Consider Business Schools That Provide Work Experience

Work-based MBA programs help students learn how to think like executives, experts say.

By Ilana Kowarski, Reporter | Dec. 12, 2016, at 9:30 a.m.

Experts say MBA programs that include work experiences help students advance their careers after graduation. (CAIAIMAGE/ SAM EDWARDS/ GETTY IMAGES)

For some MBA students, business theory is not nearly as interesting or instructive as business projects.

Jorge Perez, 31, of Los Angeles, California, says he enjoys the hands-on approach of his MBA program at the California Institute of Advanced Management. The business school partners with companies that have significant business problems, then challenges students to work on teams to find a fix.

Each student at the business school completes 12 consulting projects – ranging from marketing projects for startup companies to operations management projects for well-established businesses – before graduating.

One of Perez's school projects was focused on ways Universal Studios Hollywood could use its technology intelligently, communicate with employees strategically and ensure that business was conducted efficiently.

Perez, an MBA student and project manager for Kaiser Permanente, says his career-focused MBA program offers lessons that are more compelling than those he might get in a lecture hall.

 "I learn through experience, and if I can be immersed in it and learn from my mistakes, then I can perform better," he says.

 Here are four reasons to consider an MBA program that infuses real-world experience into business courses.

1. Informed perspective: Some recent MBA graduates say they use what they've learned from work-based courses in business school to guide them in their postgraduation jobs.

Nitish Aitharaju, a 2016 MBA graduate from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, says the insights gained during his MBA field projects influence his current work as a founding partner of Deckspire, a product development agency.

The 26-year-old Californian says a favorite project was working for a company that sells environmentally friendly LED lights. He discovered ways to increase sales by marketing to a new audience – contractors who install LED lights.

He says the project taught him how to see business problems from an executive's point of view.

"It really puts you in the seat of top management," he says. "You get to solve a real problem for them. It gives you a great experience that helps you prepare for the future."

2. Powerful learning experiences: Aitharaju says one way to get a sense of whether potential business schools expand students' real-world learning is to talk to alumni.

Kyle Jensen, senior lecturer, associate dean and director of entrepreneurship at the Yale University School of Management, says some things in business are impossible to learn without practice.

"Entrepreneurship, in some sense, is like performance art for business," says Jensen, who is an entrepreneur in the technology sector. "It's something a student must do to appreciate."

Jensen advises prospective MBA students to visit various business schools to see whether they provide students with opportunities to experiment with real business problems during their education, as opposed to when the stakes are high after graduation.

3. Experimentation and self-discovery: Experts say prospective students should target b-schools that offer work experiences in various industries so they have plenty of opportunities to explore careers.

Andrew Ward, associate dean for graduate programs and associate professor of management at the Lehigh University College of Business and Economics, says many MBA students search for jobs that are more fulfilling than the work they have done in the past. When an MBA curriculum incorporates work experiences, he says, it helps students figure out how they can best use their abilities.

"For students who are looking to make a change, particularly if they are changing industries or changing roles, those experiences are critical," Ward says.

Lehigh has made work a central part of its new, one-year MBA program, Ward says. Although condensed, the program includes a mandatory summer internship. Each student is also assigned an alumni mentor, faculty mentor and career coach.

Ward advises MBA applicants to ask admission officers and others at b-schools about how work is incorporated into the school's curriculum.

4. Career advancement: Experts say work-based MBA programs can offer students the connections necessary to move up the corporate ladder. Asking about placement is essential, says William Sutton, director of the sport and entertainment management program and professor at the Muma College of Business at University of South Florida.

"The students should interview the faculty as much as the faculty interviews the students," Sutton says. "The students should ask, 'Tell me about your last class. Where are they now?'"

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