<p>Per thread subject, what will a part time MBA with a double concentration in accounting/finance at an okay school (Rutgers) do for me?</p>
<p>So far I have a 4.0 gpa. Undergrad was double major in mediocre state school and an okay gpa (3.4 overall, 3.7 accounting/finance)</p>
<p>So far I haven't had much luck at getting job interviews. I currently work in a fortune 500 financial reporting (responsible for a footnote on the 10q/10k) and have been there for past two years (but they seem to hate me due to former supervisor talking a lot of smack and constantly complaining about me unfairly).</p>
<p>Is a 4.0 received doing a MBA part time seen in less regard compared to a full time MBA?</p>
<p>Sorry that this is probably not what you want to hear, but nobody really cares about GPA in business school, having a 4.0 will raise some eyebrows, but it is really not that big of a deal, everyone knows the classes aren’t terribly hard</p>
<p>The job interviews for an incomplete MBA depend more on what you currently do than what you are studying. So if you are trying to target jobs outside of your current field, they wont bite as easily.</p>
<p>It was a while ago, but I was able to score a job with one of the bigger consulting firms from a night MBA and a full time day job when I finished the MBA. Hopefully if you are near the end of your degree (last semester), you can get interviews with companies that come to the career placement office for regular Rutgers MBAs. If not, see if you can get the contact information for the recruiters who come to campus from the career placement office for firms you are interested in. Write them a letter with a resume telling them you couldn’t get on the interview schedule when they visited, but you are interested in interviewing with their company. That is what I did, and it worked – they called me, interviewed me, and hired me. </p>
<p>Generally an MBA with experience is better than one without, so you should consider that an advantage. Although it sounds like you might have a references problem if they don’t like you in your current job… you will have to figure out how to finesse that. Maybe find other references, and say you prefer they don’t contact your current employer because they don’t know you are looking?</p>
<p>I’m realizing my post could have been more constructive for you, let me take another shot:
The 4.0 will help give you credibility as a hard worker, but it will not be a step function change from having GPA unlisted on your resume (as 90% of MBAs will have), far more important will be the quality of your work experience and the program you are attending
There is some distinction btw full and part time in the eyes of employers for 2 reasons: 1) hiring managers that went FT think it’s ‘better’ because that’s what they did and perhaps more importantly 2) Many top schools won’t offer a part time program and those that do are easier to get into (e.g., NYU and UCLA are very good business schools, but their part time programs have acceptance rates over 50% and average GMATs under 700, Ross’ acceptance rate for PT is 73%!, going further down, a second tier b-school like BC has a shockingly low average GMAT of 590 and a >80% acceptance rate)</p>
<p>So, with that said, what should you do? I would suggest the following:
try to maintain the GPA since it matters a little bit and will help you differentiate yourself, but realize it’s not worth sacrificing other things such as networking events or prepping for interviews
don’t worry too much about your former supervisor; there are TONS of losers in corporate america that will make your life difficult for no particularly good reason if they don’t like you, concentrate on trying to impress your current boss or if that’s not possible try to find a new one you click with better; as silly as it is, making your boss happy is by far the most important thing you can do in any job
when it comes to recruiting, give a serious think about what you want to do and talk to as many people as you can about it (you should be able to find people in your program that have done pretty much anything and they will give you honest answers as to what it was like), narrow it down to one or two things that you are interested in and have a shot at and then have a laserlike focus on those things, e.g., if it’s consulting then become a master of cracking the case by practicing cases with your mgmt consulting club and reading case in point cover to cover a few times, if it’s equity asset management then learn how to start value and then pitch stocks by practicing with your asset management club and sign up for the level one CFA exam, read the essays of warren buffet and margin of safety, etc ; by narrowing down what you want to do you can then talk to people in your program and/or network and find out exactly what you need to do to be prepared to nail the interviews, in terms of getting the interview it’s a matter of going to every relevant school sponsored event possible and putting your best foot forward (they say those events aren’t evaluative, but they 100% are!) and put your resume out to every firm in the field you can think of, as long as the storyboard makes sense (i.e., moving into the field can be spun as a logical progression) and you make a good impression at the company events and you put plenty of resumes out there, you will get some interviews, once you have the interviews it’s 100% a matter of being well prepared which I already covered above</p>
<p>Do you want out of accounting? That’s the best reason to go for an MBA. But 10Q experience is pretty good and better than what most new accounting grads bring to the table. Think about graduating and then trying to get a little big 4 experience and then reevaluate. If you do go back. I think its better to do it all at once instead of part time. GL</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice guys. I’m not necessarily thinking about leaving accounting but am open to it. I still have a while left to go on MBA but I will take the suggestion to get the contact information from recruiters and recruiting events. There is some major ones coming up I believe soon. I am also open to Big 4 accounting firm position but had difficulty getting my foot in the door.</p>
<p>My current supervisor and I actually have an excellent relationship and she is on my side and thinks I’m above average and high performer employee. Unfortunately my old supervisor is now my current supervisor’s supervisor, she just moved up a level so she is still there and she is over ruling and superseding good performance reviews from my current supervisor, giving negative ones instead, and the director is backing her up (basically director is pretending that my supervisor never gave me a good review).</p>