Evolution Of MBA

4 Types of Stretch Assignments You Should Turn Down

If you're like most professionals, you'll eventually reach a point in your career when you realize that you can't advance to the next level without being able to show that you have relevant experience — a lot of it.

One way to demonstrate that you have potential to grow beyond your current role is to take on "stretch" assignments. In 2003, Catalyst reported that a whopping 40% of women in corporate leadership positions said that seeking out difficult, highly visible assignments had been a very important advancement strategy. It makes sense: By volunteering for additional responsibilities, you can learn new skills, make your talents visible to your leaders, and demonstrate your readiness to step into a role that goes beyond the one you're currently in.

But despite all the benefits of volunteering for stretch assignments, there are times when the extra workload can actually work against you. In a recent coaching program, one participant told me, "A mentor told me that volunteering for stretch assignments will help improve my career. I took on three new projects, and now I'm not getting any sleep. Help!"

This woman's mentor had given her good advice, but it has to be applied within reason. We have to learn to put guardrails around accepting stretch assignments so that we don't get stretched too thin by them!

But how? How can you say "no" to stretch assignments without also saying "no" to furthering your career?

The key is to be highly selective. One common misstep that many high performers make is accepting too many low-visibility assignments that require them to work overtime without gaining the benefits of recognition and new skills that such assignments should bring. To avoid stretching yourself too thin for no visible career benefit, here is a checklist for when to diplomatically say "no" to extra assignments.

1. Assignments That Stretch You Too Thin

Before saying yes to a stretch assignment, do a risk assessment. Be brutally honest with yourself: Is there a risk you'll overreach, take on too much, and compromise your ability to fulfil your regular responsibilities well?

Start by weighing the obvious factors, such as whether this side project will suck time away from your core priorities and what trade-offs it might take in your personal life to accommodate extra hours at work.

For example, Andy, a technical project manager, had recently earned his MBA and was looking out for opportunities to build a reputation as a strategic thinker. When invited to take on a stretch assignment to combine numerous products into a single product line, he said, "I weighed the probability of being successful against the workload and lack of a cohesive business plan, and saw a no-win scenario." Ultimately, he declined to participate.

Don't ignore the possibility of unexpected emotional costs, either. Will saying yes to this assignment mean working with a leader who is known for burning people out? Will it require you to collaborate with co-workers who are notorious for slacking off in the face of a looming deadline?

Look for projects that stretch you without overwhelming you, so that you can deliver a consistently high quality of work. Focus on the quality of assignments, not quantity — and take them on at a cadence that allows you some recovery time between deadlines and deliverables.

2. Assignments That Don't Build Your Strengths

The best stretch assignments are those that require you to build business acumen, new technical skills, or leadership ability. Don't volunteer yourself for a project unless it has the potential to expand your skill set and lets you demonstrate your potential to go beyond the job you're currently in.

After turning down the first stretch assignment, Andy noticed that his business unit lacked a single point of contact for coordinating requests for new product development investments. Whereas the previous assignment would have used his existing project management skills, this one required him to develop new skills, such as strategic thinking and engaging stakeholders across the organization. He volunteered, shouldering an additional full-time workload for a month. "I built credibility as a strategic leader, which helped me land the higher-profile role that I'm in today," he said.

3. Assignments That Don't Meaningfully Expand Your Network

Stay away from projects that are all about work and have no relationship-building opportunities. Go after projects that allow you to build stronger working relationships and demonstrate your expertise to leaders, sponsors, potential mentors, and peers.

For example, say your company's annual charitable giving campaign is spearheaded by a leader you admire, who is responsible for an increasingly important business division in the company. Even though the campaign isn't directly job-related, taking a lead role in it can be a way to show that person that you are smart, energetic, and reliable — and to convey that you'd like to work for him or her one day. And the random collection of colleagues you'll meet and bond with? If you stay in touch, you can become each others' eyes and ears for what's going on in different departments.

4. Assignments That Don't Build the Reputation You Want to Be Known For

Say no to projects that don't align with the personal brand you're trying to build and promote within your organization. For example, if you want to be regarded as a strong cross-functional project leader, think twice about committing to assignments that require you to work alone. Ideally, the assignments you accept should align with your brand and give you opportunities to showcase your accomplishments and make your value visible to management.

Overall, remember that stretch assignments are designed to build your skill set, network, and organizational brand, not simply add busy work to your already busy schedule.

But keep in mind: When you're offered assignments that aren't a match, don't just say no! You'll hurt your chances of being asked again. Thank the person for the opportunity, letting him or her know you're honored to be considered. Then graciously decline, "in order to give my full attention to responsibilities already on my plate."

