Experts' Q&A » Answers
Which industries do your MBA graduates mainly work in? And which trends do you see in the future?
Answer by Jan Henk van der Werff
As our MBA is focusing on general management, we see alumni succeeding in a broad range of industries. It is too early to judge the effects of the current crisis. It is clear that many of the recent graduates and current students are interested in contributing to a more sustainable business environment and highly value the qualitative aspects of (future) employment.
AboutJan Henk van der Werff is Director Corporate Sales and Recruitment at Tias Nimbas Business School and former vice president, Europe at University of Phoenix. He has profound experience in international business education and is engaged in projects in USA, Brasil, Mexico and India.
Answer by Univ.Prof. Bodo B. Schlegelmilch
The industries vary depending on the focus or specialization of the respective MBA program. But generally speaking, typical industries in which our graduates work are banking and finance, IT and telecommunications, health care or consulting. Since Vienna in also home to OPEC, the second largest United Nations office, OSCE and many other international organizations, we also have a number of participants working in the energy sector, for governments or NGOs.
AboutUniv.Prof. Bodo B. Schlegelmilch Ph.D., D.Litt., Dean WU Executive Academy and Institute for International Marketing Management
Answer by Lee Milligan
One of the main aims of the program is to attract students with a huge diversity of backgrounds, both educationally and work-wise. This is something we are very committed to and means that discussions in the classroom are varied. As an example in the last two years’ classes we have had entrepreneurs, dentists, lawyers, soldiers, fashion designers, nurses, astro-physicists, humanitarian workers, food technologists etc. What this means is that as well as the diversity coming into the classroom there is also a great deal of diversity coming out job-wise. We can therefore not really specify which particular industries our graduates work in. They join a huge variety of companies / industries as well as starting their own companies.
The current crisis does not really appear to have affected the above trend. The majority of our students have already found employment in the areas they would like to be in. This is again in a wide variety of industries. The one way in which the crisis does appear to have affected the students is that those wishing to change industry have had to be a little more patient than usual. Whilst the crisis continues this is a trend which will probably continue. In general companies appear to be more than ever looking for people with at least some experience in a particular field.
AboutLee Milligan is the Admissions Manager for the Full-time MBA program at Copenhagen Business School.
Answer by Yvonne Li
CEIBS graduates work in quite diverse industries. According to our data, the top four industries in which 2009 graduates found jobs are: financial services, industrial products/services, healthcare products/services and IT/telecom. In recent years, we find that students are more rational in their career planning and, as a result, do not base their targets on industry fluctuations. Therefore, we have not seen any dramatic changes as a result of the crisis. Of course, we do have a very slight drop in the number of graduates finding jobs in financial services and consulting due to the crisis, but these two fields are still No. 1 and No.6 in placement industry ranking, respectively. Another recent trend: healthcare has shown significant growth as a field of choice, and now is the No.3 industry employing our graduates.
AboutYvonne Li is CEIBS MBA Program Operations Director
Answer by Dr. Markus Seitz
Our alumni work in various industries. A major challenge of our Executive MBA in General Management is that the students come from very diverse backgrounds, academically and professionally. An essential part are engineers, lawyers, medical doctors, but there are also humanists, natural scientists, architects and computer scientists. They work in a variety of sectors including banking, manufacturing, IT, health care, consulting, logistics, marketing & communication, administration and logistics.
In the current economic situation, there is a shift to self-financing the MBA. This results in more applications from managers working in small- and medium-sized companies. There is a tendency for big corporations to give direct responsibility to each single employee for organizing their further education themselves - and also to pay for it.
AboutDr. Markus Seitz is Director of Studies of the Executive MBA HSG at the University of St. Gallen (HSG).
Answer by Rachel Waites
Our program is an Executive MBA which means that students continue to work whilst studying the program on a part-time basis, without interrupting their career. Our students work in a range of industries, with the largest proportion working in consulting, IT, manufacturing and financial services. We know that a significant number of alumni change industries and job functions 3-4 years after graduation from the Executive MBA program, with many starting their own businesses. I’d imagine this will continue in the future, as the knowledge and network gained from an Executive MBA program can be hugely beneficial when starting a new venture.
AboutRachel Waites is Associate Director, Corporate and Student Recruitment at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Answer by Prof. Dr. Christian Homburg
Our graduates work in very different sectors and enterprises. Of course, this also includes the large consulting firms and the large German companies, but also small and medium-sized enterprises, which due to their high degree of specialization and their international orientation have a need for excellently trained young professionals and managers. In contrast to other business schools, we have never concentrated on educating MBA students for a specific sector, e.g. investment banking. That suited us – but above all our students and graduates – quite well in the crisis. I think that this is also trend-setting for the future of the MBA.
AboutChristian Homburg is President of Mannheim Business School and Professor of Marketing at the University of Mannheim in Germany. Christian Homburg ranks first in the Handelsblatt-Ranking of german-speaking professors for Business Administration.