In this episode of Business Casual, the hosts delve into essential insights from Poets and Quants‘ annual surveys, gathering reflections from recent graduates and incoming students of top MBA programs globally. They discuss common surprises and regrets, highlighting the importance of setting clear goals and prioritizing effectively amid the rigorous demands of academic, professional, and social commitments.

Emphasizing the value of fully leveraging the MBA experience, the hosts offer strategies for engaging deeply in academics, diverse interests, and network building to help new students navigate their journey and avoid common pitfalls.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:04.360] – John

Well, hello, everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. Welcome to Business Casual, our weekly podcast with my co-host, Maria Wich-Vila and Caroline Diarte Edwards. It’s the start of a new school year. One of the things that we do at Poets and Quants is we ask graduates, that’s the latest graduating class from all the top MBA programs in the world, and we ask incoming students to all of these top business schools, what has surprised you most as an incoming first-year MBA, and what regrets might you have as you graduate and leave the campus and go on to your career? These are among my favorite stories because there are real people stories with real insights. I think that if you are an incoming MBA student, you could be greatly benefit from them now. It’s true that a lot of the observations It might be obvious, but like anything in life, sometimes the obvious needs to be reinforced and reaffirmed. I think that that’s what these stories do, particularly when you think about, Okay, what regrets do graduates have after having gone through the full experience? They wish they had done this or that that they didn’t do, because I think it can make an incomer realize that there are things that you might want to know or can take advantage of that you’re not doing or won’t do.

[00:01:31.110] – John

And so that information can be very valuable to be getting the most out of your MBA experience. Now, Maria and Caroline, you were both obviously MBAs, and you both had surprises and regrets on your own. But I wonder in reading these pieces, 20 biggest surprises and 20 biggest regrets that we’ve published, what stands out for you, Maria?

[00:01:53.330] – Maria

I think many of the comments in both of these articles tend to fall into this bucket around prioritization and striking the correct balance between being focused on your goals, but also being open to exploration or serendipity or getting to know other people. I think that In a recent podcast episode, we talked about maybe going into business school with a little notepad or someplace jotting down to yourself like, Okay, what is my true north here? What am I hoping to get out of this experience? And realizing that might change while you’re in program. But at least when you have those trade offs to make with your time, which you will inevitably have multiple trade offs you need to make every single day between, do I study? Do I go to that recruiting presentation, do I go to that party, whatever it might be, you can refer to it and say, Okay, within my framework, what am I going to prioritize it to try to help you find that balance? Because a lot of folks said, Well, I got to business school thinking I wanted to do one thing, and then I got swept up in the popularity of a certain topic, and in retrospect, I wish I wouldn’t have, or I focused too much on studying and I should have prioritized networking more.

[00:03:09.030] – Maria

A lot of these regrets or surprises do come down to this idea of prioritization and knowing what do I want out of this experience? How am I going to make those choices accordingly?

[00:03:21.830] – John

Yeah, that’s really good point. We quoted the Chicago Booth MBA who just graduated and basically said, We all know the The first few months of business school are a whirlwind. You’re overloaded with social connections, professional opportunities, and class commitments, it’s easy to get pulled in several directions. If I were to do everything again, I wish I spent more time prior to the MBA, determining what my goals and priorities were and aligning my schedule to those priorities. Wharton MBA told us pretty much the same thing. At the end of the day, we’re all running our own race. We have our own priorities When we are starting this journey from different places, instead of getting caught up and excited by others, I wish I would have been more frequently checking in on my goals and reflected on how my actions align with those priorities. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that we make this experience right for ourselves, and that will look different for every single Wharton student. It’s about not chasing the pack, because I think, Caroline, when you get in there, it’s like you’re overdosing on all these new and smart and ambitious people who are like-minded in the sense that they want more meaningful and fulfilled career than many other people.

[00:04:45.400] – John

It’s very easy to chase that pack, meaning wherever they go, whether that’s the consulting route or signing up for the consulting club and nothing else, preparing for case interviews and just finding that little tribe and not getting out of yeah, definitely.

