Parallels between Peace Corps Training and Harvard Business School

The Peace Corps and Harvard Business School (HBS). One program is experiencing rapid growth and becoming increasingly relevant while the other program has been pronounced an outdated relic. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly), (HBS), the program with the $3+ billion endowment and its own gym is the one facing an inflection point (for some reason it's really hard to refrain from using HBS jargon when writing about HBS). The Economist's Schumpter's recent piece about HBS's programme was not coloured (hard to refrain from using British english when quoting the Economist) by recent times as much by the approach of the new dean, Nitin Nohria.

I generally agree with the Economist's analysis of the state of MBA affairs because they avoid taking a 2 year view of MBA's behaving badly and pronouncing them irrelevant. As long a masters degree is a requirement for certain levels of jobs, an MBA will continue to be a good masters degree to get. On a simple level, it really helps you get a job by teaching resume writing and interview skills, providing access to companies and internships, focusing on the job search, and providing all kinds of statistics to track this progress. A Masters in History also teaches students new material but nudges graduates towards PhD programs as opposed to business schools' approach of flinging its graduates into whatever employment target they can hit.

Back to the topic on hand, Nohria's new approach at HBS focuses on "competence and character" as well as getting its students' boots dirty. Competence and character is a general prerequisite when your graduates have been accused of behaving like a Viking hoard who pillaged and plundered the global economy. The only hint of an apology that followed the burning of the global village was preceded by a loud belch. Getting boots dirty refers to more hands on internships with companies as part of the classwork. Less theory, more application, and more real work. It's not about looking good in boots with stiletto heels but getting functional with Gore-tex boots.

The Peace Corps got its volunteers already dirty boots even dirtier with a change in its training programme (oops still using British) er program 10 years ago. The 3 month training prior to starting the 2 years of service was labeled as too theoretical with not enough application. Volunteers generally lived in close proximity to each other in comfortable suburbs near capital cities with classroom based training. At night, everyone got together and partied- I mean networked. There was a shock and adjustment period when volunteers started their 2 years of service in more isolated rural environments and their work was no longer in a controlled environment. Therefore, Peace Corps training got more hands on. Volunteers were more spread out in starker environments and their training involved working on existing projects. Their development worked started during the training period not after completion.

I don't have any data on the impact but as you can imagine from the logic and general movement of all Peace Corps country training programs, it was a successful model. It's fairly logical and makes sense that HBS would move in this direction.

The drawback to this approach is by spreading volunteers or business students in small groups with immediate work and deadline, there isn't enough time to bond as a group. My Peace Corps training involved all 25 of us in close proximity. The classroom schedule allowed for ample social time and adjustment which I frankly needed to prepare for my 2 years of Peace Corps service. I was not ready to get my boots as dirty as some of my fellow volunteers. The bonding as a group in business school forms the basis for the vaunted future HBS network and from learning from talented classmates.

My Peace Corps Volunteer group was incredibly close and we still stay in touch over 10 years later. I don't know if I would have that connection with the more applied hands on training model and time will tell if HBS and other business students have sufficient time to forge their bonds and future network. Since business school curriculum changes with every fluctuation in the MBA application cycle, I am confident that this will be evaluated and changed if necessary. Like a good pair of boots, the MBA philosophy and curriculum gets resoled at least every 10 years.

Coming Home Again Again: the Reverse Cross-Cultural Adjustment

One of my favorite local bands, Keep Your Fork There's Pie, introduces one of their songs with, "I wouldn't want to born again again because then I would have to repeat 7th grade again again."

When we leave the United States to travel in distant and foreign lands, we religiously study the local customs, language, and food in preparation for the cross-cultural experience. We are well prepared, open-minded, ready to listen, and invariably mispronounce words and accidentally say something that means penis at least twice per day. I wonder if it's as easy to accidentally say some variation of penis in English or if that's a clever feature of only other languages?