Even then, don't leave him or her hanging. Recommend a colleague who might appreciate the assignment. And hint at what you'd like to do instead. This last step is critical: Give specific examples, like "Keep me in mind for future projects that require a project manager with strong interest in business strategy."

Finally, there will be times when it simply is not possible or politically astute to turn down a stretch assignment, and if that is the case, agree to help out — but seize the moment to negotiate what you want from your next assignment.

Be ruthless — but diplomatic — about negotiating assignments that align with where you want to go next in your career. Otherwise the only stretching you'll be doing is stretching yourself too thin.

Why B-Schools Reject MBA Applicants

How To Get A Rejection Letter

1 plagiarized essay

2 lukewarm references

3 exaggerated accomplishments

1 cup of half-baked goals

1 tablespoon of entitlement

A quarter pound of proofreading errors

Stir in pan and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

And voila! You have a rejection letter.

Ever wonder why a business school drops candidates? Recently, Accepted.com asked the admissions directors at 13 business schools the following question: “What behavior or information would cause you to reject an MBA applicant who otherwise is a strong candidate?” Not surprisingly, lying and poor interpersonal skills topped the list. However, some other themes emerged, such as neediness and vague career goals. So what hazards should you avoid? Here are some insights in the words of admissions directors themselves:

Dishonesty

”Finding out that the applicant lied on their application (i.e., not being truthful about a position, title, transcript etc., or not disclosing a lay-off, being fired, etc.) or did not disclose a criminal conviction.”

- Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions, Georgetown McDonough

Authenticity 

“Whilst it is important to sell yourself on your application, it is important to remain true to yourself and your achievements. When a candidate goes overboard trying to sell themselves, it raises a few eyebrows. We double check our applications, and if we find out that a candidate has been less than honest about the scale of his or her achievements – even if it was all in the name of making themselves sound a more appealing candidate – we will not be best impressed.”

Clear Interest In The School

“Another key factor in a candidate’s application is coherence. We want to attract the best, most driven candidates, and so their motivation in applying for HEC Paris MBA has to be clear. It is completely normal for a candidate to apply for more than one business school, but when someone just blindly applies to the top 25 without thinking about whether that school offers the best experience for them and their professional aspirations, it doesn’t motivate us to accept them.”

- Philippe Oster, Communication, Development & Admissions Director, HEC Paris MBA

Cultural Fit

“Every communication and information point is a valuable addition to our assessment of a candidate. We have a set of values that define us as a learning community and we look for evidence that candidates are aligned with those when assessing their fit for our school. We do not seek out behaviour to exclude applicants but instead actively seek to champion evidence that a candidate has the right ‘cultural fit’ for LBS. That is to say they demonstrate they are communal, open and engaged. We also look for candidates who we feel are likely to play an enduring role in the schools future.”

- Oliver Ashby, Senior Manager, Recruitment & Admissions, MBA Programme, London Business School

“…if we feel that the person has career goals that are simply not feasible, whether because of their lack of essential work experience, their interpersonal skills, or maybe because they want something that we don’t feel our program can help them with. We talk very frankly and honestly with applicants whose goals don’t seem to align with their experience. We explain that we want them to get a job and that we will do everything we can to help, but they may need to be flexible and be willing to work very hard to get into something they just don’t have the background for. We feel this is the only ethical way to do business – to set people up for success.”

- Christie St. John, Director of Admissions, Vanderbilt Owen

Arrogance

“We are looking for people who value the contribution and unique skills/experiences others can bring and admitting candidates who believe they are superior to others is far too damaging to the culture to be considered. This arrogance can come across in an admissions interview, sometimes in an essay, and also in reference letters.”

- Niki da Silva, Director, Recruitment & Admissions, Full Time MBA, Toronto Rotman

Rudeness

“I’m continually amazed by how some applicants every year are rude, either directly to me, or to members of the Admissions team. Examples are things like signing up for events and not attending, short, terse emails, or canceling a class visit or interview at the last minute and expecting the admissions team to be able to accommodate you at your convenience (amazingly – expecting a class visit when there are not classes, like Fridays.”

- Sara E. Neher, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions, Virginia Darden

Neediness

“Candidate has been excessive in contacting the admissions office and requesting individual attention. Too many inquiries, too many requests for one-on-one meetings or phone calls – beyond that which is appropriate. Note that we encourage candidates to engage with us. I’m referring here only to those people whose demands for individual attention are unreasonable.”

