MBA开学三句话
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又到了每年的这个时候。夏季即将结束，学生们将重返校园。空气中充满了活力，似乎触手可及，尤其在波士顿这样的地方，整个城市仿佛都与学生们一起跃动和呼吸。 昨天，我在哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）度过了整个下午。我见到了之前教过我的教授们，与他们谈起下一学年的创业课程。不得不承认，汤姆•艾森曼等老师们为今年的MBA学员们所准备的内容让我无比羡慕。你们真是太幸运了！ 回忆起以前读商学院的时光，我不禁想：在第一周的学习开始之前，我会希望别人给我什么样的建议。以下是我最重要的3点建议。 1. 利用学校这个平台与大人物建立联系。 无论是只出于缘分，还是Twitter爱心行动，大人物们似乎更乐意回复学生发送的电子邮件，而不是冒昧的电话造访。只要（1）措辞恰当，（2）简短（这一点很重要！），而且（3）提到了与对方的某种共同之处，你的邮件往往就会受到欢迎。迈出了第一步，对方可能成为你的良师益友，这种关系有望贯穿你今后的整个职业生涯。 创投行业一位德高望重的智者曾告诫我，“不是你找到导师，而是他们找到你。”我认为，他所说的是求职过程中“说服导师”这一部分。但首先，你得主动将自己展示在伟大的导师们面前，而商学院就提供了一个自我展示的绝佳平台。 2．现在就开始求职 真正的好工作竞争到底有多么激烈，我无法说清。但是第二年4月份坐到面试官面前，如果你光会说一句“我认为我很适合贵公司，因为我是一个解决问题的能手”，这样是没用的。抱歉。 你必须能够告诉面试人员，自己为什么热衷于公司所属的行业，为什么你是帮他们解决特定问题的最佳人选。要做到这一点，需要培养“专业技能”。我之所以将“专业技能”加上引号，是因为你不可能在入学的第二年就已经变成了真正的专家。然而，由于某些原因，MBA课程的神奇之处就在于，它能让人产生幻觉，以为自己的确是某方面的行家（只要你在重大机遇面前能够保证谈吐睿智且饱含激情）。 所以，现在就开始寻找工作机会吧。着手做一些能逐渐培养专业技能的事情：比如，安装一个RSS阅读器，追踪本行业顶尖博客的动态；如果有同学在你感兴趣的行业工作过，每周安排一次时间，与他们喝喝咖啡；或者直接致电给关系网中具有影响力的高层人士。这样，等求职季到来的时候你已经占得先机。 3. 花时间结交一些一辈子的好朋友 进入商学院学习的人大概都会抱着一种“拼命工作/玩命享受”的态度。这种观念的问题在于，人们很少有时间去与同学建立起切实的、深厚的关系。我对商学院生活的最美好记忆是：在午餐时间进行长时间讨论，一起旅行，以及花费数小时策划恶作剧，捉弄我们的组员和教授。 一定要确保有足够的时间与同学展开真正的讨论和有意义的交流。你会从他们身上学到很多东西，并将与其中一些人建立起将持续终生的友谊。 下面是我的Twitter粉丝们提供的一些建议。请斟酌！ |
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It's that time of year again. Summer is winding to a close, and students are returning to campus. The energy in the air is palpable, especially in a place like Boston, which seems to live and breathe along with the student population. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at Harvard Business School, meeting with former professors and chatting about what the next year holds for their entrepreneurship curriculum. I'm admittedly envious of what faculty members like Tom Eisenmann have planned for the MBAs this year. You guys are so lucky! My nostalgia got me thinking about what I wish someone told me before I started my first week of business school. Here are my top 3 pieces of advice. 1. Use school as an excuse to develop relationships with really important people. For some reason, whether it's simple karma or #payitforward in action, important people are more likely to return an email from a student than from your average cold caller. As long as messages are (1) well-written, (2) short [very important!], and (3) cite some sort of common connection, they tend to be well received and can be the first step in developing mentor relationships that will last throughout your career. An old sage of venture capital once told me, "You don't find a mentor; they find you." But, I think he was referring to the "convincing them" part of the process. Initially, you have to take the initiative to put yourself in front of great mentors, and business school gives you a great platform to do that. 2. Start the job search now. I can't stress how competitive really good jobs are. By the time you're sitting in that interview chair in April of your second year, the statement, "Well, I think I would be a good fit for your company because I'm a good problem solver" won't cut it. Sorry. You need to be able to actually tell a company why you're passionate about their industry and why you are the best person to solve a particular problem they have. To do that, you need to develop "expertise." I put expertise in quotation marks because, of course, you won't be an expert by the time you're in your second year. Yet, for some reason, the magic of an MBA program is that it creates the illusion that you know what you're doing (so long as you can speak intelligently and passionately about a particular opportunity). So, the search starts today. Start doing things that build your expertise over time: Set up an RSS reader that follows top industry blogs, schedule coffee meetings once a week with classmates who have worked in your industry of interest and cold call influential executives in your network. By the time the job search rolls around, you will have a leg up on everyone else. 3. Dedicate time to develop a few lifelong friendships. If you're in business school, you probably have a "work hard / play hard" attitude. The problem with that philosophy is that it can leave little time to develop actual, deep relationships with your classmates. Some of my fondest memories in school were the long discussions over lunch, the trips we took together and the hours we spent planning pranks to play on our sectionmates and professors. Make sure you take the time to have real discussions and meaningful interactions with your classmates. You will learn a ton from them, but you will also develop a few friendships that will last a lifetime. Here are a few other suggestions from my Twitter followers. Enjoy! |
