Luis Gonzales ⋅ El Paso , TX U.S. Marine Corps, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 9 years served

Thank you all for your advice. Steve, your advice was especially helpful and insightful. I feel like I'm going to be prepared because of all the great advice. I definitely noticed that 3 out 4 advisors were from GE! Go GE!

Steve Blank ⋅ Saint Paul , MN General Electric ⋅ 14 years experience

Luis,
I'm an engineer by training, but spent 4 years as a process improvement specialist in a Retail Lending operation. Kristine is right that large operations like BofA are likely to be very focused on process metrics - call response times, # of transactions processed, first pass-accuracy, cost per call, cost per transaction, etc.
What I'd like to add is that many large firms interview using a "behavioral interview" approach. Instead of ambiguous questions like "why do you want this job?" or "what do you like about your MBA program?", we often ask you to describe how you would address a certain situation/problem. If you read the job description, take a moment to think about challenges that could come up (for example, if you're running a call center, how would you handle an "escalation call" in which a customer was not satisfied by the first response and the call was directed to you as a supervisor). How would you assess the caller's mood, how would you handle them if they were polite, upset, furious, crude, desperate, etc.? Or how would you handle a case where you found that one person in the operation was clearly not pulling their load. THE BEST WAY YOU CAN ANSWER QUESTIONS LIKE THESE is to draw parallels between some experience you've had and how you handled it (bearing in mind that you may or may not have had different "tools" available to you in the military).
I hope you find this helpful,
Steve

Monish Punjabi ⋅ Stamford , CT General Electric ⋅ 1 years experience

Hi Luis,

From my research of companies while looking for a job last year, I know many top 10 F-500 companies offer internships for MBA candidates. You should look into companies like BCG, McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, GE, Teach for America, Microsoft, Google. That being said, a lot of these companies also give preference to folks with military background. I would highly recommend networking with these companies at career conferences since they hire on the spot at these conferences. Additionally, you should leverage career networking tools like linkedin to connect with recruiters and finding out what jobs/opportunities are there. Hope this helps.

Kristine Kinzle ⋅ Scottsdale , AZ General Electric ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Luis,
It sounds like you have maturity, dedication and the ability to think on your feet, so let that show through in your interview. Also, remember that operations jobs are focused on processes and metrics (for example, error rates or first-pass accuracy, re-work percentage required). In addition to researching a company, do a little homework on operational measurements. If you ask intelligent questions about the type of operations they do, then you can move on to questions about first pass yield, error rates, productivity, etc. They will be impressed with your enthusiasm for the job.

Charles McGrue ⋅ U.S. Army Reserve, Captain ⋅ 21 years served

Hello Luis,

I worked in banking for six years; however, I would recommend you learn more about Bank of America and general banking. If you can do some online research that addresses some of what you will be doing, you may find more information.

If it is just standard operations, you may be able to contribute some of what you have done in the military and how that makes you a primary candidate for a position there. However, displaying some knowledge in the areas that you are looking at getting hired in, will definitely allow them to see that you have sound interest in the position.

Regards... Charles