I wish I knew these 5 things before starting B-School
Wouldn’t it be great to have a conversation with your younger self, share some wisdom on pitfalls to avoid and opportunities to lean into.
Today, I’m going to try to act as the older version of you offering that advice with the benefit of hindsight.
I know it can be tough to remember all this while you’re swamped in this super intense program.
If you can apply these tips, though, you’ll end up getting more out of it and hopefully be able to take a little stress off.
Put this in the bucket of emails to save and come back to now and again.
1. There Are Lots Of People Who Want To Help
Most people have moments during B-School where they feel completely overwhelmed. There’s a pile of work due, you’re in the midst of your job hunt, and something heavy might be going on in your personal life.
These are the times when you need to remember that there are people around you who want to help.
Your profs, the admin folks, your friends, even alums. They all want you to succeed.
Make use of all the resources at your disposal.
One of the major surprises to people is just how supportive alumni can be in your job search. Many will remember being in your shoes.
Take full advantage of this and return the favour when you’re on the other side of things.
Talk to your profs about upcoming assignments. Maybe there’s some flexibility there.
Study with peers and quiz each other so you can leverage each other.
Bottom line, you have plenty of resources – make use of them.
2. Create A Job Search Plan
Plenty of your peers haven’t made a plan to get their dream job.
Not to say it can’t work but they risk bouncing from one thing to the next, never really knowing if they’re moving towards their desired endgame. Going through the job search process in a reactive way like this will reduce your chances of success.
And let’s face it. One of the key reasons you’re in school doing this is to get a good job.
You will help your odds of getting your targeted job if you have a plan and execute it.
I know, I know.
🤷🏻♂️ You’re busy, and this does take some time and effort. It might seem this way at first blush, but wow does it ever pay off. 💵
One of the biggest benefits is that once you’ve figured out your plan, the biggest difficulty – deciding what to do next – is taken care of. It should be really clear what your next step is most of the time.
I can’t overstate how important this is. One of the biggest things that holds people back in just about everything they do is not being totally clear on what is the next step.
This was one of the most important conclusions David Allen came to in his category-defining book Getting Things Done. It’s one of the keystones of what he teaches his coaching clients.
Beyond the “next step” aspect of a good plan, it will keep you organized and save you from having to keep everything in your head. It reduces the risk of forgetting something and will make you look like an absolute champ when you can ask someone, “When we last spoke, you were about to head off to Hawaii; how did you enjoy it?”
Very few people will be able to keep track of all the details. But you will because of this plan.
I built a Job Search Organizer in the productivity app Notion. Its goal is to help you keep all of your research, notes, prep and follow-up in one easily accessible place. The feedback for this Beta Version has been great, so if you’re interested, check it out here. It’s only $32.50 while it’s in Beta — then it jumps in price.
3. Start Doing Informational Interviews Early
You won’t believe how fast recruiting season will come at you.
Unless you start doing informational interviews early, you’re going to find yourself trying to go through recruiting season while building your network and working on improving your interview skills.
Oh yeah, and that whole school thing as well.
Worse still, the people you’d be trying to connect with may already be involved in the recruiting process and aren’t really able to talk to you much.
Instead, if you start doing informational interviews early, even before the end of the summer, you’ll go into recruiting season well ahead of the curve.
You’ll already have a
- well developed list of target companies
- some experience interviewing and
- hopefully, alums acting as advocates.
Don’t get me wrong, people get jobs without starting early, but they reduce their chances of getting their targeted job and will probably have a lot more stress through the process.
4. Study Skills Are Easy To Build – Focus On Efficient and Effective
Click the photo below if you’d like to take my free 7 Days To Higher Grades Course!
Some people say grades don’t matter – I know it’s a controversial opinion, but I think that’s nonsense.
Maybe that’s a little harsh but there are definitely jobs where your grades do matter.
Beyond that, you might want to lean on high grades to make up for less robust previous work experience.
What I think people miss is that grades aren’t really used as a measure of whether you’re smart. There are really bright people who don’t get high grades and average people who get amazing grades.
There are plenty of things in the world of full-time work that everyone dreads having to do. A strong academic performance suggests that you are willing to put in the work, even in things you don’t love.
Employers who care about your grades are trying to evaluate if you can put in the effort to do things well even if you don’t really enjoy them. They want to know if you care more about great outcomes or enjoyable work.
All that being said, getting top grades is helpful, but they’re not the be-all and end-all. People with lower grades get great jobs as well, but given the choice, I’d rather have higher grades than not have them.
What’s really important is using evidence-based study techniques. For sure you can get high grades through brute force, but if you managed to get into your program, you’re more than smart enough to get high grades without grinding. You don’t need to burn yourself out to do it.
AND, these techniques are not hard to learn. I’ve talked about these evidence-based techniques extensively in this newsletter, on Twitter and on YouTube. I even have a 7-day email course called 7 Days To Higher Grades…Without the Grind – which I highly recommend you sign up for if you haven’t already.
Things like the
- 🏰 memory palace
- 🧠 active recall
- 🔂 spaced repetition, and the
- 🧑🏫 Feynman technique
are to learning what modern mechanical equipment is to farming 🧑🌾.
You can use other tools and hopefully get the same result, but it’s going to be a lot more work, and you may not finish ploughing your field before the sun goes down and you end up getting chased by wolves (ok, maybe I took that analogy too far – but you get the point)
The bottom line is to take advantage of these evidence-based study techniques to boost your GPA without grinding.
5. It’ll Fly By So Make Sure To Say Yes
Most people will tell you they had a great experience in their program. They’ll probably also tell you it’s nuts how fast it flew by.
Don’t let it pass you by. By using good study techniques, you’ll free up time to take advantage of all the great stuff your program has to offer.
Take opportunities to bond with classmates, join clubs and explore other areas of business besides the one you’re focused on.
This may be the last time you’ll be in school.
It’s a great time; take advantage of it.
That’s it – hopefully, those 5 tips will help you get so much more out of your B-School program and maybe reduce some of the stress along the way.
As always, I’m only an email away if you have questions.
