On March 4, Jonathan Masland, director of Tuck's Career Development Office, took over the Tuck Facebook page to answer any and all career-related questions. In case you missed it, here is a full transcript of the chat.
Tuck School: CDO Director Jonathan Masland is taking over our Facebook page! Leave your questions in the comment section and he will respond shortly!
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Cazzie: Hi Jonathan, Thanks for your time today! I am eager to secure an internal strategy role in Supply Chain. I want to focus on sustainability in supply chains, but am open to broader supply chain roles. Specifically I am curious about relationships you may have with companies that operate in Latin America, or if not, your suggestions for launching an off campus recruitment plan. Thanks!
Jonathan Masland: Cazzie: a couple of suggestions here for companies—Cargill has a really good program that also involves Latin America; Deere too—Kimberley Clark Falabella too—it is a pretty targeted job search—we would you build the targeted list of companies and Tuck alumni / recruiters to engage in the job search process. P.S. Viva Mexico!
Cazzie: Awesome. I'll look into these. I was able to meet with GAP Inc.'s VP for Global Responsibility last week, though their supply chains operate primarily in Asia. Side note, I see you have extensive experience in Latin America too! Thank you!
Jonathan Masland: My wife is from Durango, MX
Cazzie: My husband is from Hidalgo, Mexico!!
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Jared: Good afternoon Jonathan. Thanks for your time. I have recently interviewed with an alum and hope to be a Tuckie in the near future. I am interested in consulting and my primary area of interest is healthcare. When pursuing internships and permanent placement is it common for someone to land directly into a niche group of their interest? Or, is it more likely to be placed where there is a need at the firm and then transition to your area of interest once you have proven your mettle?
Jonathan Masland: Jared: Healthcare consulting is actually less of a niche than you might think. The Health industry in the US is a focus point for many businesses so definitely expanding. To your question, student are able to land a job in their niche target even for the summer, and those who don't, take a multi-step approach and do something similar for the summer, which gives them a good experience to transition into what they are looking for ultimately. It depends on your background and we do a tailored career search with the student.
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Gabrielle: What percentage of students reposition after their summer internship and decide to recruit for something different for post-MBA? How does the CDO support that transition?
Jonathan Masland: About 50% accept offers from their summer. Many will continue in the same industry as their summer; about 20% or so decide not to go back to the type of job they interned for. This is my best estimate.
Jonathan Masland: Gabrielle: I just realized I didn't get to your last question here. We support the transition by offering a whole season of second year on-campus recruiting, sourcing job opportunities, bringing ~150 companies to campus to speak with companies, referring alumni, pushing student resumes to recruiters and alumni, offering one-one-one coaching, and by having a dedicated staff member sourcing jobs for students. I also think that there is a lot of support provided to students making transition organically through interactions with fellow students – Tuck is a close knit community and a lot of learning around careers comes from fellow students.
Gabrielle: Thanks so much, Jonathan! Glad (but not surprised!) to see there is the usual outstanding support either way.
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Justine: What kind of work experience do your career coaches have?
Jonathan Masland: The career coaches come to Tuck with a lot of industry experience—here's a quick run through of the team (Lizzie and Mathias are here with me right now!). Deirdre O'Donnell covers finance and worked at Lehman Brothers for 24 years, Stephen Pidgeon, T'07 come from media and worked in consulting at McKinsey; he covers consulting and health care. Mathias Machado, T'09 covers technology and general management; he worked for Siemens, Volkswagen and TomTom; last -- Lizzie Napier, T'91 worked at McKinsey, General Mills, JP Morgan, Welchs and ran an NGO too! It's a great team.
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Miguel: Hello Jonathan, and thank you for your time! I have been told that some companies in the energy sector in the US are not usually willing to hire international students due to visa issues --and sometimes even due to specific regulations. Since I am not a US citizen and have a keen interest in the energy sector, I would appreciate if you could briefly comment on the challenges faced by international students when recruiting in this industry and how the CDO helps them. Thanks!