- Sherry Wallace, Director of Admissions, UNC Kenan Flagler

The State Of The MBA Degree

We’re not entirely keen on those infographics created by organizations that are screaming for some kind of attention–any kind of attention. But this one from Noodle.org, the educational portal backed by Princeton Review founder Jon Katzman, is worth noodling over.

It’s on the state of the MBA, which is pretty damn good given the strength of the job market for this year’s graduates as well as the overall quality of the educational experience at most business schools.

None of this stuff will be surprising to readers of Poets&Quants, which is a source for some of the items and which has published articles on every data point shown here. But the folks at Noodle did a good job in putting it all together, including the latest job market data from the just released corporate recruiter survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council.

The Craziest Interview Questions

The Craziest Interview Questions

“If you could be any animal, what would you be?”

A sales manager once posed that question to me.  And I wasn’t sure how to respond. I was interviewing for a high-end, take-no-prisoners sales job. That meant I couldn’t respond with “Labrador Retriever,” a gentle creature content to gobble up table scraps and laze away his summers. No, I needed to be tough, a beast who commanded respect and conveyed a fierce drive and decisiveness.

So I answered with “a shark.” And I didn’t get the job. Perhaps he wanted an anaconda, instead.

I’m not sure why he beaned me with that curveball. Maybe he was testing my ability to improvise. Or, he intended to take me out of my comfort zone, to rub away the polish to see how I really viewed the world. While he confessed that I really knew the product, perhaps my “shark” answer revealed that I truly didn’t understand the customer – or the company culture.  Then again, maybe he recognized that I was more Marley than Jaws.

Yes, off-the-wall questions are a fact of business, particularly when you’re seeking six-figure jobs that generate seven (or even eight) figures in value. Here, your answers can either raise a red flag – or make you a truly memorable candidate.

In a recent survey of MBA alumni from top-100 schools, the Financial Times asked this question: “What has been the most difficult question that you have been asked in a job interview since graduation?” Wondering what you should expect in your job interviews? Here are some questions cited by MBAs:

•  How can you think that a company will pay you $100,000 a year after your MBA?
•  How many hours would a dog take to walk from Madrid to Barcelona with a can on its tail?
•  In what circumstances would you allow a lie?
•  What is the weight in tons of Manhattan?
•  What would you do if a lion entered the room at this moment?
•  So you want to work in finance – tell me how would you value a dinosaur?
•  Explain your last job profile to a 10-year-old.
•  Two, six, 42, 1806 . . . what number comes next?

Why The MBA Is Now The Most Popular Master’s

The first MBA students at the Tuck School of Business founded in 1900 as the first graduate school of management

The MBA was born at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School 114 years ago with a four-student class. Today there are hundreds of thousands of MBA students a year earning degrees in thousands of institutions worldwide.

More than that, for the first time ever, the MBA has become the most popular postgraduate degree in the U.S. after education, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education.

In 2011-2012, the last year for which data is available, 191,571 people graduated from U.S. schools with advanced degrees in business, some 25.4% of all the master’s degrees conferred. That compares with 178,062 master’s in education, or 23.6%, of all the advanced degrees (See table below).

THE MBA SURPASSED THE MASTER’S IN EDUCATION AS THE MOST POPULAR POSTGRADUATE DEGREE

Through most of the modern era, a master’s in education had long been the dominant degree, in part because some states require it to teach. Indeed, back in 1970-71, business master’s accounted for just 11.2% of all postgraduate degrees, while education dominated with 37.2%. In those days, even advanced degrees in the humanities, which had 14.6% of the market for master’s degrees, exceeded those in business.

The remarkable growth of the MBA—largely due to its widespread acceptance by employers and the almost assured return-on-investment of the degree—has been fairly steady during the past half century, making the degree the most successful educational product of the past 50 to 100 years.

How come? Srilata Zaheer, dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, has seen the transformative power of the degree first hand. “A business degree remains one of the most predictable paths to success and financial stability and can provide the proverbial leg up from relative poverty to great accomplishment and wealth,” she maintains. “In uncertain times, such as we have had since 2008, it tends to draw more students who make this connection.  We have any number of alumni from our MBA programs who have come from small towns, modest backgrounds, often the first generation in college, going on to become immensely successful entrepreneurs and leaders of global firms.” She cites John Stumpf, chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo as an example. “He grew up in a farm family of 11 children in Pierz, MN, sharing a bedroom with his brothers, and being the first in his family to go to college,” she recalls.

