary, time, effort, etc.).
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In conclusion, you owe it to yourself to investigate each of your options with due diligence. While few things in capitalist societies are ever set in stone, the inertia required to make a dramatic mid-course career adjustment can be substantial. Getting it right the first time really is worth it.

- Rob C., Guest Blogger and Co-Founder of MilitaryToBusiness: Consulting Service for Top Performers

Military To Business guest bloggers

In order to remain a continued source of information for military and non-traditional potential MBA applicants, the Military To Business blog will introduce a series of guest bloggers who are either recent graduates or current MBA students at top schools.

The intent is to provide:

1) Timeless advice and information to those making difficult career decisions
2) Current and realistic insight on life at a top MBA program

Guest bloggers will be identified at the end of their article to help you keep track of your favorite authors. If you are interested in writing, you must be a current or recent MBA student with a public service background, and you can reach me at militarytobusiness (at) gmail.com.

The most important lesson HBS taught me

Graduation is in two weeks and I miss it already. Something which I didn't expect to miss so strongly is the amazing energy of the place, because when you're there, you tend to just get used to it. Bumping into dozens of totally different and fascinating people every day, talking about starting companies, starting companies, planning overseas travel for next month and the month after, going through interviews, discussing important cases, reviewing life plans, playing sports in the afternoon, learning from world class professors, hanging out together at night, etc.... that is just an average day at HBS... and that is definitely not the "real world." It is something I miss, but life does have to go on, and we can't just be students forever; we have work to do and we have contributions to make.

"Reviewing" my experience at HBS is too difficult, but I will summarize what I think HBS teaches based on my 2 years here. HBS is more than just a transfer of knowledge from an institution to a student, and it's also more than a brand name on a resume. I would summarize what HBS provides in three broad categories (adapted from one of my favorite professors), in order of least importance to most important:

1. Knowledge, information, and techniques
2. A perspective and approach to problem solving and decision making
3. Values, attitudes, and beliefs

1. Knowledge, information, and techniques

This subject of learning overlaps with many other MBA programs. In fact, if one had the self-discipline, one could learn much of this by reading enough books and doing enough online training programs. This includes things like understanding how to analyze an industry, financial leverage, calculating net present value of revenue streams, techniques in marketing, the structure of a Board of Directors, as just a few examples among thousands. Among all the skills that HBS provides, this is probably the most fundamental, but also the least important. Most of us will only apply a very small percentage of this knowledge base in the first couple of years after school, and most of the rest will be forgotten or become obsolete. For those of you who are in the military, think of this as the equivalent of your entry level training... it's mostly replaced by different tactics and techniques once you get to your first unit, but it is still a good foundation to establish.

2. A perspective and approach to problem solving and decision making

After technical skills. the next most important element taught at HBS is how to approach and solve complex problems given limited information. This is equivalent to how new officers learn to be decisive, develop a bias for action, learn to step up in the critical moment, and feel comfortable being in command. Those skills are usually much more important than the nuances taught at basic training, and those are the skills which are critical to a life of success in the military.

Most of my HBS non-military peers were previously individual contributors only; they were never in charge of a unit... so the experience of learning to persuade others, to defend positions, and to just make decisions, was a previously underdeveloped skill set. Just like it is done in the military, these are things that develop best with repetitive person-to-person exercises, which at HBS is done 600 times over two years in 80 minute periods called the case method.

Former military people still greatly benefit from this as well though, for while most of us are not uncomfortable making decisions or defending points of view, we don't know how 1) to transfer our knowledge to a technical business environment and how 2) to do so in a diverse civilian environment. HBS is therefore outstanding for this purpose.

3. Values, attitudes, and beliefs

The most important element of the HBS education, in my opinion, is the values, attitudes, and beliefs it imparts on people who are receptive to it. To this end, non-military students benefit much more. Veterans are used to applying ethics in their decision making, understanding what it means to work towards a purpose beyond themselves, weighing conflicting moral dilemmas, etc. Many non-military classmates however have not been forced to think through many of those issues, so for that purpose, the HBS education imparts a tremendous sense of responsibility and judgment on students, or at least, those who are open to receive it.

