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Applicable to all under-represented groups? So the topic that has made a torrent splash in the early weeks of 2013 is a new catch-phrase:  "Lean In," taken, of course, from Facebook COO's Sheryl Sandberg's new book of the same name. The book raced to the top of best-seller lists. The subject--how women can push (or propel?) themselves into the top echelons of business--is relevant. The advice and guidance are useful, although Sandberg acknowledges there are no quick fixes, no one special way to progress along the path, and certainly no assurances that every woman who "leans in" will one day find herself chair of the board. Nonetheless, Sandberg determined it was time to put the issue back on the table and force companies and business leaders to assess where we are.  She advises women to seize control of their destinies, bang on the door and avoid waiting for it to open. So next question. Are her advice and guidance relevant to other under-represented segment...

Lists can be amusing. Sometimes they might be taken seriously.  Magazine and media companies like to produce them--even if they are flawed or biased, because they sell thousands of copies of issues or generate thousands of Internet clicks. They spawn discussion and banter and get people talking. Some lists should be shrugged off and dismissed. Some are worth examining, because they might offer helpful information about the topic being ranked. Employees like good pay, good benefits and, yes, fitness centers Fortune Magazine compiles many lists from year to year. One recent list in its latest issue is its "Best 100 Companies to Work For." To believe in the list and to ensure it's credible and useful, you must believe in its criteria. You must be assured that Fortune has amassed significant data and measured the information properly. Ask employees why their company is a favorite place to work, and you may get dozens of reasons, including especially compensation, benefits, v...

Tuck: Over 2,700 applications for just 250 spots At top business schools, including the Consortium 17 , this is the time of the year  admissions offices fine-tune and compose a new class that will start in the fall.  Many schools have rolling admissions, while most schools notify applicants during the spring. The Consortium , too, notifies those who will be invited for membership and those who will have earned full fellowships. How will the Class of '14 be different? How will it be like others? What do members of the class hope to achieve from two years on campus? The application numbers and statistics are likely similar to those in recent years.  At selective schools from Harvard to Haas at Berkeley and from Chicago to Carnegie Mellon , gaining an acceptance letter for a spot in the first-year class is still a hard task and the result of perhaps a half-year process of securing recommendations, writing essays, taking tests, visiting campuses, expressing interest and tryin...

From Emory MBA to Film Production Now and then MBA graduates depart from business school with aspirations to succeed in a conventional career: Consulting, banking, investing, marketing, or start-ups.  Somewhere along the way, they  re-discover themselves or  re-kindle other passions and head into other directions.  They find new interests and opportunities. And off they go.  Sometimes they transition into another conventional pursuit. Or sometimes pursue something off the beaten paths. Theresa Moore, a Harvard athlete and graduate, earned an MBA from Emory (now a Consortium school) and started out conventionally in marketing at Coca-Cola.  However, along the way, she switched courses, while  taking advantage of her business education and experiences.  Today she runs her own film-production company and directs and produces her own documentary projects. Her most recent project aired on CBS-TV in December and the NFL Network in February. She directe...

Bonus season at financial institutions has come and gone. Yet for the month or two afterwards, there is the inevitable aftermath, the ruminating over what happened and the pondering over whether lucrative payouts in years past will ever reappear. In the post-crisis financial industry, where many just feel fortunate to be employed, there will still be some degree of anger, frustration, or disappointment in payouts. Many yearn for the times of the 1990s or the early 2000s.  Most know the industry is still enduring a shake-out or a re-engineering of sorts, and compensation is a candidate for shake-out, too.  Handsome compensation packages still exist in certain segments, perhaps most prominently at venture-capital firms, private-equity companies and hedge funds.  Even in 2012, you can read about insane, mind-boggling bonuses, likely because someone made an insane, mind-boggling hedge-fund trade.  Payouts at banks, investment managers and other financial institutions (or...

On campus, the hiring process is not quite over. For some MBA students, including those in Consortium schools, whether in their first year or about to graduate, February's arrival could cause panic:  Do I have significant job offers on the table?  Will I spend the summer at my first choice--proving myself in a formal internship program that will lead to a full-time offer in August?  Or must I resort to the only choice I have? Must I return to an old job I wanted to leave in the first place?  If graduation looms, do I settle for the first offer available, or do I wait for my dream post? When February comes, some students beam and boast of offers from top-tier financial institutions, consulting firms, or big corporations. Some have already accepted offers. Others, without the offers or opportunities they covet, grow worried and try to figure out what to do with composure and a new strategy in mind.  There's no need to panic just yet.  Buckle down. This is the...

Does investment banking still have the same attraction? Do MBA students  still swarm toward investment-banking roles? Do many have dreams of joining a top firm, hitting the ground running doing deals and anticipating big year-end bonuses? After the industry turmoil and a series of setbacks and embarrassments, is investment banking still a hot area? There have been upheaval, backlash and calls for reform since Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns disappeared from the scene. Yet since 2008, trends suggest (a) i-banking is still attractive to many MBA students in finance at top schools and (b) the industry has evolved, but not yet gone through the major overhaul and transformation many predicted or hoped for. Despite public pleas for changes in how banks conduct business and pay bankers and despite sluggish economic recovery and stomach-churning markets, deals are getting done. Companies are going public, issuing long-term debt, or acquiring other companies. Not necessa...

