Life after MBA

It has been almost 2 months since I finished my classes at HEC. After finishing my course,I went to India and spent a month there. It was a good break - helped me relax at home, spend time with friends/family and most importantly gave me time to think.

It was a much needed break for the last few months at HEC were pretty tiring - because of work pressure and job-hunt. Right now, things are pretty bad for MBAs - most of the companies have frozen fresh hiring completely. This has created a bigger problem for people who were pursuing MBA to change careers; in these times, it is extremely difficult to get a break into a new career-path.

I had received an offer for a position based in New York but then visa turned out to be an issue. I could not find anything else that interested me. So I decided to pursue another option which is a long term internship. Long-term internships (3-4 months to 1 year) is something unique that I found in France. Most companies here offer internships throughout the year and the interns do the same work as full-time recruits. It works well for the companies because they don't have to commit for a long term and they can employ people on project basis. In this downturn, the opportunities for internships have increased as companies don't want to commit to recruiting full-time employees.

Things are similar at other b-schools. I spoke with friends at other top schools and most people of the class of 2009 are in a difficult spot; It will be extremely difficult for people graduating this year to get their first choice; we might have to settle with our second/third choices right now.

In my future posts, I am going to write more about MBA, my takeaways from this experience and pros-and-cons of international MBA. Drop me an email if you have any specific questions that you want to be addressed; I will try to answer them too