Ross Geraghty looks at the world’s top destination for MBA study and postgraduate careers and finds out how easy, or hard, it is for MBA graduates to get to live and work there
According to the QS TopMBA Applicant Survey 2008, international flexibility is one of the most compelling reasons for getting an MBA. Most business school graduates want to spend at least some part of their careers working overseas, improving their language skills and gaining invaluable experience of foreign cultures. And according to recent research by Professor Hamori at IE Business School working overseas is a pre-requisite for long-term success to CEO level.
Of course visa regulations differ by country and it is essential to spend time researching the visa requirements of the place you’re interested in. Better still, in many cases you can pay for an immigration lawyer to help you, particularly for countries with very strict visa regulations. Breaking these rules is taken very seriously and can in some cases result in permanent expulsion.
For MBAs, the situation is sometimes easier than for non-MBAs. After all, most governments are interested in bringing top level business expertise, and an above average level of expendable income, into their economies. However, regulations can change quickly and unexpectedly and, as the saying goes, ignorance is no defence. It is up to you to be informed. Most top business schools allow students and alumni access to their careers services and they should be able to help.
Non-citizens trying to enter the US may find the tough visa situation, particularly as the credit crunch is affecting their employment opportunities in the US. The banking industry is cutting, or at least ‘hire-freezing’, jobs. This is exacerbated by the Bush administration’s interesting decision to slash the number of visas offered to international students, including MBAs in 2002-3. Naturally, an MBA from an American business school still provides the best opportunity for non-US nationals to find the role that they seek stateside, though it is possible to earn an MBA elsewhere and still work there.
Julia Bykhovskaia completed her MBA from NYU Stern and was ready to begin her career in either London or New York. “For me personally, the visa process was quite painful. I had to wait several months before I could start working and am very grateful to my employer that they did not withdraw their job offer because I was waiting for my visa approval. Then I had to delay the start date because of the need to travel outside the US to validate my visa!”
Julia is not alone in her experiences. The US, perhaps for obvious reasons, has some of the strictest visa and immigration regulations in the world. It is the number one choice of destination for MBAs because of its mature finance and banking markets. In some cases – and this is by far the easiest way of getting to live and work in the US - employers will sort out the entire process for you. However for those who do not have such an advantage, the process can be a lot trickier.
MBAs hold the upper hand in such negotiations – after all, the US, like everywhere, needs talented managers and leaders – but there are major factors standing in the way of non-nationals getting into the US: visa status, internal competition and the credit crunch.
MBA Graduates need employers to sponsor them for an H1-B visa and there is a limit on how many can be issued each year. In his first term, in a move seen by some as designed to protect the American job market, President Bush slashed the number of H-1B visas available from 195,000 to 65,000. To some, including leading business people from Microsoft, Intel, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, this seemed immensely counter-productive to their recruitment strategies.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates subscribes to the view that the visa situation is driving away the top talent from US shores, "precisely when we need them most. The terrible shortfall in our visa supply for the highly skilled stems not from security concerns, but from visa policies that have not been updated in over a decade and a half. We live in a different economy now. Simply put: It makes no sense to tell well-trained, highly skilled individuals—many of whom are educated at our top colleges and universities—that the United States does not welcome or value them. For too many foreign students and professionals, however, our immigration policies send precisely this message."
A foreign student looking for a job after their MBA needs to find an American company which will agree to apply for an H1-B visa after the 12-month period ends. For large companies who regularly hire MBA students (think Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, McKinsey, BCG) this is usually not a problem. However it is possible that visas might become a major issue for smaller companies which tend not to have in-house expertise in hiring foreign nationals and often assume that the process of hiring is overly complicated and thus are reluctant to hire international students.
Projections from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) indicate that MBA employment will increase by 18 per cent in 2008. MBA salaries continue to diverge year on year and business schools continue to search for the best talent available. MBA graduates should keep a close eye on developments stateside but it is too early to predict a long-term downward trend just yet.
