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What is the distributional sector?

MBA grads: what type of public sector positions have your colleagues taken on?

  • I'm applying to HBS and GSB this year and am planning to take on a public sector position post-degree. I'm currently volunteering with the UN, but am not sure the pace is what I'm looking for longer-term, so I'm trying to get a better sense of where public sector-oriented individuals generally end up after an MBA from a well-known school. What types of public-sector positions in the public sector have your colleagues taken on? How common are World Bank and IMF positions? What about roles in public-private partnership? Any CSR-type roles at major organizations? For context, I'd most likely be planning to work in the Middle East. And this is specific to MBA programs, not MPP-type programs.

  • Answer:

    Because I graduated in 2009, it was a take-what-you-can-get kind of market. Not many firms hiring and many friends of mine were unemployed far after graduation. That being said, many people have weaved their way into public sector work even if they did not get there directly upon graduation.  I know many international students who have gone to public sector or NGOs in their home countries.  There are also a few people who came from and returned to large foundation work at Gates or Clinton. I do not know specifically about IMF or World Bank but I'm sure it is not out of the bounds of normal to assume graduates from GSB or HBS go there - or come from there. That being said, MBA programs are not the primary source of new talent to the kinds of organizations. MPP and MPA programs like SAIS, Fletcher, or KSG source more.  So most of these groups don't directly recruit on campus, but who cares.  If you want to work at one of them, and get connected there, you can, easily.  You just have to be more proactive.  The skills and talents they look for are things you will possess and learn in an MBA so I wouldn't worry about that. For more specific details contact the careers services offices, they publish information on fields individuals go into and where alumni is located.  The alumni magazines also feature this information and occasional articles etc. about people in these fields.

Ellen Vrana at Quora Visit the source

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I think the most robust way to answer this question -- or any other about career outcomes as related to a university -- is to check out LinkedIn's new university pages. They leverage data from actual alum profiles (in this case, the 22k+ GSB alums) and present it in a way to help you answer questions of where the alums live, where they work, and what they do. It looks like a handful of GSB alums do currently work at both the IMF and World Bank. Here is the GSB university page on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/edu/school?id=17927&trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId%3A1386826131359%2Ctas%3Astanford+g%2Cidx%3A5-1-8 (Did I mention that in addition to having attended the GSB, I work at LinkedIn?) Anecdotally, from the class of 2012, I know a several of classmates scattered across nonprofits, foundations, hold positions in local government, or do CSR-type work in corporations. While many people from 'non-traditional' backgrounds enroll in MBA programs to learn best practices of business management to take them back to their careers in the public sector, the majority of students stay in business. Stanford does has a public policy certificate that you can earn along with your MBA, which is fairly popular, or a joint master's degree in public policy (takes 1 additional year). I personally came to Stanford from a job in engineering and now work in tech. I absolutely loved my experience, for giving me a solid, well-rounded degree (knowledge-wise) and and for connecting me with so many brilliant, passionate and accomplished individuals.

Monica Lewis

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