With the economy in turmoil, many MBA graduates are finding the job search tough going. To give readers some insight into the strategies they’re pursuing and the difficulties they face, BusinessWeek has recruited four out-of-work MBAs to write about their experiences for a new feature called “The Hunt” that will appear periodically on the Getting In blog. Comments, as always, are welcome.
By Bryan Glover
I have been carefully weighing the option of starting my own business instead of continuing to search for full-time jobs. What brought this on? I think it was a combination of wanting to stay in San Diego, while acknowledging that there is a severe shortage of jobs in financial services in the San Diego metro area. In talking with a few friends who are also unemployed MBAs, the conversation always seemed to boil down to moving out of San Diego or starting a business to stay here.
In typical business school fashion, I am looking at the problem with an analytical set of tools, using pros/cons, a decision tree, etc. I wonder what angles I might be missing in the course of my planning. I am trying to stay current on economic news to see if this really is a good time to start a finance related business here in San Diego. I am meeting with a former professor who is considered to be the leading economist in San Diego so that I can get his opinion on the 12- to18-month forecast. I have begun writing a business plan, and I am about to look into domain names, trademark possibilities, etc. I think the only fortunate thing about being unemployed and knowing some other very intelligent unemployed MBA grads is that we have the time to do all this without having to sacrifice sleep and do the work “after-hours”.