INSEAD research traces the lives of One year MBA alumni a decade after graduation

A new case study explores the lives of alumni 10 years after school; finds career diversity and a drive for success that is personally meaningful

A new case study reveals that INSEAD MBA graduates look far beyond salary and position when it comes to defining success. The study, conducted by INSEAD Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour Jennifer Petriglieri and Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour Gianpiero Petriglieri, draws on the stories of graduates from the Class of 2002 to provide insight into the varied shapes career success, social engagement and personal fulfilment can take a decade after earning an MBA degree.

The findings, presented in “Ten Years Later: Memoirs of Life and Work a Decade after an MBA,” challenge the stereotype of business school graduates as jet-setting materialists with eyes trained on big pay checks and corner offices and little concern for health, family, or society. Instead, the researchers uncovered a much more nuanced reality surveying an international group of INSEAD graduates who volunteered to share their stories shortly after their 10-year reunion. There was considerable diversity in the backgrounds and occupations of the subjects, who worked on every continent and in various sectors and industries. Some were employed by large multinationals, others by nonprofits, and some had launched their own entrepreneurial ventures.

While they may have encountered different challenges, men and women, represented equally in the study, shared similar trajectories and aspirations. Most had begun their careers with rather conventional definitions of success—high salaries and fast promotions—but shortly after the MBA had begun the process of crafting careers more closely aligned to definitions of success that we both broader and more personal.

“All graduates enjoyed rewards and recognition for their work,” said Jennifer Petriglieri. “However, very quickly these became insufficient to keep them motivated and fulfilled unless they were associated with work activities that felt meaningful. That is, work that was both aligned with each person’s interests and inclinations and gave him or her opportunity to make a difference. The experience of meaning exercised a far stronger pull than the promise of money and positions in these graduates’ careers and their choices clearly reflect it.”

Whether they had shifted jobs or not, the graduates who saw themselves as most successful and fulfilled were those who felt that their everyday work gave them opportunities to express their values and to be connected with valued others. These included colleagues, customers, communities, as well as families and friends. The challenge of balancing commitments to work and other domains of life, such as raising children, caring for aging parents, pursuing one’s hobbies and personal development was a common theme among respondents. Few said they had struck the balance, but many expressed optimism that they may do so in the future.

“These findings raise the question of whether those ‘cookie-cutter MBA’ stereotypes are the product of ambition or conformity,” said Gianpiero Petriglieri. “That is, whether they truly reflect individuals’ aspirations in and after business school, or whether they instead reflect collective expectations of them. Many students take traditional post-MBA jobs because of the financial and social pressures they experience at business school, and move on to what they really want to do as soon as those pressures subside. That begs the question of how to redesign MBAs so that they truly fulfil their promise of broadening opportunities and helping students forge a more authentic path.”

Jennifer Petriglieri has integrated the case into her INSEAD course, Psychological Issues in Management. The class invites students to examine the interplay between their personal and professional choices, and to articulate and tackle the questions that can get easily pushed aside by the pace and pressure of MBA life, she says. “For some, these are broad existential questions, like ‘Who am I and what do I want to do with my life?’ For others, the questions are more defined: ‘Should I join the family business?’”

The case lets current students hear from graduates who have literally sat in their seats. The messages they pass on are helpful, say those who took the course: don’t lose track of what matters, it is ok to have doubts, stay open to surprises. After discussing the case, Petriglieri’s students write up and share how they imagine their lives may turn out if they stay on the track they are on. They find the exercise both jarring and liberating.

“This study really makes the point that sometimes the forces that pull us forward are not necessarily pulling us in the direction we want or need to go,” notes Jennifer Petriglieri, who during her own MBA resolved to shift from the corporate world to academia. “An MBA should provide nudges, space and support to ask, ‘Is this the path I want to follow? If not, what might I need to change to find or pursue my own path?’”