What I Wish I’d Known About the Off-Campus MBA Job Search
Here’s what I would have told myself this time last year when I was recruiting for an off-campus (custom) MBA internship
The “custom job search” or “off-campus job search” for MBAs is essentially the world of regular job hunting, where employers don’t automatically turn up on the school’s doorstep looking for next year’s crop of MBAs. Since custom job searches are individualized, they can feel isolating compared to standardized mass recruiting processes like consulting.
Here is what I would have told myself last year, and want to tell any MBA students in the custom job search:
Remember the big picture.
You built out a solid narrative about where you’ve been and where you’re going when you applied for an MBA. This next job is just a piece of a much longer narrative you’ve already built out and have a lot of time to continue evolving. On average, MBA grads are in their first post-grad role for <2 years, so don’t put too much pressure on it.
Design your recruiting strategy for the job you want, not just any job.
You may feel behind compared to on-campus recruiting, but don’t apply to a bunch of on-campus or “back-up” roles if what you really want is custom and won’t happen until later in the year. An internship offer somewhere you are less excited to work may be too persuasive versus the perceived risk of not having an internship yet, and then you might not actually go after the internship you want.
Find others who are also recruiting off the beaten path.
Even if you are looking for different kinds of jobs in different industries, it helps to feel less alone. The traditional MBA recruiting pathways have clear cohorts (consulting, tech, etc.) so you can rely on your peers. This is not always the case with custom searching; this year we created a stronger support system for Fuqua students early in the process, and have piled on the advice. During my process I wish I’d spent more time talking to other custom job searchers so that I had people to commiserate and strategize with!
You aren’t behind and it isn’t too late.
Custom recruiting is typically less competitive because it is more niche and the roles are not as well-publicized. If it’s before January and you are already thinking about custom-recruiting, you’re ahead of the pack. If it’s later and you’re just starting to do outreach, that’s totally fine— there are plenty of roles to go around. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 10 million companies in the U.S. Surely one of them will be a good fit!
All that to say: you can do this!
Catherine is a business strategist, Duke Fuqua MBA ’21, career coach, and startup enthusiast based in Durham, NC. Feel free to reach out!
