MBAs Working in the USA

An MBA from an American business school still provides the best opportunity for non-US nationals to find the role that they seek. Working in the USA, non-citizens may find the tough visa situation and credit crunch affecting their employment opportunities in the US. However, as TopMBA Career Guide editor Ross Geraghty finds out, this is not a dealbreaker for most.

Julia Bykhovskaia's ambition was to work in one of the world's great markets. She had completed her MBA from NYU Stern and was ready to begin her career in either London or New York. She was armed with intelligence, a world recognised qualification and ambition - but that wasn't enough. As a Russian, Julia still needed to obtain proper work authorization if her dream of working in the US was going to become a reality.

"The visa process was quite painful. I had to wait months and am grateful to my employer that they did not withdraw their offer because I was waiting for approval. Then I had to delay the start date to travel outside the US to validate my visa".

Julia is not alone. The US, perhaps for obvious reasons, has some of the world's strictest visa and immigration regulations yet remains top choice for MBAs because of its mature finance and banking markets. 

MBAs hold the upper hand in such negotiations - after all, the US needs talented leaders; but there are factors obstructing non-nationals; US entry in 2008: visa status, internal competition and the credit crunch.

Generally, when coming to study in the US, students get an F-1 visa allowing 12 months of "optional practical training" and the ability to work after graduation. After that, graduates apply for an H1-B visa which currently has an annual cap. In 2003, President Bush slashed the number available from 195,000 to 65,000. It was a move seen by some, including Microsoft, Intel, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard, as counter-productive to their recruitment strategies.

Bill Gates believes that the visa situation is driving top talent from US shores, precisely when needed the 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. 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 our immigration policies send precisely this message."

The winners in this scenario appear to be the EU and developing nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, whose US-trained MBA talent are now increasingly returning home with their skills.  In the QS World MBA Tour Applicant Survey 2008 more than there was more than a 40% increase in numbers of MBA candidates desiring a return home on graduation.

"We're picking up talent that the US indicates it doesn't want," says one London-based recruiter. "It's baffling but America's loss is our gain."

American companies are generally less interested in non-US MBAs so the advice to aspiring business leaders is try and get in to a top tier business school and then apply for jobs stateside. Julia Byshkovskaia says: "Foreign graduates face rigorous competition from Americans. Apart from visas, there  is the language issue and the more understandable and recognizable US work experience."

For example, since investment banking and consulting require constant interaction with clients, imperfect English can put foreign students at a disadvantage.

Byshkovskaia continues, "Having work experience from an unknown company in Russia would not help one's chances of being selected for an interview either."

The potential recession also has caused MBAs great anxiety. A slowdown in the US economy has seen a tightening of belts in the corporate sector, particularly on bonuses. There could even be a hiring freeze in the more cautious companies and companies such as Merrill Lynch have bitten the bullet and slashed their international workforce significantly.

In the last US recession only 50-60 per cent of MBAs had job offers as compared with figures of well over 90 per cent in happier economic times. 

It's less gloomy news for pre-MBA candidates. In fact the numbers of applications to business school are on the rise across the US. People are contemplating sitting out the economic downturn at business school and emerging, in two to three years, as the perfect candidates to return into a bullish market.

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.