The Case for Non-Traditional MBA Candidates: Part 1 The Current State of Recruiting

There's no other way to put this, recruiting this past year has been rough for MBA candidates. Even the best and brightest young minds from top schools like Harvard and Stanford have been struggling to find suitable work after graduation. Nowhere has this been felt harder than in the consulting industry. Starting with deferrals in the Spring of 2023, consulting firms began reducing their demand for Fall recruiting. In addition to this severely reduced demand for talent, candidates who had planned on recruiting for investment banking or tech turned their gaze toward consulting, following downturns in their respective industries. The combination of diminished demand and a deluge of talented candidates made for an incredibly competitive recruiting cycle in the Fall of 2023. For non-traditional MBA candidates, recruiting has been even more challenging.

Despite the odds being stacked against me in almost every sense, I managed to make the callback list for the target consulting firm at the top of my list. I was ecstatic. After months of coffee chats and case prep, I was ready for my time to shine. Once I passed the initial phone screening, I was scheduled for a case interview super day, where I would participate in back-to-back case interviews with some behavioral components. Feeling readier than ever, I did well in my first interview and my feedback was overall positive. One down, now on to the next one. I entered the second interview with the same energy and enthusiasm I brought to the first one, ready to repeat my success. Like most interviews, we started out by reviewing my resume. Although impressed with my background, the interviewer paused when it came to my education. They were curious how I was getting my MBA at USC while my address indicated my current residence as Phoenix. As soon as I started to elaborate about the online nature of my lecture classes, the interviewer's body language changed. Their head instantly fell to their chest, their shoulders slumped, and their eyes rolled. Although they did not say it, at that moment, I knew it. This interview was over. They had written me off without bothering to learn any more about me or my program. As far as they were concerned, I had slipped through the cracks and was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. I was no more than a waste of their precious time.

After my experience during Fall recruiting, I was deflated. I decided to stop pursuing a career in management consulting. Why should I spend my time trying to break into an industry that doesn't want me? I started targeting roles in tech. When that failed, I added entertainment. After failing to land a job in either field, I added CPG... then wholesale... supply chain... logistics... foodservice... until I reached the point where I was applying for every job that matched my qualifications. Eighteen months after I first started recruiting and I am no closer than I was when I started. I am still networking, filling out applications, and getting rejected. As tempting as it is to give up and resign myself to my fate, that is not my style. I will keep running full speed at the barriers in front of me until they break... or I do.

This is the first part in a series of blog posts about non-traditional candidates (such as myself) and why they make outstanding employees. My motivation in writing this blog is not to find pity. I don't want anyone feeling sorry for me. Rather, I know that I'm not the only one experiencing this struggle and want others to know they're not alone. If my story can help inspire even one person to continue their fight, then it was all worth it. However, before I can extoll the virtues of hiring non-traditional talent, I need to provide you with context. I can think of no better way to provide this context than to tell my own story, starting from the beginning.