MBA work experience

Graduate School Business School - MBA
1

<p>Greetings everyone,</p>

<p>I know this subject has been covered extensively, but would appreciate it if I could lay out my specific situation and have some of the people in the know here give me some advice.</p>

<p>I graduated university with a degree in finance a year ago, spent some time traveling, and now I am planning to work for an accounting firm to earn my CA (Canadian equivalent to a "CPA"). Anyways, eventually I plan to try and get into a top US MBA program (Harvard, MIT, Wharton, Stanford, etc.) I have quite a good undergraduate GPA - 3.7 - and I've written the GMAT and scored 710 (although that was already two years ago and I'm not going to be applying for at least 3 more, so that score will probably lapse and I'll have to retake. Nonetheless, I could score similar I believe).</p>

<p>Anyways, what concerns me most is the work experience. I am very, very close to accepting a position with a fairly small accounting firm. I worked there in the summer, like the people, really like my boss, and am interested in the wide array of clients I get to deal with. However, I also have an offer on the table from Deloitte (with 2 weeks to decide) though and am awaiting a call back from Ernst & Young ("big 4"). My friends are telling me I am going to seriously harm my chances at getting into a top MBA in the next 3 to 5 years if I "degrade" my work experience like that.</p>

<p>Is this accurate? The reason I want to work at a smaller firm over the more "prestigious" big 4 is that I get to work in direct contact with partners day in and day out, we deal with a much wider range of businesses (everything from medical offices, manufacturing plants, technology start ups, retail stores, engineering firms to name a few) and since the clients are relatively smaller, I get to see the "full picture" of a lot of the clients. In contrast, some of my friends are doing auditing for KPMG, and they spend almost all their time on a single client - a major bank - and they still are only familiar with a tiny segment of that companies business.</p>

<p>Anyways, what do people here have to say with respect to work experience? Would doing this harm my chances of admission? I want to eventually (distant future, plan to work for 10 or so years after the MBA to pay debt off) enter academia and do research and teaching at a business school somewhere - so a top flight MBA would go a long way toward helping me reach that end.</p>

<p>Sorry for the long winded post, and thanks in advance to anyone who can help.</p>

2

<p>MBA admissions is heavily determined by work experience, essays, and the interview. GPA is almost irrelevant. Most of the top business schools measure the quality of your work experience by your level of progression, responsibility, and salary. I'd imagine it would be somewhat more difficult to do that with a smaller company. Name regonition may be another factor, so working at a place like Ernst & Young will likely be more favorable than some random accounting firm.</p>

<p>If I were in your shoes, I would take the job that I can have the most success in. Ultimately, this is the quality that top business schools are looking for. Though I stand by what I said previously, if you cannot thrive in a particular envrionment, then what good does that serve, both personally and professionally? </p>

<p>Finally, I like to comment that an MBA by no means translate to academia. Sure, you may be able to "lecture" at a college, but to "do research and teaching at a business school somewhere" virtually requires you to have a PhD.</p>