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For MBA students and alumni navigating an uncertain jobs market, the standard career advice – define a long‑term plan and execute it relentlessly – can feel increasingly out of step with reality.

In the latest episode of Lead Out Loud, Michelle Feeney, a former CEO and global executive behind brands such as MAC Cosmetics, Estée Lauder and Tommy Hilfiger, now founder of sustainable fragrance brand Floral Street, describes how she left the UK in her 20s and flew to New York with no job offer and just £600 in her pocket.

Feeney’s career story is disarming in its lack of orchestration. She moved from Newcastle to London in the early 1980s on the suggestion of friends, slept on floors, worked unpaid and says she has never had a formal job interview. Roles came through doing good work, being visible and saying yes before she felt fully ready.

“I learned on the job,” she says. “You don’t always need to learn things before you do them.”

That mindset resonates strongly with Sarah Jackson, WBS MBA Careers Manager, who revealed that around 40 per cent of MBA participants arrive without a clear idea of what they want to do next. The danger, she argues, is paralysis.

She says: “If you feel you have to work out your purpose before you move, you often end up doing nothing.”

Instead, she advocates what she calls a “test‑and‑learn” approach – experimenting through projects, side work, secondments or academic research to generate insight through action.

This matters for MBAs because the degree is often treated as a career reset button. The expectation of a dramatic pivot – into consulting, private equity or the C‑suite – can obscure the value of incremental moves. Sarah uses a metaphor borrowed from coaching: it is far easier to turn a moving car than one that is stationary. Career progress, in other words, tends to reward motion rather than precision.

How successful MBAs build careers by doing

MBAs are encouraged to use coursework and dissertations as legitimate reasons to speak to employers, not to ask for jobs but to ask better questions. One story describes a healthcare professional who used a research project to engage a consulting firm, building relationships that ultimately advanced both his academic work and his career options.

Michelle believes experience and attitude matter more than immaculate CVs. She urges young professionals to write proper letters, show curiosity and “turn up for yourself”. Professionalism, she suggests, is not about conformity but about demonstrating respect for the opportunity in front of you.

She warns against measuring progress against others’ timelines, a temptation amplified by social media and competitive cohorts. Careers, as Feeney puts it, are long and failure she believes is simply information to learn from, not a verdict.

For MBAs anxious about making the “right” next move, the podcast makes a case for doing a move – and then learning from it. In an era defined by volatility rather than linear advancement, that may be the most rational career strategy of all.

“What we see work time and again is taking a move, learning from it, and building from there,” says Sarah. “In today’s volatile, non‑linear careers market, that test‑and‑learn approach is often the most rational strategy.”

Further reading:

What can Taskmaster teach leaders about creativity?

Three strategies for transferring ownership in family firms

What leaders need to know about finance to drive real business growth

The risks of being a powerful leader - and how to avoid them

 

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