MBA Mama Spotlight: Mai Bocquet of Stanford GSB (part 1)

Mai Bocquet is one of the few moms in her class at Standford GBS (c/o 2016). When she heard about MBA Mama she was inspired to tell her story. As an international student with an engineering background and two daughters to care for, Mai shares a lot of advice she wishes she had going into her MBA process. In Part 1 of her two-part guest blog, Mai discusses her trials and triumphs along the pre-MBA path.

By MBA Mama Guest Blogger: Mai Bocquet //

“I don’t know how you do it!”

That is one of the sentences I hear the most often. And honestly, I sometimes don’t even know myself. Today, I’m hoping to share with you some honest insights and advice from my experience as an MBA mom. These are the things I wish someone had told me a year ago before I started business school.

My name is Mai, I am an MBA candidate from France, blessed with two crazy-cool daughters aged 1 and 3, and happily married to my better half. I came to the Stanford GSB with an engineering background, and just before business school, I was managing an R&D unit in a telco company.

Why an MBA?

I had 3 main reasons to apply for an MBA, and I kept on reminding myself of them whenever I was experiencing hard times.

1. Get an internationally recognized degree, to be able to work anywhere in the world. French degrees are great, but well…not as famous as US ones.

2. Meet amazing people I wouldn’t meet otherwise. Make new friends and open new perspectives.

3. Enjoy California’s weather. I only applied to b-schools in California. You need to be consistent with your life choices.

My biggest piece of advice when you decide to go for an MBA: be very sure of the intimate reasons why you want to do it, and decide whether it is worth it. There are times you will feel like you are about to give up (and many of your classmates will also feel this way and only tell you afterwards), you will need to remember why you started in the first place.

GMAT

I did not get much time to study for the GMAT with a full time job and a family to take care of. I was too tired to stay up late to study and I had to wake up early with my daughter. Like in every situation, moms have to be more thoughtful about time management so I suggest: Start preparing early! Give yourself a few extra months depending on how steep the learning curve is for you. It had been 7 years since I last used my brain to study, so I was pretty rusty and I gave myself 4 months to prepare. My daughter was in daycare during the day so I could study warrior-style and re-learn how to stay intensively focused during many hours, but it was still a challenge. Also, if you were not educated in English, get the TOEFL out of the way first.

I recommend you set a bar for yourself before taking the exam and stick to it so that you’re not wasting time wondering about retaking it or not. I was aiming for 700. Thankfully I got 740 and knew I could move on to the rest of the application.

And finally, take a few days off before the actual exam day. this will help you get out of the “warrior-style” studying mindset and enter the exam refreshed and focused.

IF YOU CAN, APPLY IN ROUND 1

If you’re an international parent, I definitely encourage you to target round 1 to have decisions released as early as possible. This will allow your spouse to network and look for a job once you know your location. My husband would have been bored to death at home, and I wanted to make the transition as easy as possible for him. We always knew we wanted to be a dual career family, and prioritized finding him a career in the Palo Alto area as soon as we heard the decision.

As a parent, and especially as an international, be sure to plan your move. Unlike other students, we can’t pack our whole life into a few suitcases and leave a few days before school starts. Make sure you start this process as soon as your decisions are released.

And (maybe) most importantly: put your children on waitlists for daycares and schools! Waitlists for great services and facilities are much lengthier than you think they are so put your name down as soon as possible.

A NEW ADDITION TO THE FAMILY

I also decided I would have my 2nd child before starting business school in order to give birth in France, with family around to support me (and to enjoy the first class health coverage). And I wanted my children to be close in age. I truly recommend that. They entertain each other; it’s the cutest thing to witness. I also wanted to enjoy a longer maternity leave. My daughter was born in February 2014 and I had 7 months to spend with her before school started. We were really fortunate that the timing turned out so well.