What I would like to emphasize though is not the moral or ethical views that HBS imparts, but what may be the most important "value, attitude, and belief" that HBS imparted on me as an individual, even though I have never heard a single person explicitly say it...

I feel that I need to give a little bit of context though first; I grew up in a middle class family. My mother was a homemaker, and my father was an engineer. Although our house was in a neighborhood most people would consider very nice, it was 50 years old, had 1300 square feet, and one bathroom for the entire family. I didn't grow up poor, but I didn't grow up rich. I went to a public high school and I paid most of my own way through college. Nobody has ever pulled any strings for me to get into any school, nor any job, and I am very proud of that.

I have also always been very engaged in current affairs, in politics, in my general surroundings, and of those beyond. However, besides for my direct impact in the military, I tended to watch the news as an observer, not as an actor on the world's stage. I always thought the news was made by "those people" - people who's decisions have had a big impact on the world. People like George W. Bush, Jeff Immelt, Mitt Romney, and Michael Bloomberg. I picked those four as examples because they all attended HBS, and two of them came from very well established families, but two did not. I tend to believe that attending the school is a better indicator of success than one's family status.

The four people I listed as examples are people who have had a very significant impact on the world. They are part of "those people" I used to watch on the news. What I realized at HBS, was that "those people" were just my peers! So when I looked around, I realized I was one of those people as well. Of course, nothing changed about who I was, it was only my outlook that changed. It may make me sound naive, but for somebody who grew up in a middle income family and then served in the military, this view was a radical departure. To be clear, it is NOT a feeling of entitlement, for I have never been, and am still entitled to absolutely nothing. On the contrary, it is a feeling of responsibility and purpose.

Previously I could justify being an observer of world events...as somebody largely watching it unfold and mainly contributing through my direct and immediate role. Today I no longer have that excuse. HBS has given me the perspective, the tools, and the network to at least have as much of a shot of success in any endeavor as anybody else out there. If there is something I don't accomplish, I have nowhere else to look but at myself now. So while it was not explicitly said at the school, this is what I learned at Harvard Business School:

If there is something in the world which you don't like, either a gap, a void, or an injustice, whether it is a business opportunity, a political imbalance, or a social cause, YOU can go and change it, for if not you, then who?

You may or may not be successful, but the right thing to do is to try.

It is this self-realization and determination which has empowered our greatest leaders to achieve what they did. Although incredibly difficult, they didn't leave it to somebody else, and they didn't let others stop them from pursuing their goals, no matter how great of a challenge. My real lesson to you as the reader, is that this is obviously true for all of us... not just for a small group of HBS graduates. It only took myself, as a slow learner, an HBS education to believe it.

For all these reasons, HBS can put a tremendous amount of pressure on students to achieve... but for those of you who served in the military, the burden of leadership is far from a new concept. Whether you attend HBS or not, I hope you will find and pursue your calling in life.

To read more about my views about the complicated topic of one's purpose in life, read my previous post on "What do you believe in?"

Best of Blogging

Military To Business blog moved up this year from #6 to #3 in the Clear Admits' "Best of Blogging" rating and the blog was also awarded "Best Resource for Applicants." Thanks to everyone who voted.

Before I feel too good about myself, I have to remember that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence when he was approximately my age, so let's keep things in perspective.

I'm also happy (and sad) to report that my HBS career, at least work related, is over. I turned in my final paper last week. For my last three exams, I solved the macroeconomic problems of an African country, figured out how a retail chain can compete with Wal-Mart, and came up with a new financing structure for a major oil company... all in 15 hours. HBS definitely prepares its students to have answers for any given problem... now it's a question of how well we can put things into action.