Careers

Why study for an MBA? Which school to choose? And by which criteria? There is no one better qualified to answer these questions than the programme directors of business schools who observe the industry, its trends and its relative competitive advantages. Therefore the English national daily newspaper “The Independent” and Audencia Nantes School of Management in France asked the heads of 58 business schools in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, but not the United States for their opinion. The data such collected challenges some of the accepted facts concerning the Master of Business Administration.

“We are satisfied with the popular demand of seven recruiting companies”, explained Dr. Annegret Zurawski after the European MBA Career Fair,  which took place at the beginning of this month at International Congress Center in Berlin.” Due to the current economic recovery the demand of companies to recruit highly qualified MBA-graduates is reactivated”, adds the Adademic Director of Gisma .

Many first applicants find themselves shut out of the most popular business schools these days. There are just too many people applying for only a few spots. However, despite the first big disappointment: reapplying the next year might be much easier after having had the experience once already. We have found the best tips to strengthen a new application for you in a recent article from US News.

Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS - the organisation behind the largest business education event in the world, the World MBA Tour -  about scholarships and other opportunities in the market for MBAs.

Some professions almost demand an MBA degree to excel in a big company. IT professionals, however, still focus a lot on their technology knowledge only. Now “Computerworld” argued in a recent article that IT specialists should consider an MBA to fast forward their career.

The business school class of 2010 fared better on the job market than the class of 2009. This is the conclusion of the Alumni Perspectives Survey that The Graduate Management Admission Council published these days. A recovering economy combined with more creative job search strategies and a willingness to expand their search criteria have helped the business school class of 2010: Out of 824 recent alumni from the class of 2010 surveyed in September, 88 percent were employed, up four percentage points from the class of 2009, surveyed a year before.

France has passed legislation obliging large firms to ensure that women account for at least 40 percent of boardroom positions within six years. Germany follows suit with a female minister for Labor who muses loudly in the “Spiegel” about quotas of 30 per cent for both executive and non-executive directors in publicly traded companies.

Were you promoted in January? If not you might have to wait another year. For many U.S. companies the greatest percentage of in-house promotions take place in January, according to data analysed by LinkedIn Corp.

2011 will bring good news for students seeking to enter consulting, financial services and IT, report both, the news agency Reuters and BusinessWeek.

A survey of 4,000 MBA graduates of top schools in Asia, Europe, Canada and the U.S. highlighted an achievement gap between mentored men and women.

Morgan Stanley is one financial-services firm in New York to cut its bonuses by 10 to 30 percent in 2010. Salary and recruiting experts say other big Wall Street banks will follow suit but the scale back in compensation should not affect recruiting.

In Germany, Volkswagen promises to create 50,000 new jobs in the coming years and in the US, Ford Motor Co. will invest 600 million US-Dollar to overhaul a Kentucky plant. Meanwhile in India, BMW has launched its most inexpensive softroader, the X1, where pre-launch bookings of 1,000 units have already sold out.

The big consulting firms want to hire up to 50 per cent more consultants in their Swiss offices. A substantial portion is expected to be recruited abroad. Brilliant graduates are courted by the consulting firms these days. Accenture’s chief Thomas Meyer admits: “It’s a stressful situation for our organization looking for that many new employees and integrating them.”

Good news at the end of a quite tough year: business school graduates seem to be having an easier time finding jobs again. However, hiring has still not returned to the levels before the financial crisis.

Sometimes good things stem from something bad. Since the financial crisis has weakened the job market for MBA graduates, they had to become more innovative in designing their careers and finding their place in the job market.