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<p>Bingo !! All those examples mentioned above, with the exception of Michael Bloomberg, are Ivy (undergraduate) grads.</p>
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<p>Well, actually, John Thain also didn’t go to an Ivy for undergrad. </p>
<p>How about some more examples of people who did not attend an Ivy or majored in econ for undergrad, but then got their MBA’s at Harvard Business School?</p>
<p>Fred Hassan - Former CEO/Chair of Schering Plough (until the company was acquired by Merck)
Nolan Archibald - CEO of Black & Decker
Abigail Johnson - President of Fidelity
Dan Bricklin - inventor of the first commercial spreadsheet for personal computers</p>
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<p>Don’t be so pessimistic. Two of the best software developers that I know never majored in CS or engineering at all as undergrads, but actually majored in English. Their career development was similar - both became interested as undergrads in computer programming both as a hobby and as a way to earn extra cash by designing websites and web applications for local companies on a part-time basis, and by graduation had developed their skills to the point that they were highly marketable as full-time software developers, arguably even more marketable than many of the CS grads, for they had been learning highly practical skills in immediate demand, as opposed to the more theoretical base of knowledge that CS students build. One of them even told me that he was glad he never actually tried to major in CS, as, frankly, he likely wouldn’t have passed the notorious CS weeder courses (which force you to learn topics that, honestly, you don’t really need to know). </p>
<p>Furthermore, consulting firms hire plenty of (non-econ) social science and humanities grads. As to why they would do so, frankly, it’s rather difficult to say. But they certainly do. Consider the mordant words of Matthew Stewart:</p>
<p>During the seven years that I worked as a management consultant, I spent a lot of time trying to look older than I was. I became pretty good at furrowing my brow and putting on somber expressions. Those who saw through my disguise assumed I made up for my youth with a fabulous education in management. They were wrong about that. I don’t have an M.B.A. I have a doctoral degree in philosophy—nineteenth-century German philosophy, to be precise. Before I took a job telling managers of large corporations things that they arguably should have known already, my work experience was limited to part-time gigs tutoring surly undergraduates in the ways of Hegel and Nietzsche and to a handful of summer jobs, mostly in the less appetizing ends of the fast-food industry.</p>
<p>[The</a> Management Myth - The Atlantic (June 2006)](<a href=“http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200606/stewart-business]The”>The Management Myth - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>^interesting Read, </p>
<p>So are you suggesting that picking up C, C++ and Excel as a hobby would allow us to be recruited by IBd and PE? </p>
<p>What I’m asking is what types of software if we familiarize ourselves with would allow us to break into IBd or PE until after an MBA, perhaps?</p>
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<p>It’s not that those skills would help you to be recruited by IBD or PE, but rather to garner admission to a top B-school and then attempt to enter IBD or PE. </p>
<p>Personally, I think a far faster (and more enjoyable) pathway to success in software development is not to learn C/C++ but rather to learn Web-application development techniques such as Ajax/Ruby-on-Rails/Scala or an entire app solution stack such as LAMP. I am quite convinced that somebody with less than a year of such training could build a working prototype of a web-app similar to Facebook or Twitter. Let’s face it: a Twitter prototype really isn’t that complicated to build. {Granted, the prototype would probably not be able to reliably and securely scale to millions of users the way that Facebook or Twitter can, as that is a hard-core IT engineering problem; I’m simply talking about developing a basic Web 2.0 app prototype). Indeed, most of the founders of Facebook or Twitter did not hold degrees in CS or engineering, and many never even graduated from college at all. </p>
<p>By doing so, you’d either be able to start your own company, or work for an existing Web company or regular company that is looking to harness the potential of the Internet (that is to say, all regular companies). You can allay any doubts as to abilities by simply listing on your resume the websites and web-apps that you developed, which the hiring managers can see for themselves. If you choose the entrepreneurial path and succeed, you probably won’t need to join IBD or PE, or obtain an MBA at all. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook certainly doesn’t need to do so, heck, he clearly never needed to graduate from college at all.</p>
<p>Another pathway is to learn general information technology skills such as Cisco network, Oracle database, Windows or Sun UNIX Server administration. You can buy a decent practice lab consisting of a bunch of used Cisco routers and switches on Ebay for just a few hundred dollars. Obtain some basic books on Cisco networking from your local bookstore or the library, download the Cisco IOS manuals (for free) from the corporate website, and just start practicing. A few months of diligent studying and practicing should prepare you to take the certification exam to become a Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert (CCIE), with which you can surely obtain a basic IT job paying at least $40-50k a year, without even needing a college degree at all. Nor is the material particularly difficult and certainly not mathematical - I am convinced that a reasonably dedicated high school or even junior high student could become certified given a few months of diligent practice time. {Which is, frankly, why I’m surprised that more high schools don’t teach this material.} The same could be said for Oracle database skills: obtain the software CD’s from Oracle (for free if used on a trial/lab basis), obtain some cheap PC’s for use as a testbed, get the books & manuals, and start practicing. Again, I suspect that even a junior high school student could become Oracle certified given sufficient practice and study time. </p>
<p>Hence, another career pathway to take is to learn IT skills while in college, take a job as an IT worker, and then work your way to the senior or management ranks while applying to B-school. I know many people who have done that.</p>
<p>My undergrad was Math/Biology; I had offers from two of the MBB firms leaving undergrad, but took an offer with the consulting arm of a what was then Big 6 firm for a bunch of reasons and ended up getting accepted at UCLA (full-ride), Kellogg and Stanford (attended Kellogg, didn’t apply to HBS) for B-School. As you can see from the job offer choice I made from undergrad and choosing Kellogg over Stanford, I’m not the type that always goes for the prestige factor (although honestly if I had been single and not married and hadn’t had to worry about his job prospects, I might have chosen the GSB), but either way I had some pretty great choices and never took an accounting or finance course in undergrad and only took one econ class. Honestly where you go to Undergrad and then your resulting work experience is far more important.</p>
<p>If you want to work in the entertainment industry than you should know there are no real set paths. You should know though that just about everyone starts at the bottom, and I do mean bottom. That is if you’re interested in anything that is remotely considered creative, which I’d assume you do otherwise you’d be better off just going into high finance.</p>
<p>You’re going to have to suck it up and be an assistant for a year or two, working like a slave for crappy pay. The key is being an assistant to someone extremely powerful giving you exposure to people who otherwise wouldn’t even make eye contact with you. Whether or not you survive and make it to the next step is a matter of luck, creativity, ruthlessness and ambition. Most people burn out because it sucks so hard.</p>
<p>I know that, it’s also about making lasting connections with people…</p>
<p>sorry to bring this thread back, but sakky if you don’t mind looking this up: how many people from the university of illinois majored in econ or history and got into HBS? Thank you!</p>
<p>OK, I`d like to ask you about this.Can I major in International Relations and Political Science and after that apply to a top MBA program ?I mean, of course I can, but do I hold any serious chances ?</p>
<p>I majored in IR and east asia studies and applied to HBS. I’ll let you know if it works in April ;)</p>
<p>HBS 2+2 or ?
What kind work experience are you planning to doing ?</p>
<p>No, not 2+2. Just a regular R2 applicant for HBS MBA after 2 years of work experience.</p>
<p>Yes you can.</p>