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I think you are wrong Sakky. People in the know, know about Wharton. Whether they are large or small, the companies that people at a school like Wharton want to work for are not run by "regular people", rather they will likely be run by those who are very familiar with Wharton.
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<p>First off, I'm really not sure that the companies Wharton grads want to work for know about Wharton grads. Like I said, there are a LOT of regular companies out there that, frankly, offer better jobs than the standard large corporate jobs that many Wharton grads end up at. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that not every Whartonite goes off to finance or consulting. A significant number of them take operations management jobs (Wharton does have a highly rated operations management group). Yet the fact is, operations management at the large companies just doesn't pay all that great. You take an operations job at Dell, Amazon, GE, and the like, and frankly, you're not really getting paid that well. For example, in 2006, Amazon was offering only about $100k of salary for top MBA's, which is really not that much. Granted, there was also signing bonuses and year-end bonuses, hence pushing the total pay package to perhaps $120-130. But still, frankly, that's not that much for a top MBA. </p>
<p>In contrast, there are a LOT of regular companies who offer better than this. In fact, a bunch of guys that I know, who had just come from working at these regular companies and then got their MBA's, were remarking that if they took those ops management jobs at those large companies, they would actually be making LESS than they were making before they got their MBA. Hence, they would be far better off by just going back to working for their regular company employer. In fact, some of them did exactly that - and are making far more than new MBA's at Amazon or Dell. </p>
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If you really want to get into what "regular people" think, I doubt the average person would even know that MIT has a b-school, much less know that it's called Sloan...the average person would think MIT is an engineering school.
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<p>True, they won't even know that MIT has a business school. But at least they will have HEARD of MIT.</p>
<p>This reminds of the scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, where Jack Sparrow is initially caught by the British troops. The British captain looks at Sparrow's tattoo, recognizes who is he is, looks at his shoddy equipment, and says: " You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of". Sparrow coolly replies "But you have heard of me". </p>
<p>See, THAT's the advantage that MIT has with regular people. I agree that most regular people don't even know that MIT has a business school. But at least they have heard of MIT. In the case of Upenn and Wharton, the fact is, most regular people have never heard of either. </p>
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Regular companies in LA hire MBAs from schools like Peppderdine!!!
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<p>Yes, what's your point? All schools hire regionally. </p>
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While these regular companies would be "wow" by Harvard/Stanford grads, the reality is there are really just not enough HS to fill those positions! LOL! You made it sound like people need to be weary about picking Wharton/Kellogg over Harvard because of "regular" companies.
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<p>Again, frankly, yeah. There are a LOT of regular companies out there, some of them offering quite good jobs. </p>
<p>The REAL issue is that, frankly, a lot of MBA jobs available at large, famous companies are just not very good. Like I said above, they don't pay all that well, the opportunities are really not that exciting, the chances for advancement are not that good, and so forth. For example, I know some MBA's at Dell who started out 6 months ago, and they hate it. They're bored stiff. Not only that, but they're not getting paid that well, and their stock options are in the toilet. Nobody wants to listen to their ideas because right now, everybody at Dell is just trying to avoid getting laid off, so nobody wants to take any risks. Similarly, I know some recently graduated MBA's at Ford and GM who absolutely hate it - which is unsurprising considering the turmoil that the US auto industry is going through. </p>
<p>Even if we want to talk about the 'premier' MBA-type jobs, again, a lot of them really aren't that great. For example, I can immediately think of one Harvard MBA who got offers from the major consulting firms Bain and Booz Allen. But frankly, those consulting firms don't pay that well, relative to the long hours they want you to work. In fact, he said that he was making almost as much before coming to HBS, just working as a Silicon Valley engineer. So what did he do? Simple - he found a small no-name regular company who is paying him SUBSTANTIALLY more than Bain or Booz Allen would, has put him in a position or major leadership and power, and he doesn't have to work as hard as he would have if he had become a consultant. </p>
<p>Hence, what I am getting at is that a lot of these MBA jobs at these famous, prestigious companies are, frankly, not that good. You can often times do better in just working for a regular company. The issue that I see is that a lot of MBA students get caught up in the wave. People start talking about how 'prestigious' it is to work for a big company like Dell or Ford or General Electric is, so they decide to take jobs there, not realizing that, frankly, the job actually doesn't pay that well. </p>
<p>I'll put it to you this way. I myself used to work for a no-name, regular company. The project managers there had no MBA's, but instead had just undergrad degrees from no-name schools, and in subjects like the humanities. And the term 'project manager' was something of a misnomer, because what they really were were just liaisons between the company and the clients. These people only had about 5-8 years of total working experience (the oldest one was about 30). And they were working, barely, 40 hours a week. Yet they were all making 85-100k a year. The VP of Engineering, who himself didn't even have an engineering degree, and only had about 10 years of experience (he was in his early 30's), was making over 175k a year. Granted, this was in San Francisco, where the pay scales are quite high. But still - these people had no prestigious or marketable degree, no MBA, no great work experience, yet they were making quite good pay - quite close to what a new MBA consultant at one of the major consulting firms would make. If this regular company was willing to pay up to 100k for people with quite modest credentials, imagine what somebody with a famous MBA could get from a company like that. When I say 'famous', I mean in the sense that they have an MBA from a school with a world-class name, like a Harvard or Stanford. </p>
<p>The point is, I see a LOT of failure of imagination among a lot of new MBA's, especially the ones from the most famous schools. A lot of them just don't seem to understand just how powerful their school name brand really is, and don't seem to understand that there are a lot of regular companies out there who really will pay very very well for jobs that are not that hard to do. Or, put another way, there are a good number of people out there working at regular companies and who have only mediocre education/credentials and mediocre experience who are nonetheless making a lot of money anyway. Somebody with a a huge brand-name credential like a Harvard MBA should be able to get at least a job as good as that, merely on the strength of the brand name of the credential. But that brand name has to be known by regular people.</p>