Why offering your time pro bono may be an alternative to business school
Business school is an attractive but expensive proposition. Flashing back to 2006, I was a fresh-faced 25-year-old browsing through business school brochures, buying multiple GMAT textbooks and attending various introductory “pitching” sessions of business schools. I was keen to learn about business and ready to embark on the business school journey. You might find yourself in a similar position and I hope reading this provides some food for thought.
As I considered the proposition of business school and the various conversations with CEOs and senior executives whose advice had been that experience was much more valuable than a certificate from a business school, I reached the conclusion that perhaps I could learn more from setting up a nonprofit organisation. Through this not only would I have an opportunity to learn about the dynamics of running an organisation, but in parallel also have a positive influence on society. Before I continue there is a lot of advice out there that prior to starting a nonprofit it’s worth checking if there are existing nonprofit organisations that match your interests and could benefit from your skillset. Although this advice is absolutely valid, in my case there was no nonprofit ticking all the right boxes which lead to me founding Kuluka — a nonprofit that was active in the area of healthcare in Malawi.
Based on my experiences I wanted to share why I believe offering your time pro bono may be an alternative (or maybe complementary) to time spent in business school.
First of all, to really learn the most you should be willing to offer your time to get deeply involved in the nonprofit’s operations and not just volunteer on the periphery of the organisation’s activities. This would expose you to learning much more (it’s a cliche but be willing to step out of your comfort zone) and give you practical exposure to many of the things you would learn in a business degree from entrepreneurship to operations to finance.
Working in a nonprofit you will gain insights into one of the most challenging “business cases” — the organisation you would be part of likely offers tremendous value in terms of socioeconomic improvement; however, hardly anyone is willing to pay for this the way they would for a mobile…