[00:05:01.660] – Caroline

I’ve seen that a lot, that students get swept up by the whatever is most popular and that can happen academically. So it may be that you feel that everyone is focusing on AI or your classmates are super focused on finance and you feel that you have to master that. And maybe that’s not really what you should be focusing on given your career goals. And you also see that in recruiting as well, that people get swept maybe everyone is super excited about interviewing with a technology company or everyone is targeting top consulting firms, and it feels like that is the thing to go for. I’ve definitely seen that. The students who come in with certain goals, and then they feel like other people around them are targeting something different, and it sounds hot and exciting, and challenging, and perhaps I should be giving that a try, too. And then they end up fragmenting preventing their efforts. And those are often the students who, in the end, struggle with a job search because they have tried to pursue too many different paths. And it is a competitive process in recruiting. And so If you’re trying to prepare for too many different interviews and interview types and different companies, then you’re probably not going to do the best job.

[00:06:23.530] – Caroline

So I’ve definitely seen that a lot. And I’ve also seen that students who come into a program who don’t really have a clear view of what they want to do. And we sometimes see that in the admissions process. So you see some students who are super clear about what they want to do in the short term, how they see their career evolving. They’ve got a fantastic plan. And then there are other students who have some sense of their direction, and it seems like it’s good enough. But then when they get to the school because they haven’t really thought through their plan in detail, they get pulled in lots of directions. And it’s often those students who then struggle to figure out how they want to dedicate their time and the direction that they want to go in for their career. And of course, at INSEAD, where I studied and where I worked, it’s particularly challenging because it’s a one-year program. So it really is like drinking from a fire hose. And you go into it knowing that it’s going to be intense. I think that’s true of any top business school, that you’re going to go into it knowing that you’re going to be surrounded by incredible people, by incredible opportunities, and that you won’t be able to do everything.

[00:07:35.240] – Caroline

But even though you know that going, it’s pretty impressive when you get there and it can be quite overwhelming. And with the one-year format, I think that that is even more the case. It’s just pace is super fast. That prioritization, I think, becomes… That sense of what it is that is really important for you to get out of the program is even more important. I did like the quote that you mentioned from one of the students that you interviewed who said that we’re all running our own race. I think that’s really an important thing to keep in mind. That’s great advice for future students.

[00:08:12.580] – John

Yeah, and there are a lot of specific examples here of things people regret, like taking classes outside the business school. There was a Yale MBA grad who wish that he had taken advantage of the School of Drama, the School of Architecture, the Divinity School at Yale, Instead of just staying focused on primarily the business school. But when you look at the curriculum and how demanding it is and you’re thinking, Oh, my goodness, this is going to be so short. I got to do everything that I think is directly relevant and applicable to my career, and I can’t afford to take any other courses. In retrospect, this person wishes that they had. Leveraging your student card. When you’re a student, you can pretty much call up anybody and get a response because people want to help other students, and you want to really take advantage of that time that you are, in fact, student because many doors are open to you that may be closed or only partially open once you graduate. Or The idea that you should limit the leadership role you pursue and not spread yourself too thin, or you should spend more time with your professors and try to create some intimate relationships with a few of them who are going to help over your career and really act as your mentors, asking more questions in class instead of just sitting back.

[00:09:37.650] – John

Some people regret it not taking coding classes, particularly if they were going to enter in the technology field, worrying less and networking more. There’s just a lot of really cool things that people have expressed to us. Maria, I wonder if in retrospect, is there something that you regret from your experience at Harvard Business School?

[00:10:00.580] – Maria

Yeah, I think the one that spoke to me the most was the spending more time with professors. I did not prioritize that. I think that’s the number one thing I would do, over again, if I could, because I think for someone to be a professor in a business school, instead of being, say, a management consultant, because anyone who’s good enough to be a professor at a business school could also probably get a very high paying role somewhere in corporate America. And yet they’ve made the deliberate choice to instead be a professor at a business school. So usually it means that they’ve made this choice for many of the many reasons, but one primary reason is that they want to be involved on some level with students, and they enjoy the process of teaching others. Not always, but there are always some exceptions, but for the most part. And so they want you to come and talk to them and ask them about their research or ask them questions that you might have. I think the other thing I didn’t notice or I didn’t realize naively is that a lot of these professors actually do during the summers or during the breaks, for example, they will, in fact, often be asked by large companies to come and either do a presentation or to do a consulting project on the side.

[00:11:06.390] – Maria

And so your professors are not only fonts of wisdom in terms of whatever subject matter they teach, but they themselves can have amazing contacts at different businesses and corporations, especially if they specialize in a particular field of study or a particular industry or function that you’re very interested in. So I would have taken more advantage of developing those relationships.

