One of the most underestimated chores of your MBA career will surely be the dreaded job hunt.  I remember our Director of Career Services telling us during induction week that we should expect to spend at least 8 hours a week searching for our future job.  At the time, this seemed like a ludicrous amount of time – but looking back now, I will say it was rather accurate.

One of the perks of a 1 year MBA program is the quick return to the job market.  Of course, this comes with some negative side effects as well.  For anyone looking to make a career change, this poses particular challenges due to a lack of time for internships.  My job search process was far from perfect and I thought it might help some of you who are starting to think about what you want to do post-MBA.

I am American and was planning a return to the US after school.  I worked for a Public Accounting firm prior to school, but was hoping to make a shift into Strategy or Marketing for a large corporation in consumer products or retail.  To my fellow MBA’s, this would be considered a “double-jump” (role, industry…. triple jump would add a new location to the mix).   Here is a brief summary of my timeline throughout the year:

• Sept-Dec: Spruce up resume, mock interviews with sector consultants, develop strategies of marketing myself with the career services group.
• Jan-Feb: I sent out 50+ applications and custom cv’s/cover letters to companies posting MBA internships and full time positions.
• Feb-July: I started getting in touch with companies I really liked using either Oxford Alumni, LinkedIn connections, and contacts of my fellow classmates.

Based on my past failures, here are a few recommendations on how maximize your time spent on the job hunt:

• Prepare: Get your plan together before you even start school.  Our first recruiting event (J&J) was during induction week!  Banks and Consulting firms roll in shortly after… do anything you can to get that CV ready and start doing mock interviews to make sure you have your pitch nailed down.
• Only Talk to PEOPLE: I sent out over 50 applications to online job postings (company websites, careerbuilder, etc).  I got 3 automated reject emails and absolutely no response from the others.  Don’t waste your time on these, they don’t work.  Do use these resources to find cool jobs at companies you like, but then find any way possible to find someone within the organization to submit your application in for you.  I had closer to a 50% response rate when I went this route and landed quite a few interviews this way.
• Be Relentless: A had to contact one company every week for 3 months before I finally got an interview set up.  Being persistent (in a tactful and non-annoying way) shows you are really interested.  This company told me they were impressed how hard I worked to get to the interview.
• Keep Your Head Up: This is going to be a very depressing and emotionally depleting time of your life.  You will hear “no thanks” more times than you can count.  Keep your head up and press on, taking time to be depressed is just wasting time when you could be landing a job offer.
• Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: I know I said it before, but this is how you land the job.  Getting an interview is hard, you’ve got to capitalize once you finally get an interview.  There are lots of resources available at school.  I talked to Professors, Alumni, Career Services experts.  I read articles, case studies, books, and annual reports.  I knew EVERYTHING about the companies I interviewed with and this made a huge difference in getting an offer.

You’re dream job is out there.  You took the risk/time/debt to come to Oxford.  Use the vast array of tools, networks, opportunities, and reputation Oxford has to offer and you will find what you are looking for!