Beware MBAs bearing gifts.

Nate Pierce, a JD/MBA student at NYU, contacted a few top schools back in January to tell them about his cool new idea: a service that would compile the resumes of other JD/MBAs and put them in touch with each other and potential employers. Apparently many schools don’t keep up-to-date lists of JD/MBAs — the god-kings of grad school society — and therefore there’s no central database of these uber-qualified job candidates. It’s simple, really: You give him your resume, he makes sure an employer sees it. For free.

At this point, anyone with even the slightest shade of street wisdom would be wondering, what’s in it for him? Nate’s waaay ahead of ya. He reassured students in his initial pitch:

“Please note that I am not doing this for my own agenda — I have already secured employment following graduation.  I am doing this project because I think it will benefit many JD/MBAs, and because I myself would like to be a part of a national network of JD/MBAs.”

Shame on you for thinking he would try and make money off his fellow students!

Here’s the problem: he sorta is. Just last week, a dean at NYU’s career services office sent out a mass e-mail to administrators at Yale, Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, and other places where Pierce had been hawking his wares:

From: Irene Dorzback
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 4:05 PM
To: [Redacted]
Subject: Re: TIME SENSITIVE JD/MBA Resume Book

Colleagues:

I just learned from a law firm that our student, Nate Pierce, has sent a promotional letter to the law firms offering the “top schools” JD/MBA resume book to them for a $500 fee. There are 52 resumes in the book (which I have not seen). No where in his communication to you did he indicate that he would be charging a fee and I don’t believe your students believed he would be profitting “off their backs.”

[snip]

Best,

Irene

We hear some of the students who signed up for the database were none too pleased. (Although Pierce told us that no one has opted out so far.) So Pierce sent out a notice to students explaining why he was now collecting from employers: 

I have incurred significant costs, in both time and out-of-pocket expenses, putting everything together (approximately $9,000 in time and effort and $3,000 in actual expenses for jointdegree.com, jdmba.com, and a software tool to enable employers to search the resume book based on key criteria).

He adds that he was planning to offer a complimentary copy to businesses that don’t want to pay.

We got in touch with Pierce to hear his side. Somewhere in his 1,816-word reply, he acknowledges his mistake in not disclosing the fee and explains what he meant to say in his original e-mail:

I was trying to assure JD/MBAs, administrators, and employers that I was not piloting the project for my own exposure, which is entirely true.  I have already accepted an offer upon graduation, and my resume is not included in the employer edition. So no exposure for me (until now).

Machiavellian manipulation or honest mistake? The call is yours: we’ve included all the e-mails after the jump (minus the seven-screen monstrosity he sent us). Either way, he’s now bound to get more exposure than if he’d done it right. So it goes.

From: Nathan Pierce [mailto:natepierce@xmission.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 3:06 PM
To: OCS
Subject: JD/MBA Resume Book Project

[Redacted],

I spoke with your office staff today and they suggested I reach out to you via email.

I am a JD/MBA at NYU, and I am working on putting together a resume book of JD/MBAs at top schools across the country.  I am doing this for two reasons: 1) to build a network and community of JD/MBAs, and 2) to help JD/MBAs connect with employers interested in their particular skillset.  The resume book will be distributed to all participating JD/MBAs, and will be made available online to the joint degree community.  This will give everyone useful information regarding the background, expertise, interests, and contact information of JD/MBAs across the country.  It will also be distributed to a growing list of interested employers.

There are a total of three distributions: 1) directly to participating
JD/MBAs via email, 2) online where it will be available to the joint
degree community, and 3) directly to interested employers.  Each
responding JD/MBA is given the option to restrict his or her resume
from any one of these three distributions — some have already secured employment but would like to network with other JD/MBAs, some are sensitive about their personal information and would prefer their resume to only be distributed to employers.  At this point I have received 24 resumes from JD/MBAs at 6 top universities, and responses indicate that more than 90% are excited to participate in all three distributions.

However, I have not received any responses from JD/MBAs at Harvard, and I am concerned they may not be aware of the project.  Are you able to announce me the project to JD/MBAs at Harvard?  I have prepared the attached description of the project for circulation to your JD/MBA students.

Please note that I am not doing this for my own agenda — I have already secured employment following graduation.  I am doing this project because I think it will benefit many JD/MBAs, and because I
myself would like to be a part of a national network of JD/MBAs.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this project, and whether you are able to make this announcement to the JD/MBAs at Harvard.

Respectfully,

Nate Pierce

From: Irene Dorzback
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 4:05 PM
To: [Redacted]
Subject: Re: TIME SENSITIVE JD/MBA Resume Book

Colleagues:

I just learned from a law firm that our student, Nate Pierce, has sent a promotional letter to the law firms offering the “top schools” JD/MBA resume book to them for a $500 fee. There are 52 resumes in the book (which I have not seen). No where in his communication to you did he indicate that he would be charging a fee and I don’t believe your students believed he would be profitting “off their backs.”

Please note that I am not doing this for my own agenda — I have already secured employment following graduation.  I am doing this project because I think it will benefit many JD/MBAs, and because I myself would like to be a part of a national network of JD/MBAs.

The Vice Dean has written to him to request a meeting to discuss this project.  But I wanted to let you know what has transpired and to assure you that we are taking this matter very seriously.  I don’t think there is anything to do yet with respect to notifying your students until I have more information, but I leave that decision to you.

Best,

Irene

From: Nathan Pierce
To: [Students who signed up] 

Hi all,

Please note I am still waiting to hear back from a few more employers before making the employer edition distribution.  I apologize for the delay, this part of the initiative has proven significantly more complicated than I expected.  To date we have approximately 12 employers who confirmed interest in reviewing the book.  I have reached out to approximately another 35 employers, and am waiting to hear back from a larger portion of them before distributing the employer edition.

The main purpose of this email is to address an issue that has been brought to my attention as a potential problem.  I have decided to request a subscription fee of $500 from employers in order to recover costs.  I have incurred significant costs, in both time and out-of-pocket expenses, putting everything together (approximately $9,000 in time and effort and $3,000 in actual expenses for jointdegree.com, jdmba.com, and a software tool to enable employers to search the resume book based on key criteria).  From the outset I have adopted a policy of offering a complimentary copy to any employer who declines the fee, and have decided to offer the book without any fee request at all to the top 3-5 employers in each major category (law firm, investment bank, consulting firm).  To date only a couple of employers have agreed to the fee, and only a few have declined.  Of those declining, one has accepted the complimentary copy, one has declined, and the others I haven’t heard back from.

I believe the resume book is a valuable resource: I believe it creates value for JD/MBAs and for employers, and I believe it is appropriate to request employers to pay a fee in exchange for this value, and to recover my costs.  However, I did not disclose the employer fee to everyone before requesting a fee from employers (I thought it only natural that a fee be requested to recover costs, and especially considering my intention to comp the book to any employer declining the fee in any event), and this has been raised to my attention as an issue.  I believe I have made it clear to some of you individually that I intended to explore a fee with employers in order to recover costs, but this was not made clear to everyone.

At this point the resume book has really begun to gain traction, and being included in the book will be sure to gain you additional exposure to a number of top employers – at this point 12 to be precise.  However, if you feel the fee is inappropriate and you do not want to be involved, please let me know and I will remove you from the book.  If a significant portion decides to opt out, I will have to consider the employer edition a bust and stop work on it altogether.  At this point only one person who was confirmed for the employer edition has decided to opt out.

If you think requesting a fee to cover costs is appropriate, I would appreciate your thoughts as well.

Best,

Nate Pierce