<p>My friend asked me for advice on what he should do. He is about to graduate in May from a lower tier Christian university with a degree in business administration. Ever since high school he worked at this mini bakery chain and has been moving up the ranks (employee --> supervisor) and has been offered a job as an assistant manager. He doesn't know if he should take the position or try to find an internship. </p>
<p>Since he doesn't come from a well known university, I would think it would be very difficult for him to find any internships, but I wasn't too sure and was unable to give him clear advice. Eventually he wants to get an MBA so I told him he should get some work experience first, but I also don't know if working as an assistant manager at a bakery chain is considered "relevant work experience". </p>
<p>What should he do?</p>
<p>I say keep the bakery chain job. It may not be as relevant, but its a leadership position. To me, that seems better than grunt work as an intern. I’m not sure if there’s a right or wrong answer here, but I would go for the leadership position.</p>
<p>Depends on what the internship is in. It sounds like he doesn’t have any clear career goals, which is a serious problem if he’s about to graduate. The only thing an assistant manager job in food service is going to lead to is a career in food service. You can’t work as a manager at a bakery and then go apply in a completely different industry and expect to get hired. He’s going to have to start all over again in a few years if he sticks with the bakery job. </p>
<p>He needs to get an internship in the field he WANTS to work in, and if he doesn’t know what field he wants to work in then he needs to figure out real quick, like really, really quick. It doesn’t matter if it’s grunt work because it still counts as experience in a relevant field, and if he’s only doing grunt work then it’s up to him to seek out more responsibility during his internship.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure he wants to get his MBA. His dilemma was that he wasn’t sure if working as an assistant manager would help him achieve his goal. I personally thought that what domrom said was the case (a leadership position is a leadership position), however, there was still that uncertainty. There’s also the difficulty (I assume) of finding an internship with his credentials (i.e., Christian university).</p>
<p>Your assumption is wrong. He may even be at an advantage coming from a christian university considering that the vast majority of the population is christian.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, Inmotion12 and KnitKnots, but neither assumption makes any sense. Coming from a Christian university will not hinder or help you.</p>
<p>As for your friend, if he wants to get an MBA, I would stick with the Assistant Manager position. If he can make it up to manager (and perhaps higher) that will look damn impressive. MBA programs (the good ones, at least) don’t care about your degree or GPA, really. What they like to see is someone who enters an entry level grunt and in 4-6 years is running the place, which is why the guy working at the deli might have an upper hand against the guy in the big consulting firm. Aside from your GMAT scores, dedication and “ladder climbing” impress MBA adcoms the most. Your friend is actually on a good track, I would say.</p>
<p>I was a deli manager for two years between the ages of 19-21 before I went back to school,. so trust me, I have looked into this issue. If I thought that my experience as a deli manager was going to help me get into a good MBA program I obviously would have stayed at that job. Good MBA programs are not plucking people up out of food service jobs, no matter what level of responsibility they hold.</p>