Paul Danos, who as dean of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, is the longest serving leader of a major B-school, believes the growth has come become schools have adapted to the changing needs of the companies and organizations that hire MBAs.

THE MBA HAS ADAPTED TO CHANGE ‘BETTER THAN ANY OTHER FORM OF ADVANCED EDUCATION’

“Businesses have grown enormously in complexity and scope, and more than ever, they need ethical, skilled, well-educated, creative leaders who are global in outlook,” says Danos. “Business education in general and the great MBA programs in particular have adapted as these demands have grown, perhaps better than any other form of advanced education.”

The Department of Education numbers support his point of view. In 1980-1981, some 19.1% of all the master’s granted were in business. In 1990-1991, advanced degrees in business grew to 22.8% of the total market, and in 2000-2001 to 24.4%.

The biggest gains for the degree occurred in the ten years from 1975 to 1985 when master’s in business grew to 22.5% of the total from 13.4%. As far back as 1975, the MBA blew past both law and medical degrees in the U.S. But it was only three years ago, in 2010-2011, that business edged out education as the most popular advanced degree, accounting for 25.6% of all master’s versus the 25.3% for education. The numbers for business are largely made up of MBAs but also include specialized business master’s programs, including master’s of finance or accounting.

Says Danos: “Top business schools have continuously changed in response to the ever-changing demands of business; and this can be seen in how crucial issues such as: ethics, sustainability, leadership, technology, globalization and much more have been mainstreamed into MBA programs along with the classic core topics of business management.”

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Source: Brookings Institution

The popularity of the MBA has also risen as far more people in the U.S. earn postgraduate degrees. The Department of Education statistics show that advanced degrees today are as common as bachelor’s degrees were in the 1960s. More than 16 million people in the U.S., roughly 8% of the country’s population, now has a master’s on his or her resume, a 43% increase since 2002.

The investment people are making in higher education, and especially the MBA degree, is driven by the belief that it will payoff, despite the loans that often are taken out to finance the degree. A Brookings Institution report in 2011 found that higher education is a much better investment than almost any other alternative, even for the Class of the Great Recession in 2009 and 2010.

A college degree dramatically boosts the odds of finding a job and making more money. On average, Brookings found, the benefits of a four-year college degree are equivalent to an investment that returns 15.2% per year. “This is more than double the the average return to stock market investments since 1950, and more than five times the returns of corporate bonds, gold, long-term government bonds, or home ownership. From any investment perspective, college is a great deal,” according to Brookings.

THE MBA LEADS TO GREATER CAREER FLEXIBILITY, HIGHER PROSPECTS FOR SOCIAL MOBILITY

And that investment shows up in every paycheck. A recent study by the Urban Institute showed that the earnings premium for graduate degrees is sizable and growing. In 2002, average earnings for full-time workers ages 35-44 with master’s degrees were 8% higher than those for similar workers whose highest degree was a bachelor’s. By 2012, that difference was 21%.

There are other less tangible benefits as well. Robert Bruner, dean of the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, notes that having an advanced degree leads to greater career flexibility, a higher quality of life, higher prospects for social mobility, and significantly reduces the odds of unemployment during a career.

“Higher education simply prepares one to function more effectively in the face of life’s uncertainties,” believes Bruner. “Education provides a valuable hidden option that helps to act as a shock absorber, like an insurance policy, against the episodic employment shocks that business cycles impose. The higher-educated are out of work less often.”

The MBA degree also has helped many transition into careers that allowed them to follow their passions. “An advanced business degree can be transformative for career changers, and as we see more returning veterans, for example, who need to learn the language of business, the MBA, especially one that focuses on experiential learning, can facilitate these transitions,” says Zaheer of the Carlson School.

“Even those who are not primarily drawn to business as a career are seeing the value of the skills they acquire in an MBA program — the leadership skills, the knowledge of finance and accounting and global supply chains and the people and team management skills — as valuable no matter what they want to accomplish — whether it is heading up a symphony orchestra or running a non-profit in Africa or a hospital (all of which our alumni are doing)!  We are seeing more ‘off-roaders’ - students looking to be entrepreneurs or for non-traditional careers like these, in our programs, and this might be contributing to the increase in masters in business as well.”

SURVEYS OF MBA ALUMNI CONSISTENTLY SHOW HIGH LEVELS OF SATISFACTION WITH THE DEGREE

Of course, there are no guarantees that an advanced degree, even an MBA, can work magic on everyone. Harvard and Wharton MBAs can and do lose their jobs. Stanford MBAs can create entrepreneurial ventures that go bust. And the payback from the degree, while still high, has fallen from the glory days of the degree in the 1980s and 1990s. But in general, all the research shows that the degree is well worth it, that people who go to business school are more than satisfied with the experience, and that the naysayers are few and far between.

