The following sentence was my HBS application essay: I want to help organizations address climate change and advance sustainability. Since the past year and half, I’ve been trying hard to figure out how I can continue to meet the goal I stated in my HBS application essay while working in a business-facing position. My ideal post-MBA position needed to fulfill the following criteria.
- Focus on sustainability and technology
- Let me challenge you to solve difficult problems
- Teach me how you work in business strategy or ops functions
- Allow me to build strong professional relationships
- You can be a springboard for your career growth
I found this role with BCG Boston ideal and am excited about joining them after graduation. I also wanted to share some lessons I’ve learned along my journey.
Finding My Niche
Before HBS, I was an engineer at Tesla where I worked in design and manufacturing. I learned about the power and potential of an organization to create technology and execute business strategies to bring about positive change around the world during my time there.
Having gained that experience, I joined the Energy and Environment Club and Sustainability Club in my first semester to connect with other like-minded hiring organisations, meet classmates with similar interests, and deepen my involvement in climate change at HBS. As an active member of the clubs, I helped to plan professional panels for each club’s conferences. Both the conference and the planning process were key to my exposure to innovative ideas, businesses, and brilliant people who became part in my network.
During my second year, I had the opportunity of helping to develop a market report for a battery company. This experience and the conversations I had at HBS Career & Professional Development (CPD) convinced me to do an internship with a battery company.
Exploring the Startup Space
It was difficult to find a startup job, especially in a niche field like batteries. I had to network with HBS alumni and the people I met at the club conferences. After months of conversations and interviews I accepted a job at Natron Energy in April 2021.
My summer at Natron Energy taught a lot about me and my career path. I thought I had found the perfect role, as it had everything I wanted: a growing battery startup, remote working, and the opportunity to work directly with the Chief Business Officer. After a few weeks I realized that the startup environment was too confusing for my learning style. I needed more structure. Being remote has its challenges, and it proved difficult to have peers in the same job. The role allowed me to learn a lot more about the battery space, meet great individuals, and apply the knowledge I had gained in the HBS classroom.
Post-Internship: Making an Industry Pivot
My startup experience was a turning point in my career that would take me to August 2021. Although I was certain that the startup path would meet all five of my criteria, I was ultimately disappointed by criteria #3 and #4. I made the decision to recruit for consulting after many conversations with classmates and HBS-CPD, which was a career option that I had never considered. While I realized that I could work for a large company to satisfy criteria #2-5, I still wanted to ensure that it would fulfill criterion #1. I did this by focusing on that when I spoke with the firms during the recruitment process.
It was a difficult decision due to the timing of full-time consulting recruitment season, but I was fortunate enough to sign at BCG Boston. BCG’s ability to meet criterion #1, a focus on sustainability/technology, is what I admire the most. One example is the many ways BCG is helping companies transition to net-zero. Although I will likely be involved in many non-sustainability-related projects, working with several of my HBS classmates, and with a structured learning process, will make BCG a great job for my first job after completing my MBA.
Key Learnings & Advice
After having gone through the recruitment process a couple times, I wanted a few tips to offer recruiters to better reach students.
- Clubs can be used as channels.Clubs are a great way to reach students. Nearly all clubs send out newsletters to students. Many newsletters also contain job openings. Contact information for club leadership may be found online or through the HBSs CPD team.
- Ask about your interests.Although recruiters might assume that students are interested in a specific role based on their past experience, it is always a good idea to ask students what type of role they are interested. This is especially relevant to career switchers such as myself. Although I may be well-suited to a certain role or position due my previous work experience, I may be interested leveraging my knowledge from HBS in exploring making an impact on a different role.
- Eliminate friction.I always appreciate hiring managers, recruiters, and companies that remove obstacles for students during the application process. Students appreciate it when companies are able to skip the lengthy forms on company websites. Job postings are available on 12twentyBecause it allows students the opportunity to apply through a platform they already use and are comfortable with.
- Notice to startup recruiters.Finding startups was the greatest challenge I faced in my startup recruiting process. If you are a start-up looking to hire, get in touch with the HBS CPD team. You can use their channels (career boards, 12Twenty posts, etc.). to connect with the many students looking for work at a start-up.
