My company is going to be starting an in house toastmasters club, and they’re marketing it as building leadership skills, which I can understand. I’m wondering though, would that have any not insignificant effect on getting admitted to a top mba? Sure, I need to practice public speaking, but if I’m going to commit to something I want to be sure it’s worth the time, and there may be something better than that. So my second question, what kind of volunteer/extra curricular’s do the schools like best?
As an alumni interviewer for my business school, I can say that being in Toastmasters in and of itself won’t be helpful. However, it can help you improve your confidence, poise, and speaking skills. Therefore, it seems pretty obvious that these types of things would help you in your interview process and ultimtaely at school, right?
The types of extracurriculars that schools like best are the ones where YOU show personal passion and leadership. So many of my clients that have hired me for b-school help ask me if one type of leadership activity is better than the other, and I guess all else equal, the more prominent an organization you work at for your extracurricular, the better…however, quality of experience matters more than name/size whatever, at least if we’re talking about something reasonable. For example, working at a non-profit with $5K budget may be a different story. However, if it comes down to having a leadership role as a board member of a non-profit with $100K versus doing some occasional clerical and menial work at a non-profit with $1 million or more, definitely go with the former.
Agree with numi. Toastmasters won’t really stand out on your application, but will help with the interviews.
Seriously do you need to ask this question? Toastmasters is something you go and sign up for, it doesnt signify any sort of achievement. How on earth is it supposed to help you?
Think back to the time you were padding your resume for college…
a CFA charter is fairly meaningless to an MBA admissions person, toast masters would be about 100 times less meaningless. However, if you are a math nerd and shy go for it. It will help with that.
It won’t help for admission but it is definitely useful.
Numi, I love your response. I think it is easy for people to get caught up in selecting activities that seem like good resume builders, when it seems better to me to select something you are actually interested in.
Maybe others will disagree, but I’d much rather hire someone who has fewer activities with more depth versus someone with a long list of meaningless societies or business fraternities. I’ve interviewed a number of people (for jobs, not b-school) who just don’t have much to say about some of the items on their resumes. It doesn’t exactly go over too well.