Surveys of alumni, for example, consistently reaffirm the value of the degree. The latest look at MBA alumni by the Graduate Management Admission Council shows that nine in 10 (91%) recent business school alumni from 2010–2013 consider their graduate management education a good to outstanding value. Sixty-six percent of alumni agree their education was financially rewarding. And a quarter (26%) of alumni report their expectations for recouping their financial investment were exceeded while 53% say their expectations for return on their investment (ROI) were met. 

Source: AACSB

What’s even more surprising about these results is that they do not include MBA alumni who are likely to be among the most satisfied with the degree.  Most of the alumni from the best business schools in the world aren’t included in the study. By and large, there’s no alumni from Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton. None from Chicago Booth, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School, or Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. For whatever reason, those schools and many more decided not to participate in the latest research. In fact, alumni from only three business schools—Virginia, Carnegie Mellon, and Indiana University—of the Top 20 in the U.S. were included in the survey.

As the demand for the MBA has grown so has the number of institutions that offer the degree. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the major accreditation body of business schools, has now granted accreditation to 711 business schools, up from well under just 200 institutions in 1972 (see chart above). Much of the explosive growth in recnt years has occurred in Europe, China and India. Yet, the AACSB total of 711 accredited institutions  is less than 5% of the total number of business schools in the world.

WHY THE WORLD NEEDS MORE MBAS, NOT LESS

While many college administrators worry about the impact of technology on higher education and many business schools have seen demand for the full-time, two-year MBA program flatten in recent years, deans of the most prominent schools believe the degree’s future remains bright.

“I believe that full-time MBA programs are the best vehicles by which young people can develop the leadership qualities that allow them to meet the monumental challenges of tomorrow’s business environment,” says Danos of Tuck. “The world needs well-educated and mature young people who are prepared to lead in the burgeoning firms that are growing with the world economies.”

Kellogg Dean Sally Blount

Sally Blount, dean of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, agrees. In an recent essay entitled, “Yes, The World Needs More MBAs,” she argues that the increasing complexity of the world’s problems requires more leaders with the abilities that only an MBA can provide. “Clearly you can have a rewarding life and career without an MBA,” Blount concedes. “And you can certainly become rich and powerful without one, as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Amancio Ortega can testify. But when you’re creating the next Google or Apple, you’re going to need people with the training, skills, and network that business education is uniquely good at providing. There’s a reason all of those companies hire people with MBAs.”

Given the profound social challenges facing the country and the world, the demand for well-trained professionals can only go up. “The inability of government to address fundamental social issues only enhances the need for the private sector to step in,” she adds. “We will need leaders who can hold government accountable for managing public resources and protecting the public trust—and who can leverage the power of markets to create lasting social value.

“Intelligent, highly driven individuals will reinvent markets, fuel growth, and work across sectors to build strong, transformative organizations,” wrote Blount. “But markets or governments won’t do this on their own; the incentives just aren’t there. That’s why the world needs more, not less, business education. It depends on it.”

Source: U.S. Department of Education

The Triumph Of The MBA Degree

Source: The Economist

There’s a fascinating chart in the most recent issue of The Economist which shows the incredible growth of the MBA, now the second most popular postgraduate degree in the U.S. after education. What makes the chart so compelling is how the degree has completely overtaken law and medicine.

Some four decades ago, U.S. colleges graduated near equal numbers of lawyers and MBAs. Today, MBA grads outnumber J.D. grads by nearly four to one. And with many law schools struggling to fill classes, that ratio is likely to tip further in favor of the MBA even though growth in recent years has slowed in full-time, two-year MBA programs and domestic applicants to those programs has essentially flatlined.

As The Economist explains, institutions offering the MBA in Asia have simply exploded. Many of these programs are weak, subpar imitations of the real thing so it’s a boom that is not going to last. India now boasts roughly 2,000 business schools, more than any other country. China has an estimated 250 MBA programs that now graduate about 30,000 students each year. The Economist points out that this is less than half the number it will need over the next decade, according to Hao Hongrui of DHD, a consultancy.

Of course, the big question is whether the U.S. is producing too many MBAs for the market. For students and alumni of the top 25 or top 50 programs that’s almost an irrelevant question because the value of the degree is holding strong. But it could very well become a bigger issue for schools that can’t get into the first- or second-tier.