<p>I'm an engineering junior applying for the 2+2 program at HBS. Up till now, I've been interning at startups. My options for this summer are varied (on a fellowship, so pretty much a guaranteed job) - I can either intern at a Silicon Valley, well-funded startup, or go for some F500 experience. My question is would HBS prefer some larger company experience, or be fine with the fact that I've only interned at high-growth startups? Also, would they be expecting me to move into a more business development role, given my intention of going to business school? Or does staying on the technical side coincide with the program's ideology of admitting non-business oriented students? Inputs appreciated.</p>
<p>You'd probably have more hands on and varied experiences at the start up. What will be important is what you did, not where.</p>
<p>Go with the job that offers more opportunities to do interesting stuff. Place is less important.</p>
<p>so the entire concept of resume heavy-hitters is pretty much a myth? it's interesting to see people's reactions when you tell them where you worked. if i say a small, no-name company and describe the cool stuff i did there, they are still a bit turned off, but if I say Goldman Sachs or Boeing they get all excited. hopefully this attitude only applies to naive college students and not to employers and b-school adcoms, although i somehow doubt it. associated with a big name is some semblance of credibility...all you have to do is list it, but with other firms the description is much more important, although i argue that sometimes it is not really payed attention to.</p>
<p>I'm guessing that Admissions Offices are pretty good at cutting through the BS. At that point, the substance of the accomplishments is what matters most, not where. If you work at GS as an analyst, about all you can say is that you ran some numbers for the merger between ABC and XYZ. If you work at a startup company, you can say you wrote the proposal that got Microsoft to buy out the company.</p>
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Go with the job that offers more opportunities to do interesting stuff. Place is less important.
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+1. I agree with this.</p>
<p>They do want to fill up classes with bankers and consultants.</p>
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They do want to fill up classes with bankers and consultants.
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I hope this is sarcasm...</p>
<p>Should have read do not...</p>