Perspectives

GMAC poll finds 70 percent of employers expect business to improve in 2010.

Publications from the “New York Times” to “Rolling Stone” have criticized Goldman Sachs Group for trading in financial instruments that helped trigger the global economic crisis. They blame Goldman Sachs for contributing to the worst credit squeeze since the Great Depression, which has cost financial companies $1.7 trillion in losses worldwide since 2007.

Where you graduate directly affects your career prospects and earning potential. Yet, in terms of maximising the value of an MBA, when you graduate may be just as important, reports the “Financial Times”. The class of 2009 hit tough times as many companies were looking to shrink head counts.

Lukas Neckermann, MBA graduate from the Stern School of Business and Director of the Allianz Management Institute, on the benefits of an MBA degree.

While both the overall demand for MBA graduates and their salaries have remained constant in many markets, employers prefer giving jobs to graduates with career experience. This was the result of a survey of over 700 companies by consulting firm QS TopMBA.

Why do some geographic areas — such as California’s Silicon Valley — produce so many entrepreneurial companies? The answer may be workplace peers. Working with former entrepreneurs makes individuals more likely to start their own businesses, says Professor Jesper Sørensen of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans - and sometimes life gets in the way of business school. Students come across an once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity, get pregnant, or someone in their family falls seriously ill. Most schools know this and allow them to come back.

Potential students have always pondered the value of the MBA. But in this economic downturn—with more college graduates struggling with both unemployment and student loan debt—the question has added urgency: What’s an MBA worth?

The MBA Tour has contributed to a new scholarship fund. Students who attended an MBA Tour event and are nominated by a business school are eligible.

Good business schools offer their MBA students extensive assistance in career planning and job hunting. The breadth of services offered extends to individual interview training sessions and on-campus recruiting events.

Wharton alumni Fred Wilson dazzles: He’s a headstrong and successful venture capitalist, his AVC blog receives 25,000 visitors a week and his Twitter account has more than 10,000 “followers”.

The number of female MBA students in the US is increasing. For the first time, several top schools are nearing the 40-percent mark.

Germans who are interested in doing an MBA aspire more often to a change in their function and field than those in Latin America and Asia.

“Of course I’ve had to develop my leadership style over the years.” Steve Ballmer looks back on just under 30 years in Microsoft management in a discussion with students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Stephan Stubner has founded two companies and today he is the Academic Director of the KfW Program in International Entrepreneurship at the Handelshochschule Leipzig (HHL). He explains why an MBA program is worthwhile for company founders.