Job selection guidelines for MBA graduates in Germany

8 min readJul 20, 2019

**Choosing between job options can look like this, but the decision-making process ultimately boils down to a few key criteria to consider and evaluate** (Photo: Mark Neal, Pexels)

One of my international mentees from WHU’s MBA program recently received multiple job offers in Germany and finally selected a great one. Based on this experience and on very interesting conversations with my other mentees regarding job selection, I summarize in this article the key criteria I consider MBA graduates in general, both German nationals and international, should keep in mind when selecting between multiple job options.

Define what you want, but keep an open mind

In our times, each person aspiring to develop a successful career and achieve great things along the way needs to take accountability for their own destiny. Long gone are the times when you could rely on your school, your employer or somebody else to take care of your career. I actually just read today a great article at Inc about this trend (read article here; see trend #10).

Taking ownership of your career means defining what you want and, sometimes even more important, what you don’t want. I personally admire those MBA students who can articulate in a few words what their professional goals are and the rationale behind those goals. Such clarity of mind is, in my opinion, a great proof of maturity and active engagement in their own career development.

Nevertheless, this laser-focus can sometimes lead into not seeing other interesting opportunities which you might have not considered before. This happens often with MBA graduates, most of them in their late 20’s and 30’s. At this age, there is still a lot you don’t know, especially where opportunities are going to show up. Therefore, I consider it is very important to keep an open mind towards other job opportunities you may have not considered and evaluate them with a broader lens than just money or title. In general, look into these areas beyond money and title:

Potential achievements: In which type of projects will I be involved in this role and in this company? How success looks like in those projects? Assuming that those projects turn out to be successful, is that success and those achievements derived from those projects relevant for me to achieve future positions where I want to be in my career? How do those achievements fit into your career story?

Potential network: Who will I work with? What type of colleagues will I have? Which type of clients will I have? Are those colleagues and clients a potential door opener in the future to where I want to go? Who will be my manager? Can that manager become in the future a major sponsor who can support my career in the future?

Lifestyle: Which is the type of lifestyle that this role and company imply? Will I need to use suit and tie/a formal dress code everyday to go to work? Or can I go with business casual? Also, can I work from home or do I need to be at the office every day? Will I need to relocate? Does this align with the type of place where I want to live? How much will I be travelling?

Do an extensive due dilligence of your future manager

Your manager is the single, most important person determining your career potential within a company and, talking broadly, a major stakeholder in your career within a specific industry, function, or domain of expertise. Your manager can be either a marvelous allied and sponsor, setting you up for success and future growth inside and outside of the company, or can be a “road blocker”, limiting your career possibilities. In the past four years, I have had the chance to report to close to ten different managers across different companies, so I have seen this first hand.

Ideally, especially as an MBA graduate with high career expectations, you should look for a manager who is not only a high performer, but also someone with strong values and ethics with who you can build a relationship based on “trust”. I highlight trust since this is, from my point of view, the single most important determinant of a thriving, highly impactful and rich working relationship. Working with someone you can trust, who you know has your back (and you have theirs), will allow you to take risks, learn more and achieve more in the long run.

Trust is not something you can build in a day. As in any relationship, it takes time. But you can spot some signals early on whether your potential manager can become someone in who you can trust. During your conversations, try to identify how his/her working relationship with his/her direct reports is, what are the values in which those relationships are based, how does he/she measures success, what have been the biggest challenges he/she has faced with his/her direct reports, etc. It also helps to have some external references from people who know.

Brand names are important, but they are not the only option

Of course saying that you worked for a Fortune 500 company or for one of the hottest tech unicorns looks great in a resume and in your profile in social media - it will most likely also make your parents feel proud of you :)

Such companies typically offer great compensation packages and benefits to their employees and the opportunity to work in some of the coolest topics with some of the coolest people in the industry. Nevertheless, competition is fierce to land a job in one of these companies and the rules for success to land such a job are not always straightforward. It is a combination of skill, network, culture fit, and, sometimes, pure luck (being in the right time at the right place).

