The Power of Framing: Searchers Switching Jobs After 2 Years

Hi Richard, this is a very interesting theory. As a current MBA student graduating this spring I'd like to share some factors that are influencing myself and my peers:

Career Trajectory - There is this notion that you have to show positive results immediately after your MBA. Many of us realize our first job post MBA is unlikely to be long term. It sounds really good in at the next interview to say "Hi, I graduated and did XYZ at McKinsey for the last two years" rather than "I graduated and make an unsuccessful bid to buy a company". The first case you have a very sought after profile, and in the second I don't even know how employers will look at failed searchers.

Experience - I agree with John, we learn a ton in the MBA, which is amazing, but we also learn just how much we still don't know. It can be easy to say "I'll just work in consulting for a couple years to gain more experience". I do think search funds are a much easier proposition to former entrepreneurs, but its still a big step larger than a startup with handful of employees.

Financial - Connor is also spot on about the financials. After 1-2 years without a salary, plus the cost of school, its very tempting to take the big bucks at a top consulting firm for a couple years to build a more stable financial base before starting a search fund. Especially when you've sacrificed saving for a down payment on a house or delayed having kids to get your MBA.

Career Center - Our school's career center has fantastic relationships with all the top consulting firms, banks, tech giants, etc. If you want a job there, they know exactly how to help. When you tell them your goal is to build your own startup or acquire an SMB, they just give get confused. Additionally top MBA programs are alway under pressure to boost their stats, which is passed along to the students as well. It looks really good for the school to say "Our top employers are Amazon, BCG, GE and our graduates make an average salary of $1xxK one year after graduation".

Then there are those of us that are just fundamentally unhappy working in a traditional corporate role and are drawn to the more adventurous path to become entrepreneurs or searchers.

My perception is that few MBA's know what they want to do with their lives, so many are still trying to figure that out. The first job is often a form of career exploration for many recent MBAs (especially if they are career switchers). My guess is that many fresh MBA's were previously fairly junior professionals and don't quite feel ready to jump into a CEO position (and therefore may seek to obtain some functional operating experience). Keep in mind, many MBAs only have 2-4 years of actual work experience. Others might have had young entrepreneurial ventures, or 5-7 years work experience before their MBA, and therefore ready to jump into a search fund and CEO role directly after MBA.

I'm headed to my 10 year MBA reunion next month, so it will be interesting to see whether folks would find the idea of doing a search attractive at this later stage.

I'd be curious to see what the average years of work experience (total after undergrad) that successful searchers actually have. Perhaps there is already a study on that.