[00:11:27.810] – John

Caroline, what about you?

[00:11:29.170] – Caroline

Yeah, definitely. Some of the things that were mentioned in this article resonated with me. I think that in retrospect, I probably got too stressed about the course, and I probably spent a bit too much time studying and not enough time socializing. I still did do a lot of socializing, but I think that it’s easy to underestimate the value of the time that you spend just hanging out with other students. It’s easy to think, Oh, what’s the most productive use of the next hour? It’s thoroughly reading the case study and making my notes and doing a bit of extra research ahead of the class versus, and that sounds much more productive than sitting out on the lawn with my classmates and having a leisurely lunch and just talking about who knows what. It’s easy to dismiss some of those social opportunities, I think, and get too wrapped up in the academic experience and not always take the time that you could do for hanging out with your classmates. Actually, often students learn as much from their classmates, if not more, than from the faculty, because you’re surrounded by incredible people who’ve done completely different things from you and who can share things with you that would never have occurred to you before and expose you to things that may have a completely different mindset from you.

[00:12:59.690] – Caroline

So that’s incredibly enriching. It’s also building relationships with people who will be your lifelong classmates and will be your lifelong support. I think in the long term, that is the biggest value of the MBA. It’s the network. It’s more so than even what you learn in the classroom. I think that when you are caught up in the moment of that academic experience, it’s easy, and I certainly did that, to spend too much time focusing on the academics, especially if the class is not something that’s really critical for you and not spend enough time hanging out and having that beer on the lawn with your teammates.

[00:13:41.090] – John

That comes through in the story as well, because one student said, Stop being a perfectionist. This one student, or graduate rather, said, Because I came from a non-traditional background and I’m one of only two moms in my program, I felt like I had to prove myself 24/7 and show that I belong. I competed for a high GPA, volunteered for everything, and pushed myself so hard to never fail or mess up. It’s part of my personality and probably helped me succeed in the program. However, I’m learning now the better way of priorities and know that it’s okay not to be perfect. So there you go. Spend more time with your classmates and network and don’t worry about getting A’s in every single course is her big takeaway. Another interesting takeaway is trust the process. I think particularly in the core curriculum, when cores are often designed to throw so much work at people to deliberately overwhelm them, people can get a little disenchanted with the process. But it’s all meant to force you to make priorities with the understanding that in the real world of work, there are going to be times when you’re going to be overwhelmed and you’re going to have to make choices.

[00:14:52.860] – John

Those choices need to be thoughtful and they need to be informed, and you may as well learn that in business school. But while you’re going through the process, you may be questioning that and wondering why in the world would people demand so much of you far more than you can actually deliver. The truth is, the process is designed to do exactly that, to allow you to make the kinds of decisions that you’re going to have to make in the real world. What about the surprises? When you first start on campus, I know one of the big surprises that people often have is how quickly you have to think about a job. Here you are, let’s a two-year program. Within the first two months, people are coming to campus and inviting you to go to cocktail receptions and presentations by companies, and they’re looking you over, and you got to put your best foot forward because you start to have to worry about your internship possibilities and all that. People are often surprised and shocked by that. Were there surprises for you in the first year, Maria?

[00:15:57.130] – Maria

That’s a good question. I think my biggest I think a surprise goes back to what you said a second ago about trusting the process. Every business school has a core, but the way in which they handle the core might be slightly different. Some business schools let you test out of certain core subjects. You either don’t have to take them at all, or if you do have to take it, you can take it at a higher level. Let’s say you’re a certified public accountant, you might not have to take the introductory accounting class. Some schools might have a core that only last one semester versus two semesters. The school that I went to, you couldn’t test out of the core, no matter how experienced you and the core was one full year. I remember being grumpy about that. I often say that the one that I had that just made me the angriest, or maybe angry is too strong of a term, but that I was like, I just rolled my eyes at the fact that I’m like, I can’t believe they are forcing me to take a stupid class in entrepreneurship. That’s the last thing I…

[00:16:48.290] – Maria

I will never become an entrepreneur. Are you nuts? And so, hey, they forced me to take the class and it ended up being my favorite class. Or conversely, the accountants, I thought, That’s so unfair It’s fair that the CPA in our section has to be in this very, very basic elementary accounting. It’s so unfair for her. But then it allowed her to really shine. It allowed her to lead study sessions and to be the expert and to really just be a star in that one subject. Because if you are an accountant, you have to specialize and focus so much to get that CPA that perhaps there were other classes where she was learning a lot. She was able to receive and to benefit from other people in those classes, and she was able to give in the accounting class. Having the opportunity for the experts to step forward when it’s a class about their expertise, but then this step back when it isn’t their class of expertise, I think it helps you see people in a different light, perhaps, that you might not get to if you wouldn’t have had the chance to be like, Wow, that person really knows what they’re talking about if they would have skipped out of the class.