Ross Geraghty looks at the world’s top destination for MBA study and postgraduate careers and finds out how easy, or hard, it is for MBA graduates to get to live and work there
According to the QS TopMBA Applicant Survey 2008, international flexibility is one of the most compelling reasons for getting an MBA. Most business school graduates want to spend at least some part of their careers working overseas, improving their language skills and gaining invaluable experience of foreign cultures. And according to recent research by Professor Hamori at IE Business School working overseas is a pre-requisite for long-term success to CEO level.
Of course visa regulations differ by country and it is essential to spend time researching the visa requirements of the place you’re interested in. Better still, in many cases you can pay for an immigration lawyer to help you, particularly for countries with very strict visa regulations. Breaking these rules is taken very seriously and can in some cases result in permanent expulsion.
For MBAs, the situation is sometimes easier than for non-MBAs. After all, most governments are interested in bringing top level business expertise, and an above average level of expendable income, into their economies. However, regulations can change quickly and unexpectedly and, as the saying goes, ignorance is no defence. It is up to you to be informed. Most top business schools allow students and alumni access to their careers services and they should be able to help.
Non-citizens trying to enter the US may find the tough visa situation, particularly as the credit crunch is affecting their employment opportunities in the US. The banking industry is cutting, or at least ‘hire-freezing’, jobs. This is exacerbated by the Bush administration’s interesting decision to slash the number of visas offered to international students, including MBAs in 2002-3. Naturally, an MBA from an American business school still provides the best opportunity for non-US nationals to find the role that they seek stateside, though it is possible to earn an MBA elsewhere and still work there.
Julia Bykhovskaia completed her MBA from NYU Stern and was ready to begin her career in either London or New York. “For me personally, the visa process was quite painful. I had to wait several months before I could start working and am very grateful to my employer that they did not withdraw their job offer because I was waiting for my visa approval. Then I had to delay the start date because of the need to travel outside the US to validate my visa!”
Julia is not alone in her experiences. The US, perhaps for obvious reasons, has some of the strictest visa and immigration regulations in the world. It is the number one choice of destination for MBAs because of its mature finance and banking markets. In some cases – and this is by far the easiest way of getting to live and work in the US - employers will sort out the entire process for you. However for those who do not have such an advantage, the process can be a lot trickier.
MBAs hold the upper hand in such negotiations – after all, the US, like everywhere, needs talented managers and leaders – but there are major factors standing in the way of non-nationals getting into the US: visa status, internal competition and the credit crunch.
MBA Graduates need employers to sponsor them for an H1-B visa and there is a limit on how many can be issued each year. In his first term, in a move seen by some as designed to protect the American job market, President Bush slashed the number of H-1B visas available from 195,000 to 65,000. To some, including leading business people from Microsoft, Intel, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, this seemed immensely counter-productive to their recruitment strategies.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates subscribes to the view that the visa situation is driving away the top talent from US shores, "precisely when we need them most. The terrible shortfall in our visa supply for the highly skilled stems not from security concerns, but from visa policies that have not been updated in over a decade and a half. We live in a different economy now. Simply put: It makes no sense to tell well-trained, highly skilled individuals—many of whom are educated at our top colleges and universities—that the United States does not welcome or value them. For too many foreign students and professionals, however, our immigration policies send precisely this message."
A foreign student looking for a job after their MBA needs to find an American company which will agree to apply for an H1-B visa after the 12-month period ends. For large companies who regularly hire MBA students (think Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, McKinsey, BCG) this is usually not a problem. However it is possible that visas might become a major issue for smaller companies which tend not to have in-house expertise in hiring foreign nationals and often assume that the process of hiring is overly complicated and thus are reluctant to hire international students.
Projections from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) indicate that MBA employment will increase by 18 per cent in 2008. MBA salaries continue to diverge year on year and business schools continue to search for the best talent available. MBA graduates should keep a close eye on developments stateside but it is too early to predict a long-term downward trend just yet.