What we forget to do is to prepare for coming home again again. Yes, we spend a glorious week reconnecting with friends, eating our favorite foods, marathon TV watching, or just enjoying a hot shower. We do get overwhelmed with the number of peanut butter options at the grocery store and selecting tooth paste takes 20 minutes, but other than that we're feeling good. Then the reverse cross cultural adjustment hits.

We're faced with finding a place to live, the job search, and trying to regain independence in the United States. This is contrasted with our experience in the other county where we had purpose, carved out a niche in a community, mastered new languages and culture, and had that independence. Being back in the US rapidly loses its appeal. The job search process starts to feel like a Kafka-esque trap and our experience abroad is discounted. Friends lose interest in our stories about the number of barnyard animals on our bus or on our kitchen table. Our interest in friends' stories about office politics or upholstering their couch fades like our metabolism. After a while, there's nothing new on TV and we don't understand why the re-release of the Beatles anthology was such a big deal.

This reverse cross cultural adjustment is the untold story of coming home again again. We were having fun in our former country, are not having fun in the United States, and therefore want to return to the other country because it was fun. However, that's the wrong reason for leaving. We're running away from a difficult reverse cross cultural adjustment and not running to anything productive. Our semester or service or job ended in the former country or our money ran out. If there is a compelling job, study opportunity, romantic interest, or suitcase of gold in the former country, that is worth returning. Otherwise, it's time to move on and properly come home again again.

Here's how to avoid problems with reverse cross cultural adjustment and live in the present. The first step is to recognize that a reverse cross cultural adjustment exists and needs to be addressed. These are the next steps:

1. Don't rush into the job search: A job search is inherently difficult since we are asking strangers to judge us while we struggle not to incorporate negative feedback into our sense of self-worth. Returning home with enough money to delay the job search for a month will make the adjustment more successful. Additionally, we need to be careful about turning a job search into a career search since a career search is even harder. There is already the gap or transition period in our employment history from being outside of the United States so we have an opportunity to experiment or get a slacker fantasy job.
2. Relearn that the United States is fun and look for adventure: Once we've gotten over the joy of being able to easily find good bagels or coffee, it's tempting to go back to the routine or pre-traveling lifestyle. This can lead to stagnation at worst and certainly no new experiences or adventures. The new experience is what made the international experience so appealing and the United States is large enough and diverse enough to offer those same experiences. This can range from visiting old friends to traveling to taking a new class.
3. Establish a sense of independence: It's likely that we were completely independent and fairly free of any schedules other than bus schedules while we were overseas. Moving back to home towns with few opportunities or being overly dependent will turn the trip back home into a real regression. Taking a job too quickly can also destroy our independence because there is only so much readjustment that we can do while working regular hours. Being beholden to no one is a powerful experience and we can't give it away if we want a successful re-entry.

When I returned from the Peace Corps, here's what I did well with my adjustment. On the job front, I waited a few weeks. Then, I went back to my old job as a resource social work at psychiatric facilities because it gave me a completely flexible schedule that I could control. Since that's not the new experience that I was calling for, I combined that with part-time work at a camping goods store as my slacker fantasy job. That was new.

As far as relearning about the United States, I did that very well. My jobs allowed me to take time off and visit friends within a day or two drive, visit graduate programs (where I had friends) to learn about opportunities in this country. I did more backpacking and camping.

What I did not do well as well was move out of my parent's house in the Chicago suburbs. No rent gave me the flexibility to work as needed and relearn the United States. However, it caused me to hate Chicago because I had to experience it as a suburban commuter.

I also learned what new customs to leave behind. Yerba mate is a very bitter South American green tea that is repeatedly sipped through a metal straw in a cup. To the average US citizen, it looks like you're taking bong hits. It caused my slacker fantasy job to end prematurely so I was glad I had that experience with a minimum wage retail job as opposed to something that followed my career path. Track your progress with your reverse cross cultural readjustment so you know when you're make a cultural faux pas or basically saying penis again.

I avoided the Quarter Life Crisis but can I escape the Mid-Life Crisis?