[00:17:50.930] – Maria

Yet I could also very easily make the argument for why it makes perfect sense to allow people to skip out of classes and why a flexible core is the best thing you could possibly. There’s no right or wrong. But I think just, again, trust the process. That was my biggest surprise was how much I ended up appreciating the way in which the core was structured.

[00:18:08.750] – John

Yeah. Caroline, what was your big surprise at INSEAD?

[00:18:11.660] – Caroline

A couple of things. I think one of them was that The learning experience was so different from my undergraduate experience. I knew I was going to get a lot out of the program, but I hadn’t realized how much fun it would be, how engaging that classroom experience would be. It was so different from my undergrad where the classes could be very dry. Professors couldn’t really care less if you were engaged or not. I went to a pretty decent school, but it was just a very different style and very different expectation of how the faculty would engage with the students and how interactive the experience would be. So that was a very pleasant surprise that the learning experience, even for classes that weren’t my my favorite classes and my favorite topics. Nevertheless, the classes were really stimulating, really fun, always engaging. And just clearly, the professors have a very different attitude and very engaged with the students. So that was something that surprised me and was really a good discovery. And then the other thing was how much I spent on things like travel. And that’s one of the things that somebody mentions in your article is that they were surprised by how much people travel.

[00:19:34.940] – Caroline

I had set aside some money for travel, but it wasn’t enough. And you want to take advantage of opportunities to travel with classmates or travel, faculty-led trips, et cetera. I think I was a bit conservative in my budgeting ahead of time. I realized that I wanted to be able to take advantage of those opportunities. And it does cost money, right? But it’s good to be able to do that if you can because a lot of the bonding and the exchange can happen on those trips as well. So that was something that was perhaps not for the good surprise as how much it ended up costing me to do the MBA.

[00:20:16.820] – John

Yes, right. In fact, one of the regrets of one of the graduates that we quoted was not taking full advantage of the global emersion trips that you just mentioned when they are led by faculty. Some of the surprises. One person said, fail fast, fail forward. The sheer velocity of the learning curve is remarkable. It’s certainly baptism by fire, juggling classes, networking, and recruiting all at once. But what I found truly impactful was how quickly I adapted by throwing myself into it. We’re here, and we’ve already said this, but it’s worth saying again because I think it’s so important, your network is your net worth. I was surprised at how quickly some of my peers went from classmate to confidante. And boy, that is a real rewarding part of business school. That observation is by a Wharton MBA who just joined the school. Another surprise was alumni, welcome hearing from students. Yeah, this goes back to the regret about. Leverage your student status because it will open doors for you that may not open doors later on. You don’t learn in silos. That’s one thing you really learn quickly because in any really good school, immediately assigned into a team, very diverse people with very different backgrounds than your own.

[00:21:37.660] – John

You learn a lot from your people. The other really interesting thing about business school is students run the school. That was a surprise for some. Most really good business schools have student-centered cultures, and there’s a lot of hands-on activity that the students control. Here’s one that’s funny. The dress code is pretty lax. I don’t think that surprises me, but it’s definitely surprised one of the persons that we interviewed. Everyone is still trying to figure it out. Yep, the first months are naturally difficult. Case studies can be fun. Really? That’s a surprise. Everyone works as a team. Again, the student card is a powerful tool. You won’t come out the same person. I think that’s really true. A good MBA program is a transformative one. Check these things out. 20 Biggest Surprises for First-year MBAs is the title on one of our stories for incoming students. Then 20 Biggest Regrets of MBA Graduates, which catalog people on the way out, what they wish they had done that they didn’t. Hope you enjoyed this, and I hope it makes your MBA experience more meaningful for you. This is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. Thanks for listening to Business Casual.