Jonathan Masland: Miguel—this tends to be for the large Oil and Gas companies—they tend not to sponsor for non-technical roles. Other energy companies seem more willing to sponsor. Also, another strategy I see is for MBAs to work in the energy practice of consulting firms or banks; these will sponsor—and then later transition into industry after a couple years. Often this is in Houston offices.
Miguel: Thank you for the answer, Jonathan. What about the renewable energy sector? Have you seen many students heading to companies in this sector lately?
David: Apart from the oil industry, are there other industries that are not willing to sponsor international students? Do you know why they do not want to sponsor international students?
Miguel: Thank you for the answer, Jonathan. What about the renewable energy sector? Have you seen many students heading to companies in this sector lately?
Jonathan Masland: CPG can be a bit of a challenge with some firms and also some rotational programs. Frankly, I'm not sure why the large O&G firms do not sponsor. My thought is that they have plenty of US citizens who apply and can fill the roles.
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Brian: Hi Jonathan, Does the CDO look at the individual and offer advice as to which career path is best suited to them or is this something that is assumed upon entry and the focus is more on helping a student towards their desired career?
Jonathan Masland: We definitely focus on the second option—we will do whatever we can to help the student realize what they want. That said, we will give honest advice and insight into where there may be fits but this tends to be at the request of the student.
Brian: Thank you
Jonathan Masland: You're welcome! We offer career assessment tools to help students reflect on their priorities, skills and interests and an open door policy where students can work with any/all of our highly experienced career coaches.
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Chris: Hi Jonathan, Can you describe how the CDO helps students who want to get into Venture Capital? What resources are available and how can the CDO help set someone up for success? Thanks.
Jonathan Masland: Chris -- we rely heavily on the Center for Private Equity & Eship at Tuck with T'96 Tom Naughton leading the charge and working one-on-one with students who are interested in VC. We also lean on the PE Center's board and our alumni who work in the field. Here' is a link to the PE Center's website.
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Nicholas: Before returning to my mentors/managers, from whom I received letters of recommendation for earlier applications, and asking for additional letters, I am wondering if there is a way to set up an interview with the admissions staff to assure that my candidacy would only be solidified with such recommendations. Is this feasible?
Jonathan Masland: Hi Nicholas: Are you a re-applicant? Essentially, an application is not considered complete without recommendations. It you are a re-applicant, you only need one recommendation. If not, you will need to provide the required two recommendations.
Nicholas: I am not a re-applicant. I had applied to another two schools previously, and went through the process of getting letters. I am, now, considering Tuck, as well. A friend of mine had mentioned that in some instances, one can meet with admissions at Tuck...See More
Jonathan Masland: Hi Nicholas: Because the application process is much more holistic than its individual parts, we do not evaluate the viability of a candidate without benefit of a complete application. Removing the ability of an admissions officer to review a candidates application in its entirety before determining whether that candidate is admissible is a disservice to the candidate. If you are looking for a baseline understanding of what a successful applicant looks like, you can refer to our class profile.
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Arun: Hello Jonathan, Thanks for your valuable time. When does Career Development Sessions start at Tuck? How does CDO help out students in reaching out to companies of their choice?
Jonathan Masland: No problem! Where are you?
Arun: I am in India.
Jonathan Masland: It's a little warmer in India I think though today it is a balmy 40 degrees. CDO starts sharing information at ASW -- most summer materials are digital with some call in events to review industry careers; early August we have a Technology immersion in the Bay in the first week of August.
For reaching out to companies -- three things; we coach students on how to reach out; we connect them with our alumni and then also we have a dedicated staff member that all she does is reach out to companies to source jobs on behalf of the CDO and then also specific student requests.
Arun: Yeah. It was raining in Mumbai for last couple of days. How is climate in Hanover? That was very informative detail. I understand Tuck is one of the best in General Management Consulting, but If I am looking for something specific. Let’s say Infrastructure Consulting. How does it work out with CDO? You did mention it in last point, but I would really appreciate if you could come up with some more details on it.