Virginia-Darden Dean Bruner Just weeks ago, members of the MBA Class of 2011 dispersed all over the country--first to take well-deserved breaks and vacations, second to prepare to move to big cities or other outposts to start new positions. Business schools get a short respite, a chance to pause after a bustling school year. Afterward summer activity picks up again at most schools.  Many have summer semesters and course offerings. Most are gearing up to welcome the parade of bright, confident faces who will make up the Class of 2013. (Some have representatives who have just returned from the Consortium's Orientation Program in Minneapolis.) At some schools, orientation starts in a few days. At most, deans will inevitably proclaim the Class of 2013 as its best, most ambitious, most talented, most diverse and most interesting. The pulse of business discussion, academic research, and the continual revamping of b-school curriculum is as vigorous as ever. Business schools, inc...

What are the top black-owned banks, brokers, and asset managers in the U.S.? Has there been progress in financial services for African-Americans who want to start, run, own and manage their own firms?  Is the outlook better today than it was in the 1980s--or even a few years ago? For the young black banker, broker, or trader, are there fair, reasonable opportunities to dream and aspire to starting a new firm? Black Enterprise magazine just published its annual BE100s lists. The list shows what's possible and what's been done. The magazine every year publishes several lists of the top black-owned businesses in the U.S. for several industry groups.  In financial services, its lists includes the top banks, top asset managers, top investment banks and top private-equity firms.  Those lists suggest how much black firms have penetrated within the industry. Review and analyze the lists in financial services, and applaud the courage, progress and showing among top black firms. ...

Still looking for a sustained uptown? We are all suffering fatigue waiting for a surging recovery in job markets and the general economy.  Every month or so, the news sours after a few months of hopeful, surging signs. That--in a nutshell--describes midyear 2011.  A series of upturns and optimism followed by the stench of a momentum-killing downturn.  MBAs in finance, especially those who embarked on careers the last decade, know these trends, teasing market movements and promising signs well. Many have adjusted to these ups and downs and press on. As of midyear, 2011, the mood is not dismal. Uncertainty, however, always seems to be hovering overhead.  Many MBAs are finding jobs and meaningful positions in finance.  Job openings and opportunities are more prevalent now than they were in the depressed years of 2008-09.  Yet they may not be first-choice jobs or dream roles. While a select few are winning prize positions at investment banks or p...

Everybody needs a plan, so they say. Getting into a top business school (and earning membership into the Consortium) is an achievement. But it's a starting point for what's to come. Many Consortium students and other MBAs will acknowledge the starting point leads to an opening of flood gates.  Business school starts in early September, in most cases. Students are bombarded with tasks, responsibilities, cases, assignments and meetings by the second day.  Many alumni admit later they knew b-school would be a challenge; they just never knew that the workload would be so overwhelming so soon. And there is the worrisome, looming task to get a summer job, even if the summer is nine months away.  Recruiting season, year after year, starts right before school and requires significant amounts of time and attention. That's where the Consortium Finance Network's annual first-year guide can help.  For the third year in a row, CFN will distribute its guide for first-ye...

Finance types everywhere are familiar with Warren Buffet's annual sermon to shareholders in the form of a letter in the annual report. It's seldom, if ever, a bogged-down analysis of company ratios and trends. More a colloquial finance lecture. Everybody knows the Buffet letter, an honest pontification on business, the economy and the financial system. Derivatives are, he once notably said, "weapons of mass destruction" (although Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway operating vehicle has used them adroitly from time to time). This year, Buffet has other priorities and distractions. He has an internal crisis to manage. Top deputy David Sokol is under investigation for suspicious trading activity. Sokol reportedly bought an equity stake in a company before Berkshire announced it would purchase it. Buffet has publicly scolded Sokol, and Sokol, as expected, is no longer next in line to run Berkshile. That thorny current issue undermines the message Buffet...

Consortium alumni , you are invited, too. The Consortium's annual Orientation Program is not merely a five-day celebration of the Consortium's first-year MBA students. Alumni are welcome and can get involved in various ways. If they attend, they take advantage of the program's varied offerings--from career-strategy sessions to leadership and development seminars. And of course, the always-popular career fair. Granted, the OP (including the Consortium's 45th this year in Minneapolis) is intended to be a memorable, festive welcoming event for over 300 first-year MBA students. First-year students get a head start on business school; 17 top business schools get acquainted with students formerly known to them for their GMAT scores, glowing recommendations and pertinent work experience. Corporate sponsors, by the hundreds, get access to diverse talent and get an early start on recruiting for summer internships. Alumni can join the festivities, too. Consortium MBA alumni often...

 Dalio of Bridgewater Associates  Bridgewater Associates is a successful, $90 billion hedge fund, located along the Connecticut corridor where other successful, gargantuan hedge funds have a home base. Ray Dalio , a Harvard Business School graduate, is its founder and leader. The fund's investors include pension funds and university endowments. Over 1,000 people are employed in a variety of roles.  It recruits those who are tough-skinned, highly motivated and interested in a long-term career at the fund. MBAs in finance would no doubt be attracted to an opportunity there. Would you want to work there? Would it be a place where you can find a niche, thrive and be successful? Would you be able to endure hardships and demands to perform well? Would you be able to stomach equity volatility, risks of losses, and virulent market turmoil? And would you be able to perform under pulsating pressure and high expectations? Bridgewater is also known as a fund ...