MBA Job Applications & Trends

Young career-oriented professionals are on a permanent job hunt, writes Monika Hamori, professor at IE Business School in Madrid in the Harvard Business Review. Monika Hamori came to this conclusion together with her colleagues Jie Cao and Burak Koyuncu after conducting face-to-face interviews and analyzing two large international databases created from online surveys of more than 1,200 employees.

“Put yourself in uncomfortable situations, which will allow you to field new challenges with ease, grace, and confidence.”
IAC’s Hatch Labs CEO Dinesh Moorjani’s shared this personal insider tip for becoming a successful business person during an interview with Business Insider.com.

Gaining experience, finding the right industry, developing skill sets and meeting the right people that might offer you a job after graduation – all this could eventuate from the right internship. A recent survey of graduates and employers by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) confirmed how important internships are for MBA students. 42 per cent of MBA and specialized master’s graduates said they gained work experience while at business school. Those who did an internship were 26 per cent more likely to have a job offer upon graduation compared to their classmates without the same experience. The survey also showed that the success rate of interns getting a job offer after graduation was especially high in the consulting and the high tech sector (70 per cent).

Academic business research has economic value: MBA students from schools where teachers frequently publish in high-level academic journals tend to earn more after graduation. That is the result of a study published in Booz & Company’s publication “Strategy and Business”. MBA students who go to schools where the research level is high get paid more than peers who went to other schools - as much as 21 percent more after three years in the real world.

Western students are now finding jobs in China more easily, reports China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). Its 184 members of the 2011 graduating class received 1,500 job offers from 480 companies.

Companies like Facebook made headlines in the past looking only for top talent. A wrong approach says a bestselling American author who claims “great people are overrated”. Good teams are much more valuable than single stars, says William C. Taylor.

Many of the best jobs in companies are never advertised. Head hunters go out and look for suitable candidates, but how can you be visible enough for a head hunter to become aware of you?

“You won’t have one career your whole life,” says Sydney based career coach Pauline Müller. “So manage your career at all times!” Pauline Müller, an Australian with Indian heritage who is married to a German journalist, has done exactly that her own life long. She has been in the work force for 30 years now and has had careers that span across four completely different areas: from being a lawyer with the public prosecutions office to managing the administration of a court and other government agencies to being a consultant to heading the compliance department for two of Australia’s major banks. She has seen it all and at the peak of her career decided to live her life again and leave her all consuming work. After a year of readjusting her life, she started from scratch, following what she enjoyed doing and became a career management consultant. Today, she helps executives find their right career paths – something she has done so many times herself.
MBA Channel spoke to her about the secrets of being successful in different careers.

Five of the top ten desired employers of MBA’s this year are consumer technology companies. Long-standing service firms like McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone were joined by likes of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Ideo.

One of the greatest challenges managers and business leaders worldwide are facing today is to attract, retain and develop talent. At the fourth annual conference of the European School of Management and Technology ESMT in Berlin international experts in business, economy and science discusses success strategies in talent management. MBA-Channel.com talked to some of the speakers.

Blogger Linda Brewer comments on the relative earning capabilities of MBAs: “It seems to me it’s still all about connections. The rich elite get into the rich, elite schools because they are part of rich, elite society. Regardless of the education they receive, they get out of school with those same connections and are hired at top salaries. No way do I believe that a middle-class kid, no matter his abilities or education, can break in to their world.”

Andrew Scharf has a sharp way of phrasing his opinion. As the head of the WCW Group that offers MBA and career coaching, he also frequently stirs the discussion on MBA education and admission. As the MBA rounds start again beginning of autumn, it is indeed a good time to get prepared on the MBA application front. But how to file a successful one without paying thousands to MBA consultants? One that really lets you shine?

What do business students really want from the future? To find out more about their career expectations and professional dream jobs, market researcher Trendence asked business students at 762 universities and business schools in 24 European countries. More than 96,400 answered. The most striking result of this survey is obviously the fallout from the financial crisis: 55.8 per cent of all business students in Europe are worried about their future careers. Hopeful applicants expect to send out an average of 34 resumés to land a first job and suppose the search might take them close to five months.

White men still overwhelmingly dominate corporate boards. In the Fortune 100, between 2004 and 2010, white men increased their presence, adding 32 corporate board seats. Women did not see an appreciable increase in their share of board seats, reports Catalyst, a lobby organisation for diversity.

Is Europe the right continent for an MBA education? Definitely, says Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, dean of the Spanish IE Business School. MBA Channel spoke with the Spanish management expert about Europe’s challenges, global entrepreneurship and online learning.