Harvard Business School Profiles: Lina’s Private to Public Transition
Contributed by Lauren Davis
Lina is a bit of an anomaly among first year MBA students at Harvard Business School (HBS).
Attending Harvard on an academic fellowship, Lina already has a summer position lined up with a prestigious investment bank. So, while her classmates are scurrying to presentations and networking events for summer employment, she is thinking farther ahead about her long term employment prospects. “It’s tempting to think the decision is still two years off,” she says, “but I know I have to start making some decisions now.”
Lina worked in finance for several years after college, taking a position in New York at one of the largest global investment banks. Her decision to pursue a private sector finance job surprised her friends and family, who knew she aspired to work in public service and give back to the community in her native Jamaica. When she visited her home country over vacation, she endured some teasing about selling out and becoming “part of the system.” She admits that she had a hard time coming to terms with her decision, saying, “It took about a year for me to stop apologizing for myself.”
Although she eventually resolved her self-doubt about working in investment banking, in business school, Lina decided to refocus her sights on social entrepreneurship in developing countries. Working for a bank and attending HBS have offered Lina the credibility and professional growth opportunities she feels she will need in the future to get ahead in the non-profit world. Although a wide array of supposedly “safe” career options are being paraded through the halls of school every day in the form or on-campus career fairs and recruiting events sponsored by banks, consulting firms, and publicly-traded companies, Lina says that she does not feel the urge to “rack up any more medals.”
Many MBAs talk about going into finance for a few years, then pursuing their public interest dreams with a fuller bank account. But Lina does not want to wait until later in her career to pursue her passions. “Coming from Jamaica, I feel like a Third World citizen,” she explains. “I’m interested in bringing capital back to the places that don’t have it.” After graduation, she would like to find employment with a smaller, entrepreneurial project in a developing country.
Landing a job with a start-up company in the developing world poses unique challenges for an HBS student. While the HBS recruitment process designed to place an MBA candidate in project management in San Francisco or an associate position in Dubai, Lina’s particular goals will require a lot more legwork on her part. The public sector opportunities she seeks will not show up on campus, ready to wine and diner her, and pitch their programs to her. She knows she needs to seek out contacts in emerging capital markets, and build up her network of entrepreneurs in developing countries. This summer, she is considering splitting her summer to work abroad for part of the time, in order to gain the type of experience she needs. It won’t be easy, she knows, but Lina is passionate about public service and feels driven to use her skills and education to benefit society.
Plus, she’s always got that investment-banking career to fall back on.