I personally consider that MBAs in general should at least try to land a job with such companies, especially leveraging the network that business schools typically offer with them (which is also part of the key USPs of most MBA programs in general). It is worth the experience. Despite this, you should also keep in mind other “less sexy” or less appealing options where, despite their limited brand awareness, you can make a tangible impact.

In one of the best books I’ve read for aspiring leaders, “The CEO Next Door”, its authors, Elena Botelho and Kim Powell, explain how “go small to go big” is actually one of the top 3 career catapults that many successful CEOs had in their CV.

In this sense, Germany offers a unique opportunity to MBA graduates due to the strength of its “Mittelstand”, mid-size companies which are one of the main engines of the German economy. The so-called “Hidden Champions”, a term coined by Hermann Simon, a renowned German strategy and marketing consultant, is a great example of it. These Hidden Champions are world leaders in a specific niche or niches and are spread across Germany, not only in major urban centers but also in small towns. It is not uncommon to visit a German town and suddenly realize that most inhabitants actually work for a couple of world-class “Mittelstände” located nearby.

The “winning trifecta”: working in a growing industry, for a growing company, and for a rising-star boss

I built this concept based on the insights from Victor Cheng, a former McKinsey consultant who founded Case Interview, a platform to help aspiring management consultants to land a job at top-tier consulting companies. He is also the author of the “The Strategic Outlier Letter”, a monthly publication about career and life in general with a strategic twist (I am personally a subscriber and a huge fan of it). In one of Mr. Cheng’s letters, he makes a great statement on “how to create more options” for yourself, career and life-wise, by aligning yourself with successful and growing companies and by evaluating the “degrees of freedom” they offer across multiple areas, including time and money.

He goes further talking about how to decide between employers who offer similar degrees of freedom, which is where he introduced this concept of working in a growing industry, for a growing company, and for a rising-star boss - I just added to it the shiny title of the “winning trifecta”, the rest is Mr. Cheng’s thought leadership.

I personally consider this is a powerful concept when you look into career options, since you ideally want to land a job which has all three of these elements.

“Good enough” job vs “Perfect” job

This is where I think most MBA graduates struggle to make a decision. Of course, every MBA graduate with high ambitions wants to land the “Perfect” job, ideally the type of job which has all the elements mentioned before.

Nevertheless, the context or situation in which you are doesn’t always allow you the privilege of waiting for that “Perfect” job to show up: you may be running out of cash, your visa may be about to expire, your student loan payments are starting to kick in, your couple is starting to get anxious about you not having a job, etc., etc.

Therefore, sometimes, the “Good enough” job is actually the best choice to take. Of course, it needs to satisfy your financial requirements to at least maintain your lifestyle (assuming you have a moderate lifestyle) and, if applicable, your family (especially if you have kids). It also needs to represent a professional challenge where there is some potential to learn new things, meet new people, and gain valuable experience to add to your profile.

With this, I don’t mean that you need to be complacent. You always need to strive for the best and be in the look for that “Perfect” job. Therefore, you constantly need to invest time and resources to build your job pipeline. But keep in mind that your conditions may not always be in your favor to wait for that “Perfect” job to come.

Also, keep in mind that no job is forever, especially in the current days. With the average tenure being now around two to three years in a job, you can already expect that even after starting a new job, you will most likely be soon in the look for your next career step, either within the same company or somewhere else. So don’t be so stringent about job selection. It is not like with marriage where you commit “until death do us part”. Consider a job as part of a series of stepping stones that you will have in your career, which should ultimately lead you towards your end goal, whatever you decide that end goal is.

Wrapping it all up

Selecting a job can be a daunting task and you could easily fall into the trap of “overanalyzing” the decision, especially considering how analytical-driven MBAs typically are (that is, at the end, one of the key skills that MBAs are supposed to be good at). But, in the end, there are a few important factors that are really crucial in order to make the right decision, starting by that alignment between what the job has to offer and what you want, and ideally landing a job where the “winning trifecta” is in place.

It is important that you don’t get caught in the buzz and think that the only jobs that matter are those with sexy titles in mainstream companies. Of course, you should try to maximize the return of the investment you did in your MBA, but you should also focus on doing meaningful work you can feel proud of and which creates a positive impact for your clients and, as a result, create a positive impact for your employer, for society, for you and your beloved ones.