<p>What is the work experience business schools are looking for? Does working at my college count as work experience? Right now, I'm a freshman in college and I work for a professor in the marketing department. I do clerical work and related tasks, nothing too major like research or anything yet.</p>
<p>that's not really work experience.</p>
<p>when they're talking about work experience they're usually meaning FULL TIME actual work experience</p>
<p><a href="http://streetcapitalist.com/wharton.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://streetcapitalist.com/wharton.pdf</a></p>
<p>read through those resumes to get an idea of what work experience is.</p>
<p>Those Wharton resumes are hard core examples. The schools are looking for professional work, or something of that nature that could be equated to work experience. </p>
<p>Basically, the very best business schools want to provide a 'product', if you will, for company recruiters. Companies want to come and get their MBA grads as a package who not ony have newly acquired skills from their MBA, but who also have experience in the 'real world'. </p>
<p>If you are able to get something that equates to 'real world' experience before you get your undergrad then you can count that as well, but I would think that would be more of the exception. I have asked B-school recruiters and researched it myself as well, and what they want is to see that you have done some sort of work and progressed and excelled at it. </p>
<p>Supposedly, it doesn't matter what it is, but HOW you did it. For instance, I have a buddy who had only two years of work between the time he got his undergrad and when he entered B-school. He worked as a consultant/analyst at a healthcare consultancy. He also spent two years sometime before he graduated with his undergrad as a volunteer missionary. He said he counte that as work experience to go along with his 2 years as a consultant. He graduated from Harvard with his MBA 3 years ago and now works for the number one rated employer for MBA grads. He told me that in his interviews and applications he treated his time as a volunteer missionary as work experience, even though it was not business-related or something that gave him a salary. Interesting, I think.</p>
<p>yeah, I did a mission too.... learned spanish and how to deal with people and take care of myself. I will most definately count that as work experience when applying to B-school... along with the experience I'm getting (full time Help Desk specialist/computer administrator) while obtaining my undergrad!</p>
<p>Can I count my childhood job as work experience? My parents own a family restaurant and I've been working there since I was like 12. I've been at the restaurant for as long as I can remember. It seems unprofessional, but can I still count that as work experience?</p>
<p>Read The Sticky Post At The Top Of The Message Board About Work Experience.</p>
<p>"yeah, I did a mission too.... learned spanish and how to deal with people and take care of myself. I will most definately count that as work experience when applying to B-school... along with the experience I'm getting (full time Help Desk specialist/computer administrator) while obtaining my undergrad!"</p>
<p>Me too, but I learned Japanese. Missions are the best.</p>