MBAbenchmark – About Us

 

MBAbenchmark was founded in 2009 by four Texas MBA students in order to dramatically alter the job search paradigm. Our website allows students to tailor their job search by benchmarking themselves against MBAs across the country.

The Problem:

As non-traditional MBA students (prior to business school, Randall was a military officer, Conor was a professional soccer player, Aaron worked at NASA, and Kathleen was an actress), our founders know first-hand how frustrating it can be to get screened out of the recruiting process based on something arbitrary, such as a GMAT score or years of work experience. After speaking with recruiters across the country, we learned that many don’t place high value on GPAs or GMAT scores, and some actually prefer candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. However, with no other criterion to select from, recruiters are often stuck choosing candidates based on factors they don’t care about and must use static, one-dimensional resumes to determine who they will bring in to interview.

 

The Solution for Recruiters:

Our ultimate goal is to get rid of this "blunt instrument” process. By empowering recruiters to determine how more than 18 skills and attributes are weighted, MBAbenchmark offers a refined tool to augment the traditional hiring process. These 18 skills and attributes include everything from GPA, GMAT and years of work experience to community service involvement and whether or not a candidate has start-up experience, or is a published author. Later iterations of this site will provide recruiters with a better filter to find the true best candidate, including next-generation resumes and the ability to view a candidate’s prior work and see a candidate in action through video resume walkthroughs and company-specific pitches.

 

The Solution for MBAs:

Our site provides MBA students with the ultimate competitive analysis tool: the ability to compare themselves with MBAs at Top-25 programs around the country who are going after the same jobs. Knowing how they rank nationally in certain industries and functions saves a student time and energy, allowing them to focus on the positions where they’re most likely to gain traction. Analytics let a student see where they stand in terms of relevant work experience, how their GPA stacks up, or what unique attribute they have that should be highlighted in a cover letter or interview. As more students join the site and data points are gathered, company-specific preferences will be identified – enabling a student to streamline their networking by targeting certain companies where they have better odds of success, rather than attempting to make a connection with every firm in the industry.

 

Our Founders:

Randall Crowder – CEO

Aaron Butler – VP Operations

Conor Collins – VP Sales

Kathleen Voboril – CMO