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Better job prospects

MBA News 10-13-2010

Prospects for MBA graduates are better than they were just a year ago, but connecting students with positions has career centres at business schools operating in overdrive. The efforts seem to be paying off. At Harvard, 85 per cent of graduates looking for jobs had offers by graduation. At Chicago, nearly 80 per cent of graduates had an offer two weeks before graduation.

At Stanford, job postings on the career service website were up nearly 70 per cent this year over last. "Things are warming up, but they're not hot yet." That is the comment of the majority of career advisors and senior figures at leading US business schools. The areas in which school can perceive growth in demand are the banks and healthcare. Across the Atlantic, speakers for Warwick Business School in the UK have a similar view: "We have had Barclays on campus for the first time ever." Other sectors that seem to be increasing hiring needs are strategy consulting, fast moving consumer goods, technology and telecoms. Another trend in today's MBA recruitment is to be orientated towards the emerging markets. Many companies have revised their business plans to target these areas as a source of future growth and this is where they are going to need their people. Companies are hiring into Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, observe administrators at London Business School. Flexibility and mobility are therefore the big requirements for candidates.

Sources: topmba, The Wall Street Journal