MBA Speaker Panel hosted on Campus - Spearheaded by our VP for Membership Development, Chika Ekeji, Africans at Microsoft recently sponsored a speaker panel on our corporate campus entitled, "Pursuing an MBA – Motives, Value, and Opportunities." It was designed to be a candid discussion with business school admissions and career services people, current students and MBA graduates on a range of topics, including:

• What it really takes to get into business school;
• How to best employ time as a student to position oneself for the right job;
• What opportunities exist at Microsoft for MBA graduates;
• How experienced business leaders view & value the direct impact of the MBA on their careers;
• The real tradeoffs/considerations one should be ready to make in pursuit of an MBA; and
• The importance of professional networking.

The event was well attended, with over 150 people in the room and another 50 or so dialed in from remote locations. Many of our diverse communities were represented, with members of our Blacks at Microsoft, Indians at Microsoft and Chinese Employees at Microsoft diversity groups joining us to learn about business school options.

We had representatives from some of the best schools in the country, including Harvard Business School; Sloan School of Management at MIT; UC Berkeley; University of Washington; Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and Wharton, among others.

Speakers included business school representatives as well as Microsoft employees who had, or were studying an MBA - one of our panelists, Shola Aluko, discovered a new career path through his MBA. You can see a video of him here, as one of our Senior Product Managers for Internet Explorer.

Click the icon below to download a PDF file containing the full transcript and panelist information:

After the panel, attendees practiced a core MBA skill - networking - getting to know people from different business groups and inundating panelists with offline questions. All in all, it was a successful event and much value was derived by all who attended - thanks to all who volunteered, attended and participated!