Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Final blog posting

I think the time has come to close this blog down now that I'm out of the MBA for 5 months (graduation was beginning of July 2010). Today is also a good day to write my last post because the official LBS employment stats for the MBA class of 2010 were just released: 91% of the class found a job within 3 months of graduation with a mean starting salary of £70K (or $113K). That's pretty awesome! Compared to last year, that's an increase of 10% in employment rate, but we are very fortunate I guess that the economy has picked up quite a bit since. Here is the detailed report.

Like many of my classmates, I've been fortunate to have found a job in London. I started working in product marketing for an internet company where I also worked part-time during the MBA and did my summer internship. Thanks to the LBS network I was able to switch from consulting (manufacturing industry) pre-MBA to marketing in the tech industry post-MBA. I'm very grateful to have found a company and a job I like, that I was able to experience 2 amazing years at LBS, and for the friends I've made. The past 2 years were such an incredible journey - what a roller coaster ride.

For those going through the MBA application process right now: I wish you best of luck!!! And for those already in b-school: Enjoy the time with your classmates, it goes by faster than you think...

All the best!

8 comments:

Anu said...

Hey Thomas,
I am hoping you are still around and replying to the comments. Please do!

I am applying to LBS in R2 this year and I needed some information about Clubs and the study groups.
Following are the two questions I had:

1> What is the scope of activities a student can perform at various clubs. How do you contribute to the club?

2> How does the study group function. Do you have to complete a project together? How are the tasks divided?

Would appreciate your insights on these.
Looking forward to your reply.
Thanks,
Anu

Thomas said...

Hi there, will always be around to answer questions :-).

1) This depends on how involved you want to be. What counts is self initiative. You can become as active as you want to be - nobody will stop you from organizing events or brining speakers to campus. You don't have to hold a leadership position in a club to do this.

2) In the 1st year, in each core class you will complete assignments and work on cases together. How tasks are divided? :-)
...divide and conquer!

Anu said...

Thanks Thomas for your reply. I am so glad I found you.Had another question. Now that you are around ;)
I have developed my essays with Venture Capital Industry as where I want to be coz that's what I think I want to do right now. But with the focus that LBS has on finance and consulting, I was wondering if my desired goal will be an unfit.
I could modify it to strategy and consulting though I don't know what's a convincing role in the long term in strategy could be.
Do you think it would be better to put consulting and strategy as goals to fit in?

Thomas said...

You should probably write what you want to do, not what you think the AdCom wants to read (btw, LBS is not a "Finance and Consulting" focused school - you can do anything after LBS!).

Having said that, do your due diligence on your post-MBA career goal. VC is not easy to break into. Do some research and ask yourself if you have the transferable skills and background to land a job in VC. To the AdCom, it doesn't matter what your post-MBA goal is, but is has to be feasible for you to achieve.

Anonymous said...

Hey Thomas,
I scored 620 in the gmat but i will take it again after 10 days (3 days before R2). However, assuming i didn't get a higher score, how would this affect my chance of admission.
I am Egyptian (i heard that applicants from under represented countries always have higher chance than others),I have 1.5 year of international experience (out of my home country) in sales in P&G, 3 years in finance in my country, CFA level 2 candidate, and recommendation letter from my manager who is LBS alumna. Would this profile make up for my low gmat score?

Thomas said...

With a very low GMAT score, your university grades need to be strong. Seems like the rest of your profile is very solid. In such cases the school sometimes asks applicants to re-take the GMAT until they get a certain score. What that score is I don't know, but probably somewhere in the mid 600s.

Anonymous said...

Thanks thomas for your reply
i have another question, would it affect me negativly in anyway if i said in my application that i was admitted to IE business school and paid the commitment fee but due to pesonal and financial reasons i decided to defer my admission to next intake.
And i am now applying for LBS, which was originally my first preference but I did not apply for because I missed the deadline for the 2010 intake.
I like to view myself as someone who has a convertible bond. In the upside scenario, I will convert it and join the best MBA program in the world and the one that I think is the most suitable for me (plan A), otherwise I will redeem it and join one of the top business schools in the world (plan B), which is a very good plan.

Thomas said...

Dear Anonymous, I never really paid attention in Finance class, so whether you convert or redeem your bond if you mention your IE admit that I don't know :-)