Jonathan Masland: With respect to something so targeted, students typically rely on three key resources in the CDO/Tuck – (1) our alumni that support student jobs searches; we open up our alumni database to students to use, (2) our dedicated professional, Sarah Van Orman, who will meet with students and then reach out to targeted companies and (3) coaching from the CDO team of coaches that provide guidance and support to the student as he/she works through the process of sourcing, networking applying, interviewing and ultimately landing a targeted job.
Arun: Thanks Jonathan for getting back to me. It is nice to hear about strong alumni support of Tuck.
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David: Hello Jonathan! First of all, I would like to thank you for your time and attention today. I have three questions for you:
Thank you!
Jonathan Masland: Hi David, We don't really see a gap between US vs. international salaries. $118,160 vs. $1116,050 mean salaries (the medians are reversed). You can see all the stats in our Employment report.
Repayment of loans really depend on personal preference, your specific salary, and so many other factors.
Regarding apparel/fashion industry, we have alums in H&M, Nordstrom, Target, UnderArmour, Nike as a couple of examples and relationships to firms like Simon Kucher who do consulting in this space.
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Oscar: John. It's nice to see you again. I remember meeting you on 1/30/15 at Tuck, when you directed me to Tuck's Lunch with a student. I have many questions. My first involves the use of CDO resources before matriculating. Does Tuck allow matriculated students to access CDO resources before they start school? Thank you!
Jonathan Masland: Oscar! Good to see you again, if only online. You can see the post I just put up. We will push content to you throughout the summer by email and the admitted student website.
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Gabrielle: What type of support is provided to incoming first years between now and August?
Jonathan Masland: We are offering some online content related to career exploration called CareerLeader, information on resume preparation and also we are building out a library of what it is like to work in different industries by interviewing alumni -- these will be digital and shared with admits for industries like consulting, banking, energy, CPG, etc. We'll be posting summer camp career opportunities.
One more thing -- we will be doing another Silicon Valley Bootcamp on technology -- Mathias Machado T'09 is here with me (he's from Argentina) and might provide a little more content on this three day event in the Bay. The date is not set yet, but we are targeting that first week of August (5,6,7). You can find out more about what we did last year.
Oscar: Cool. Gabrielle looks like we asked the same question.
Gabrielle: I know! We should work on our resumes together before school starts
Jonathan Masland: Great minds... We'll send over resume guides and content to help you guys. And admitted students can reach out to the CDO anytime!
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Oscar: Besides doing well in class, attending recruiter presentations, what is the most valuable actions 1st years can take to help their career profile?
Jonathan Masland: Oscar—getting to know the company professionals and Tuck alum and them getting to know you, your profile and your interest in the industry/company is really important. This really references 'networking' -- we do a lot to both train students to network and also facilitate by offering many events at Tuck and in different cities through treks.
The other thing that can help a lot is to become clear on what you really want to do for the summer and after you graduation -- this clarity will help you direct your energy focused on the opportunities. I hope this helps.
Oscar: Definitely helps. I'm currently working on getting that clarity right now. This is actually a perfect lead in to my next question. I have posted it in a different comment.
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Oscar: How should pre-MBAs go about formulating a backup plan in case their first industry does not work out as they planned?
Jonathan Masland: It's a good question regarding a backup plan -- I think it is important to have one in mind as you explore option one but initially I'd focus 100% on plan A for the summer and post-MBA. It also depends to some degree on how difficult the job is to land relative to your pre-MBA background. This is the kind of question that I and the four CDO coaches would spend time speaking to you one-on-one about and helping you create the best possible plan.
Oscar: Great answer! Thank you so much for your time. I know I may sound like an admitted student, but i'm still waiting for good news on March 13th!
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David: Last question: What are the big challenges that an MBA has to land his dream job?
Jonathan Masland: It’s a tough question without knowing more about a person's background—in general, clarity in what is one's dream job, a willingness to dedicate yourself to building the experience required to land this job and lastly, having fun and engaging the people that will help you in the job search—alumni, students, recruiters and of course the people that interview you. I hope this helps—it's a good question to ask during one-on-one meetings.
David: Muchas gracias!
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