Business school career services are delightedly reporting the best year on record.
Hiring predictions from MBA recruiters suggest that MBA demand worldwide will set a new record in 2006. The TopMBA.com Index 2006 of MBA Recruiting, based on responses from 445 MBA employers in 33 countries, predicts a 24% increase in the total number of MBA jobs on offer in 2006, following on from a similar 20% increase in 2005. The consulting sector reports a massive 38% increase in demand for MBAs, banks reported a 24% increase in demand and general industry and technology also reported double figure growth in demand (18% and 17% respectively).
Business school career services are delightedly reporting their best year on record. In the 2006 Career Service Council survey, 95% of responding business schools reported an increase in employer activity on campus, with 68% of schools reporting an increase in employer activity of 10% or more. Kim Keating of Tuck Business School, sees the MBA job market heating up to levels not seen since 2000/1. “By April 2006, over 90% of our class had at least one full time offer. We expect all the class to have offers by graduation and most will have multiple offers.”
Simon Bolton graduated from IMD in Lausanne last year. He observes. “Many of my class mates had 3 to 5 job offers each. Simon accepted a job with GE Europe, as Manager, Corporate Initiatives Group. “It's an opportunity to work with senior people across a wide range of businesses – a job which would have been out of my reach if it wasn't for my MBA."
The UK, after China and the US, is one of the ‘hottest’ markets for MBAs. At London Business School, the Careers Director, Graham Hastie, reports that 96% of the MBA class had accepted permanent positions within 3 months of graduation in 2005, and 99% of the class of 2006 already have paid summer internships – both records for the school. Lindsey McQuade, Careers Director at Cass Business School, reports a 100% increase in on-campus recruiting in 2005 with continued growth this year, “benefiting from the booming job market in the City.”
Global-Workplace, which operates a jobs site www.global-workplace.com on behalf of many of the world’s top business schools, saw a record 12,500 new MBA jobs added to the site during 2005. Mike Holmes of Global-Workplace says, “...the big demand for MBAs this year is coming from the service sector – banks and consultancies – including many smaller organisations. An ongoing trend in recent years is for MBA alumni, who are now in a position of hiring responsibility, to return to their school to pick up new talent.” Elaine Hewens, the Careers Director at Warwick Business school, says, “We work very closely with our alumni, many of whom come back to recruit our students.”
The upturn is being used by many companies to change the profile of their hires. The traditional MBA profile of young, local, male aged 26-35 may still be the majority choice, but women and ethnic minorities are increasingly being
actively targeted as part of diversity drives
The upturn is being used by many companies to change the profile of their hires. The traditional MBA profile of young, local, male aged 26-35 may still be the majority choice, but women and ethnic minorities are increasingly being actively targeted as part of diversity drives. Nimai Swaroop, a Recruitment Manager at Shell says, “we attend ‘Women in Leadership’ events www.qsforums. com specifically to target high quality young female talent for future leadership positions. We aim for 50% of our graduate intake to be women and we have a minimum target for the percentage of women in our Senior Manager team by 2010. Though a small part of our overall hiring, we are increasing our MBA intake to meet this target.”
But there is a downside to such a ‘hot’ MBA job market. First of all, many MBA employers will be disappointed and not attract the talent they are seeking. Jason Yeldham at Deutsche Bank says, “The competition for the top MBA students is even more intense than in the past. This could result in a huge amount of time and money invested in hiring, with little return.”
Neil Currie of Johnson & Johnson says, “I recruit international MBAs. Candidates are often reluctant to share vital information about their personal and career objectives and we waste their time and ours going through several interviews on campus and on site, make offers, only to discover that they want to work in consulting after all."
Secondly, there is a danger that we return to the bad old days, when MBAs had a reputation for arrogance, which tarnished their potential contribution. Tiffany Wogelwede at Whirlpool has noticed that, “MBAs coming out right now are beginning to have a sense of entitlement once again. The ego is sometimes getting in the way of the hiring process,” she reports.
Sue Warren at BT Retail, which was the fourth largest recruiter at London Business School last year, believes that industrial recruiters can still attract the best candidates in the face of competition from the service sector. "Industry may not offer such high salaries as banks and consultancies but it is able to offer career challenges and a better work/life balance in many cases.” Sue goes on to praise the way MBAs can “challenge the status quo by introducing dynamic new thinkers and innovative leaders to the company. These are bright people with the latest business training. They are not tied to the 'way we do things around here.”
Wendy Dow of Sun Microsystems agrees that hiring MBAs is worth the effort. “MBAs have the ability to understand business practices and the impact key decisions will have at a strategic level. Further, they are able to anticipate, forecast and recommend a course of action for the benefit of the organization.”
Source: QS TopMBA Career Guide