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Here is some helpful advice for career changers from the Yale SOM Q&A:
Linda Abraham: The next few questions are about career change: “How does Yale view career switchers? Does Yale provide opportunities to make that transition? Does it have a wide alumni network in high tech?”
Bruce DelMonico: I’ll talk a little about career switchers generally… there are two aspects to it. One is the admissions component, which I know more intimately, and then there are the resources at Yale and the opportunity once you are on campus to make that switch. Many times people do choose to get the two-year full-time MBA specifically because they are switching careers, and they want and need that additional time to make that transition. Because if you are doing a part-time or a one-year program, you just don’t have the space to make the switch as effectively, and you need that additional year, you need some internship, to really make that transition. So it’s not uncommon for people to use a program like ours as a career pivot to make a switch. We are used to seeing that and we are comfortable with that, both on the admissions side and programmatically once students actually get into the program and begin the program…
…And in terms of opportunities to make that transition, we have a full-service Career Development Office that has a range of activities throughout the year to help students understand their opportunities, prepare for their opportunities, and then really design and execute their career search. And a lot of times, it involves a transition to something different than what they thought they were going to transition into when they applied.
Linda Abraham: I think probably one key element would be transferable skills and knowledge.
Bruce DelMonico: That is exactly right. And a lot of times it’s not really a matter of gaining those skills and knowledge because you have it, but helping recruiters and potential employers understand that you have those skills, that you’ve been able to acquire them in your past experience. But also to the extent that you haven’t been able to in your past work experience, have you been proactive about building your skills set in other ways in terms of your activities, in terms of your professional associations?
View the full Yale SOM Q&A transcript or listen to the MP3 recording of the event now and check out our Yale SOM MBA essay tips.
For more advice on applying to b-school as a career switcher, please view our on-demand webinar, MBA: Catalyst for Career Change.