The quarter life crisis is the new mid-life crisis. A search for "Quarter Life Crisis" on the Generation Y career website Brazen Careerist reveals entries on how to assess if you're having a quarter life crisis, what happens when previously clear paths fog over, and the existential struggle in between.

It does not surprise me that this crisis involving the search for meaning, uncertainty about the future, and ambivalence about the past now hits us in our mid-twenties. Previously paths were more certain as you worked on the farm, your parent's business, or got married. Paths were also delayed as apprenticeships or paying your dues were typical so tough career decisions could be delayed until we were in our 30's. Now, Generation Y has to worry about the right decisions on their Facebook post let alone the choice of graduate school, entrepreneurship, corporate jobs, or year long bender in a Thai opium den.

I dodged and juked past my quarter life crisis like Barry Sanders used to dodge the Green Bay Packers defensive line. My early 20's were spent in the Peace Corps, working on-call at multiple psychiatric floors with complete control of my schedule, or living in a commune. Actually, I should clarify, communes are now called Intentional Communities since commune's got a bad name in the 1970's. During these jobs, I spent the time thinking about what kind of graduate degree I should get to be able to do what I wanted in the health care field. At the end of the 3 years, I had decided on an MBA. I had complete confidence in my decision and future path. Additionally I embraced the small victory of each skill developed. I had experience in construction, grant-writing, and social work. I knew how to knit a sock, spin a pottery wheel, traveled most of South America, cooked for 50 people, garden, used power tools, made soap, spoke 4 languages, and butchered a pig. Actually, my ability to butcher a pig excited one of my rugby classmates so much that everytime I answered the phone, I thought that I would hear squealing in the background with my classmate yelling, "Come on over and let's barbeque!" In summary, I had more than enough stories of adventures to take center stage at most cocktail party conversation. On a serious note, I felt accomplished, lived a life less ordinary, and had confidence in my ability to make decisions about my future.

My method of avoiding a quarter life crisis is not a new one. The idea of spending 2-3 years finding your way in the world, sewing wild grains, and experimenting is a pretty standard career path for my undergraduate class. I know there are those with bigger student loans, visa issues, or family expectations or culture that playtime was over and it was time to get a job that could not take this path. My point is that a quarter life crisis is, for the most part, a relatively modern construct of our making. Some part of it does involve the collapse of the American dream where 4 years in college leaves you with a staggering load of debt and no health insurance. The ability to spend 2-3 years traveling, being a subsistence organic farmer, Americorps, working part-time and doing art part-time, moving to San Francisco and seeing what happens, homesteading in Alaska, or any of my other classmate's pursuits has faded. However, the quarter life crisis emerged well before the economic crisis so I will stand by my position that the quarter life crisis is our own invention and we have more control over it than we may think.

I turned 35 this year so my mid-life crisis is approaching. In some ways, I'm ripe for it as I am married, have a child, clawed my way to middle management, and am 20 pounds heavier than I was in college. One of my high school classmates with a suburban lifestyle lamented how he's realized that we've reached the age where we have as much chance picking up young Generation Y women in a bar as our grandfathers do. My car died recently and I saw a perfect opportunity to embrace a mid-life crisis by buying a sporty red convertible. My wife said that it was fine as long as the baby's car seat fit in the front seat. We bought a station wagon.

What's saved me from a full blown mid-life crisis so far has been maintaining a life outside of work, family, and social life. I still climb a mountain or two a year which keeps me connected with life and the wilderness outside of the normal 9 to 5. My high school classmate who lives in suburban Chicago doesn't have this outlet and I can tell that he needs it badly. By some quirk, I am also in better shape than I was in my 20's. I can run farther and faster, get into more yoga positions, and rock climb harder routes. Blogging also keeps my feeling connected and involved in what's new in the world, whatever that may be.

However, I can't pronounce my mid-life crisis to be avoided until I have had at least 5 more years of hindsight. There's also still my plan to grow my hair down to my shoulders again when I turn 40. Long hair is part of my plan to embrace a mid-life crisis since I may not be able to avoid it.

