MBA Recruiting: What Works, Why It Matters, and What I Wish I Knew

When I first arrived in the U.S. for business school, I didn’t understand the system.

I didn’t know why internships mattered so much, or why people were talking about “OCR,” “coffee chats,” and “conversion rates” before we had even opened our textbooks.

In Malawi, where I was born and raised, jobs came through networks, government postings, or direct applications. The idea that my future career trajectory would hinge on a 10-week internship seemed almost absurd. And yet, in the American MBA, that’s the reality: internships are the gateway to post-MBA life.

Learning the Recruiting Machine

Recruiting in an MBA is not just about applying for jobs. It is a whole curriculum.

Each industry has its own timeline — consulting recruiting begins before you’ve even settled into classes; tech recruiting picks up a bit later; CPG and finance follow their own tracks. On-campus recruiting brings companies directly into your classrooms and corridors. Off-campus recruiting adds another layer of networking, cold emails, and persistence.

I was overwhelmed at first. I didn’t speak the language, didn’t know the acronyms, and didn’t understand the unspoken rules. My first lesson was simple: you can’t do this alone. Classmates, alumni, and mentors became my translators — not just of words, but of culture.

Why Internships Matter

The MBA internship isn’t just a summer job. It’s a trial period — for both you and the company. It’s where you test if your story, skills, and ambitions align with an industry or an employer.

This summer, I joined Microsoft as a Business Development Manager Intern with Xbox. I thought it would be 12 weeks of exposure. Instead, it became an immersion into questions that have shaped my whole journey:

What works?
In what context?
Under what circumstances?
And why?

These are questions I carried from my years in international development into my work at Xbox. And in those 12 weeks, I learned lessons about scale, systems, and inclusion that will stay with me far beyond recruiting.

12 Weeks at Microsoft: Lessons in Scale

1. Power, Patterns & Performance
I built dashboards that tracked 140+ developer titles — surfacing not just who succeeded, but why they succeeded. Some games thrived on preorders. Others found momentum through Game Pass. In Africa and Latin America, engagement was measured in hours played rather than revenue.
Lesson: Centralized insight matters, but context matters more.

2. Operational Excellence as a Strategic Enabler
I refined workflows, automated title review processes, and helped the team move smoother.
Lesson: Innovation is enabled by rhythm. Execution is equity.

3. Global Expansion
I co-authored research on underserved regions: Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and India. We didn’t just ask where Xbox could go — we asked what Xbox would need to become to serve well.
Lesson: Expansion without localization is extraction. Emerging markets need partnership, not just access.

4. Inclusion as Strategy
With another MBA intern, I developed a framework for inclusive market entry. Not an appendix — a foundation.
Lesson: Inclusion doesn’t dilute scale. It defines it.

These weren’t just projects. They were lessons in scale, systems, and the importance of asking the right questions: What works? In what context? Under what circumstances? And why?

The Unspoken Side of Recruiting

What most MBAs won’t say out loud is this: recruiting isn’t just hard because it’s competitive. It’s hard because it requires a whole new way of being.

Networking: I scheduled more than 80 coffee chats this summer. At first it felt performative. Then I realized: people wanted to help. They showed up not to judge, but to share.
Storytelling: I had to learn to frame my UN, entrepreneurship, and Malawi experience in a way that resonated with U.S. employers. My story wasn’t a deficit — it was a differentiator.
Culture Shift: In my world, humility is a virtue. In the U.S., underselling yourself can be misread as lack of confidence. I had to practice self-advocacy without losing authenticity.