What It’s Like To Be A Woman At HBS

Biggest Takeaways…From a First Year and a Second Year Perspective

When students arrive at business school, many secretly wonder if they’re good enough or whether they’ll fit in. But those sentiments quickly subside. “With the exception of a select few, most of us are actually on a fairly even playing ground when it comes to raw intelligence, writes Linda Chew, who graduated from Columbia Business School this spring. “The difference is how you apply yourself and how you choose to spend your time. In some ways, this reaffirms the cliché that attitude is more important than aptitude. What’s key is focus – and if you consistently direct it to a select few activities, you’ll make it most of the way there.”

Indeed, graduates can afford to wax philosophical. They made it through their MBA experience. Chances are, they landed a six-figure job in the process. But if you’ve just finished your first year, everything is often too immediate and uncertain to truly appreciate the experience. “Come August, we will start our second and final year, and with it will come pressures to navigate the hyper competitive world of MBA recruiting,” writes Sparsh Agarwal, who will be entering his second year at Harvard business School this fall. “If you think life is set just by the virtue of getting into HBS, you are in for a surprise – there is a lot more (mostly self-inflicted) pressure to get into the ‘right’ job post MBA, though most (including me) don’t really know what is ‘right’ for them.”

Despite being separated by a year, first years and second years hold entirely different priorities. For second years – especially those who’ve already nabbed offers – business school is a time to really push their boundaries and apply their skills. For first years, the program is about surviving the core, making the right choices, and landing an internship. After the year is finished, each class has time to reflect – and recognize what they truly gained.

In an essay penned in the Globe and Mail, Columbia’s Chew touts business school as a place to experiment – and learn from false starts and failures. “These two years at B-school was a unique time to explore career paths that I’ve pondered in the past but never seriously pursued. While I participated in campus recruiting for typical MBA-type jobs, I also spent a significant amount of time on random ideas during class time. This ranged from consolidating shellfish farms in the Pacific Northwest to starting a search fund in Canada to rolling up fast-casual food franchises. I’ve spoken to professors about why seafood doesn’t trade on a commodities exchange, and brainstormed with a classmate on how to start an ethnic breakfast food cart. Many of these ideas eventually fizzled, but the experience of thinking, planning and validating concepts with others was invaluable.”

At the same time, Chew, who will be working in Deloitte’s Toronto and Vancouver offices after graduation, gained insights and built networks through travel. “B-school presented both the opportunity and flexibility for me to travel more…In the past two years, I’ve been lucky enough to see Japan, Britain, France, Italy, Brazil, South Africa and, most recently, Puerto Rico. The privilege of being in new environments allowed me to look both outward and inward: I learned more about the world and also more about myself. Equally as important, these trips gave me the chance to build new connections. Some of my travel buddies are now my closest friends here.”

Most important, Chew learned to anchor what she wanted to do with who she was. “Centering your life choices to your core values is critical to satisfaction with life. To share a piece of wisdom, my old boss recently bestowed upon me: ‘Our authenticity is our destiny, and that truth is non-negotiable.'”

In his latest Linkedin column, Harvard’s Agarwal observed that developing soft skills and intangibles have been the biggest forces on his first year experience. Among those was keeping emotions at arm’s length in dealing with others. “Some of the best classes we’ve had this year have been those where someone in class had a strong point of view and passionately articulated it…It makes for a great debate when smart and genuinely well-intentioned people disagree with each other…However, it is quite difficult (yet of immense importance) to keep negative emotions (getting visibly angry, being dismissive) at bay – especially if we want our audience to listen and empathize. In addition, arguments backed by data are in general far more credible and likely to win over an audience than those based solely on intuition (unless you happen to be Steve Jobs).”

Agarwal also learned the value of reflection as a way to stay focused. “HBS has forced me to think more deeply about where I want to see myself 5-10 years ahead and work backwards to form a deliberate strategy,” he writes. At the same time, reflection also became a learning tool for him. “In the span of eight months, we went through about 200 cases and at times it did feel overwhelming. It is really easy to get caught up in the hectic daily schedule at school without really reflecting upon what it is we were learning.”

Even more, Agarwal experienced how success and failure is often determined by establishing boundaries and expectations. “One of the more tangible things we learnt in our LEAD course was the concept of Team Launch. A successful launch involves having an explicit dialog about team goals, roles and responsibilities, conflict resolution mechanisms, decision making process (by consensus or leaders veto) and measurable success criteria, at the outset when a team is formed…While this sounds like common sense advice, think about the last time you had an explicit conversation before starting off in a new team – whether it be at work or a non-work setting (such as organizing a conference). We had the chance to practice team launch in multiple settings all year, and while all of these projects did not necessarily ‘succeed’, I did find tremendous value in this process.”

If there was one theme that united Chew and Agarwal, it was the importance of establishing supportive relationships. “As part of the curriculum here, we’re each assigned a “learning team” that moves through the core classes together,” writes Chew. “Over the two years, we delegated tasks based on our strengths, provided informal feedback to one another, and bonded over last-minute assignment submissions and campus gossip. At a pre-holiday brunch one year, we once joked that three of our grandfathers fought in the Second World War – but on opposite sides for different armies. It was then I realized how remarkable it really is that we’re all here for our MBA, two generations later.”

For Agarwal, the MBA experience has made him more attentive and empathetic to his peers.  “…It’s easy to feel insecure when surrounded by so many talented peers, and at times we all need a healthy dose of encouragement. I learnt to be more generous with praise – it doesn’t cost us anything but can mean a lot to the person receiving it.”

To read the full essays, click on the links below.

DON’T MISS: ADVICE TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF MBAs

Sources: Globe and Mail and Linkedin