Hedge Funds and Private Equity: MBA?

Anyone interested in working at a hedge fund or in private equity, should most certainly read Hedge Funds and Private Equity Alter Career Calculus, a recent article in The New York Times. According to many of the industry insiders sited in the article, if you are already working in a hedge fund or private equity and thinking about an MBA, you may want to think again because the value of the MBA may be negligible or worse. On the other hand, if you are international (non-US applicant) or a career changer an MBA may be ideal:

Recruiters at banks say a large number of the students that they are hiring from business schools are from an international background or are changing careers. These students are valuable, they say, but they come in with a different background from someone who has been in finance since age 22.

One thing that is also interesting about this article is that the views of Thomas Caleel, Wharton's director of admissions, are directly contradicted by the other sources cited in the article:

Eventually, these young people may want to raise money and start their own fund, suggests Thomas Caleel, director of admissions at Wharton, and that’s where an M.B.A. and the connections that come with it could help. “If you are trying to raise money for a hedge fund, you will need that network,” he says.

Mr. Talpins of Element said he had no trouble raising money for his hedge fund without an M.B.A. After all, he had a track record from Citi and Goldman Sachs to show to potential investors. In his corner of the world, where math equations are likely to be scrawled on white boards around the office and young people hold the purse strings to millions of dollars in investor money, it seems there is no point in going to business school just to punch a ticket.

Talpins is not the only one who contradicts Caleel. Just read the entire article. Caleel comes across as selling something that at least one particular segment of potential customers does not appear to need.

I have seen numerous clients make the jump into banking post-MBA, so the value for both international and career changers is clear enough to me. As to those already well on their way to making the very large salaries the article cites, unless they are looking for a career change, I don't see the ROI.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

MBA留学

Even Professors Use Resume Editors!

I have been asked on many occasions if it is acceptable to have a professionally produced resume. My answer has always been "yes" because such services are very commonly used by professionals in the US. Even The Chronicle of Higher Education, the premier higher education industry publication in the US, partners with a CV and resume writing service. Professors and others in higher education frequently use the The Chronicle to find employment, so clearly it must be acceptable to use resume and CV rewriting services in higher education. If it is good for faculty, we can safely assume it is also good for applicants.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

INSEAD and Chicago GSB Admissions Events

I recently attended two great admissions events. All applicants should try to attend such events as they are great way to learn about a school if you can't visit. They are also a great way of meeting alums in your country of residence. I think it is especially important to meet alums because they are often the best way to judge whether you want to attend a particular MBA program. Given that who you are in class with will really impact your overall educational experience meeting alums is just a great way to see if there is a good fit between you and the program. Of course, you could also learn about the faculty.

If you are interested in INSEAD and can attend one of their seminars with a case study presentation by a faculty member, I can highly recommend it. I attended Professor Jacob Cohen's seminar in Tokyo on September 7th and was very impressed. For more information about INSEAD events.

The Chicago GSB's Rose Martinelli made a great presentation in Tokyo on September 11th. While I have met with Rose before, this was my first opportunity to see her presentation. She was not only very informative about Chicago GSB, but really incredibly helpful in providing great general MBA admissions advice. If you have the chance to see her present, I strongly recommend it. For more information about Chicago GSB events.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
MBA留学

Harvard Law School Essays

There are no LL.M. essay books available, so if you want to get a sense of what kind of essays get someone into a top LL.M. program, there is no text to really look to. This is not the case with J.D. In fact, 55 Successful Harvard Law School Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get Into the Law School of Your Choice By The Staff of the Harvard Crimson, is a useful guide for seeing the variety of essay topics that J.D. applicants write on.

Keeping in mind that the J.D. application essay is premised on the idea that the applicant may not necessarily know anything about the law, it is clearly quite different from LL.M. An LL.M. applicant should be able to demonstrate their knowledge of the law and be quite specific about what they intend to study. Therefore looking at book of J.D. essays is mostly useful for getting an understanding of (1)the ways in which applicants describe their initial motivation to study the law, (2) the ways in which applicants effectively demonstrate their intelligence through what they write, and (3) how applicants make their essays very personal.

Given that LL.M. applicants will most certainly find that they will need to describe their motivations to study law and demonstrate their intelligence, reviewing 55 Essays will certainly reveal a variety of methods for doing so. Regarding the issue of personality, effectively communicating something about who you are can really make a signficant impact on admissions.

While many LL.M. applicants take a very basic template-like approach to writing their essays, if you are willing to put in the time to really show what motivates you as a legal professional, what kind of legal thinker you are, and who you are as a person, you can really improve your chances for admission. To that end, I would recommend reading 55 Essays.

I do have one major criticism of the book: I found the analysis of the essays by the Harvard Crimson to be relatively inconsistent. I was especially annoyed when I read some of the analysis that was simply negative about essays that did what they were supposed to do: Got the applicant into Harvard Law. I suppose if one ignored the obvious- the essay worked because the applicant got in- it is possible to be critical about these essays, but for what reason?
I think most readers will find that in general it is better to skim or skip the analysis and just read the essays. Given the low cost of 55 Successful Harvard Law School Application Essays: What Worked for Them Can Help You Get Into the Law School of Your Choice and its potential benefit, I feel quite comfortable in recommending to applicants looking to get greater insight into law school admissions essays.

Questions? Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス
LLM留学

Should I do my admissions counseling in English?

One of the regular Japanese readers of this blog has asked me the following:

I am thinking about whether to do my MBA admissions counseling only in English or in English and Japanese, which do you think is better? Why?

First, for readers outside of Japan, let me explain that some applicants here use Japanese language admissions counseling services either in addition to or in lieu of English language services. Second, just as is true of English language counselors, Japanese language counselors provide various kinds of services. See my general post on admissions consultants here.

I think the answer to this question really depends on you. I think you should consider using Japanese language counseling if you answer yes to any of the following:
1. I have no clear idea about what I really want to study.
2. I need career counseling.
3. My English language skills are very limited.

If you answered "yes" to statements 1 or 2, you may really need the advice of a certified career counselor. Before spending much money on admissions counseling services, I think you should consider getting the advice of a certified career counselor. There are certified industrial counselors and career consultants who also do admissions counseling, so you may want to consider working with one of them.

If you answered "yes" to statement 3, I think you may need Japanese counseling. However, if your English skills are too weak for you to prepare your applications in English, how will you survive and succeed in graduate school? If you are planning on doing an MBA and will have to interview in English, you really would benefit from doing your admissions counseling in English because this will force you to communicate your ideas in English and thus help you prepare for interviews.

If you do some of your counseling in Japanese, I suggest keeping the following in mind:

1. Focus your Japanese counseling on career counseling, school selection, and assistance with logistical issues. These are likely to be the areas where Japanese counseling will be of some benefit.

2. I don't see the value in doing any sort of essay or interview counseling in Japanese because inherent linguistic and cultural differences mean that you will only increase your work when you have to write and speak in English. Your English localization efforts may prove very inefficient, especially if your content does not translate well. In my experience, this is often the case.

3. While there may be some limited value in reading the analysis of essay questions in Japanese, the chance for misinterpretation is simply increased. If you can understand what I write on my blog, you don't need a Japanese language analysis of an essay question that you will have to answer in English. If you can't understand this blog, you will not have read what I just wrote! :)

While my comments have been made in relation to MBA, the answers apply generally to LL.M. and other graduate degrees as well.

I hope this answers your question. I know the admissions process can be hard and the opportunity to do counseling in your own language might seem attractive, but be absolutely certain that is what you really need.

Write comments or contact me directly at adammarkus@gmail.com.
-Adam Markus
アダム マーカス

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