The Naked MBA

In yesterday’s post I wrote about the advantages of going abroad to get your MBA. A lot of people, though, want an international experience but aren’t ready to give up the experience of an American MBA. So they do the next best thing—study abroad for a semester. A semester abroad is kind of like moving in with your boyfriend but still keeping your own place in case it doesn’t work out. It’s commitment-lite. It gives you the chance to experience another culture, spice up your résumé, learn about international markets and customs, and—from what I hear—learn to order a beer and ask for someone’s phone number in another language.

The decision to study abroad should depend on the reputation of the business school you go to and that of the international business school you would attend. If you go to Stanford, it may not be as attractive to spend part of your MBA at another school. If you go to Ole Miss and can spend a semester abroad at INSEAD or LBS then you just struck résumé paydirt.

How much research did you do when choosing where to go for your MBA? My guess is that you wracked up the hours, especially if you count the web-surfing to MBA sites you did at the office while you were supposed to be putting together Powerpoints. If you do a semester abroad you’ll spend 25% of your MBA at that school, so put at least 25% of the effort you spent researching your primary business school into researching your study abroad options. Put it through all the same tests—ranking, reputation, what it’s known for, caliber of faculty, etc. A word of caution: often only a limited selection of classes are available to exchange students, so make sure the classes you want to take are open to you.

Going abroad can also throw off the recruiting process. If you go abroad in your third semester, as most people do, it means a lot more is riding on your summer internship. If you don’t like it or don’t get an offer you will miss the fall recruiting cycle and be left on your own to job hunt when you get back. One of my classmates hated her internship and but was scheduled to head to a European school for fall semester. She got an offer at the end of the summer and ended up accepting because she was scared of going abroad with no job. Guess what? She ended up hating the job.

Finally, think about what it means to spend a semester away from family, friends, and from the MBA experience of your school. Two years fly by, and it’s not a lot of time to forge friendships and professional connections. A friend of mine spent first semester of our second year in Europe. She told me that “when I came back it felt like I didn’t have any friends anymore. During first year everyone hung out together, but in second year groups formed and I missed out on that.” You also have to choose your commitments—I thought about going abroad but when I was tapped to become co-president http://caitlinweaver.blog.com/2835117/ of one of the largest student organizations, I had to choose. I stayed.

I hate group travel. The thought of being on a tour bus or following a guide holding an umbrella makes me shudder. So during my first year of business school to help organize a spring break “study trip” to Brazil for 100 of my fellow students, I wondered if I’d finally lost it.

First of all, who goes to Brazil to study over spring break? No one, as it turns out. Our group had a full schedule of company visits and lunches with CEOs, but they were all optional. Second, going everywhere in a herd of 100 people is not my idea of a good time. But the fact is that since people on the trip signed up to visit a specific destination, I automatically already had something in common with them: we were all excited to visit a developing country and interested in Latin culture. And having a large group made it possible to have some experiences we wouldn’t have otherwise; like taking over a whole VIP section of the Sao Paolo soccer stadium, or reserving an entire chuhascarria for dinner.

The group outings and dinners turned out to be a lot of fun, and gave me the chance to mingle with everyone and start to get to know them better. As the week went on, attendance to company visits and presentations declined. People made friends and made plans to head to the beach instead of corporate headquarters. Smaller groups started to form based on specific interests: laying on beach, adventure sports, shopping, drinking, etc. It was a great way to find out who you had a lot in common with. And nothing makes you bond with people faster than having to figure out together how to say “which way to the hang gliding school” in a foreign language.

I made great friends on my trip to Brazil and ended up traveling with a smaller group of the same people the following year. You may think that group travel isn’t for you, and in an ordinary situation maybe it’s not. But business school isn’t the ordinary, so I recommend giving it a try.