The Impact of the Bolivian Transportation system on Non-profit seeking MBA's

When people ask me why I applied to an MBA program, I sometimes say that it's because I missed a bus in Bolivia. This makes me sound mysterious but it's actually true. I wound up spending the day with a Peace Corps Volunteer who was going to get a dual MBA-Masters in Social Work degree with plans to start an international adoption business. I personally want to run a psychiatric facility and thought that was a perfect degree combination for what I wanted to do.

I never finished the Masters in Social Work due to their unwillingness to view this degree as anything other than a competition with the business school. I also realized that the MBA would provide me with the opportunities that I needed. I never wound up running that psychiatric facility either as I realized that it's much better work in general health care setting but be comfortable working with the psychiatric department.

This Slate.com article discussed the combination of an MBA and non-profit work. The article pointed out that MBA program are very much in tune with corporate social responsibility and the non-profit world with resources like the Aspen Institute. Another commenter provided the following advice of 1) Non-profits are not inherently noble but just tax exempt, 2) For profits aren't necessarily models of efficiency and business virtue just because they pay taxes, 3) Skills and match are important. In general, the question of whether it is best to get an MBA to improve a non-profit or just work in the non-profit and skip the MBA is a case by case decision.

The people mentioned in the Slate article start in the business world and/or use the MBA to transition to non-profits but I actually went the reverse direction. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer and taught knitting in psychiatric facilities but wanted to get an MBA to improve the industry of international knitting in a mental health setting. Instead, I left that career path and the non-profit world to become an evil insurance guy. Here is what I learned along the way:

1. There are some really incredible non-profit opportunities for MBA's: These opportunities are what drew me away from the Social Work program. There were just some incredible positions that took the non-profit work to a new level. There was international health development work with John Snow, Inc., social venture capital (it even sounds cool) with Roberts Enterprise Development Fund , foundation work like with Pew Charitable Trusts, non-profit consulting with Community Wealth Development and the list goes on. It made the institutional social work choices just pale by comparison to work to create, build, and fund organizations. The competition for these jobs was surprisingly intense. A track record with non-profit work and top MBA were minimal requirements as some pretty talented consultants and bankers would take these positions.


2. An MBA is an octagon shaped peg in the non-profit world but it still fits: About 33% of MBA course work falls under finances that focus on the stock market in some form or another whether it be debt:equity ratios, P/E multiples, or valuation. None of these things will ever be used in the non-profit world. I made myself take Advanced Corporate Finance just so I knew the difference between a P/E multiple and a PE gym class but I could only sit still for 30 minutes stretches. With this coursework, many probably correctly wonder if they should pursue a Masters in Public Administration or other type of more publicly focused degree program. Ultimately, I would say an MBA is a better option because 1) at least you understand the financial sector and the mystique or lack there of it, 2) an MBA can work in the non-profit or for-profit world so you have more flexibility, and 3) non-profits are looking for someone who can understand a business framework as they understand a public administration framework. Sitting (or in my case not sitting) through a few finance courses is worth it. It does bring a new approach that you can adopt to suit the non-profit management challenges.
   


3. Network: I am predisposed towards networking and am one of those people who really doesn't mind small talking nor working the room. With the new magic word being public/private partnerships, the MBA helps you reach out to the private sector.


4. Culture Shock: You don't need to go to another country to experience culture shock. I had MBA classmates humbly ask me what poor people do and how they survive in the US. Likewise, I asked my classmates what the big deal was about this Private Equity stuff and if there were hedgehogs at hedge funds. There were also 1/3 of my classmates who were doing some kind of nuclear finance that I did not interact with. They didn't want to hear about how I wanted to funnel pharmaceutical company profits into clinics for the uninsured and I didn't appreciate how they were probably creating Credit Default swaps or other types of derivatives that got us into this financial mess.

In summary an MBA can be transitioned to an effective degree for the non-profit world, but there really is a cultural transition process. I do thank the Bolivian transportation system for helping me find this career path.