The M।B.A. job market has continued to heat up this year, resulting in multiple offers and heftier salaries for many lucky full-time graduates. Jeffrey Rice, executive director of career services at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, may have the best perspective on the recruiting scene because of his additional role as president of the M.B.A. Career Services Council. By keeping in touch with the council's members--about 350 career-service officials and 40 corporate recruiters--Mr. Rice closely monitors hiring trends. M.B.A. Track columnist Ron Alsop recently talked with Rice about the bullish job market, possible talent shortages, and the ways technology is changing the recruiting process.
Q: How intense has the competition for M.B.A. graduates become this year?
A: There's fiercer competition mainly because more industries have ramped up their recruiting, specifically retail, insurance and other financial services, private equity, health care and technology. At the same time, activity is up in the M.B.A. bellwethers--consulting, investment banking and consumer products--with 15% to 20% more companies in those industries doing recruiting. For students, that means there are more diverse opportunities in what is clearly a seller's market.
Q: Are some companies facing an M.B.A. talent shortage this year?
A: Many companies are asking, "Will there be enough M.B.A. students for us to recruit for our future leadership moving forward?" Already, some companies in the bellwether industries are not going to meet their projected yield this year. An investment bank that wanted to hire 80 associates this year may end up getting only 70. To their credit, the company plans to increase its pipeline of summer interns this year to try to avoid a shortfall again next year for full-time recruits. If it only wanted 50 summer associates before, now it's hoping to get 70 and focus on converting many of them to full-time hires by the end of the internship.
Q: How are schools helping companies deal with a potential scarcity of full-time M.B.A. students?
A: Many schools, including Fisher, are expanding the supply base by adding career-service resources to bring older part-time and executive M.B.A. students into the recruiting mix, along with some of our alumni.
Q: Is it more challenging to recruit part-time and executive M.B.A. students?
A: The most significant challenge is finding a convenient time to meet with them। We're encouraging companies to do presentations and interviews when it's more amenable for our working students, in the evening instead of the afternoon. Virtual recruiting can also work. We recently made 50 Webcams available to full-time, part-time and executive M.B.A. students at Fisher so they can borrow one, plug it into their computer and ask a company to do an interview remotely.
A: There's fiercer competition mainly because more industries have ramped up their recruiting, specifically retail, insurance and other financial services, private equity, health care and technology. At the same time, activity is up in the M.B.A. bellwethers--consulting, investment banking and consumer products--with 15% to 20% more companies in those industries doing recruiting. For students, that means there are more diverse opportunities in what is clearly a seller's market.
Q: Are some companies facing an M.B.A. talent shortage this year?
A: Many companies are asking, "Will there be enough M.B.A. students for us to recruit for our future leadership moving forward?" Already, some companies in the bellwether industries are not going to meet their projected yield this year. An investment bank that wanted to hire 80 associates this year may end up getting only 70. To their credit, the company plans to increase its pipeline of summer interns this year to try to avoid a shortfall again next year for full-time recruits. If it only wanted 50 summer associates before, now it's hoping to get 70 and focus on converting many of them to full-time hires by the end of the internship.
Q: How are schools helping companies deal with a potential scarcity of full-time M.B.A. students?
A: Many schools, including Fisher, are expanding the supply base by adding career-service resources to bring older part-time and executive M.B.A. students into the recruiting mix, along with some of our alumni.
Q: Is it more challenging to recruit part-time and executive M.B.A. students?
A: The most significant challenge is finding a convenient time to meet with them। We're encouraging companies to do presentations and interviews when it's more amenable for our working students, in the evening instead of the afternoon. Virtual recruiting can also work. We recently made 50 Webcams available to full-time, part-time and executive M.B.A. students at Fisher so they can borrow one, plug it into their computer and ask a company to do an interview remotely.
Q: Is technology changing M.B.A. recruiting in any other ways?
A: Technology is definitely becoming more and more important in reaching the current millennial generation of students. But companies should realize that today's M.B.A. students can smell spam a mile away and want communication that is individualized and sincere. As a result, some companies are doing more instant messaging and sending more personalized emails, telling students they have been identified as top candidates and inviting them to call with any questions. Podcasts are another increasingly popular way to reach students and give them information about a company and its culture before they interview with a recruiter. Our M.B.A.s really like the progressive nature of podcasts. Companies are also starting to do recruiting blogs, sometimes managed by an employee who is an alumnus from the target school.
Q: Is the recruiting process as heated as it was during the dot-com heyday in the late 1990s?
A: That was a really unusual time, an anomaly. I don't think the recruiting opportunities are as prolific as they were then, but today the choices are less entrepreneurial, less risky in nature. The job offers are coming from more sustainable, stable industries today. And if there's one thing that's definitely true about the millennial generation of M.B.A.s, it's that they're looking for stable companies where the financial rewards are clear and they can see the trajectory for how they can advance.
Q: It appears that recruiters are making a full-court press to woo students. What are some of their tactics?
A: It's pretty amazing stuff. We've had students taken by limousine from the Ohio State campus in Columbus to Cleveland for interviews; others were flown by corporate jet to Providence, Rhode Island. A consumer packaged-goods company put on a two-day event for prospective interns from several different schools and gave each student an iPod with his or her favorite music preloaded on it.
Q: Of course, the bottom line in recruiting is compensation. How much are companies willing to pay M.B.A. graduates in this competitive market?
A: Starting salaries continue to rise. This year at Fisher with about 70% of our second-year students having accepted a job, we are up 10% from last year to a median base salary of $88,000. While starting salaries are always a factor, students are getting much more focused on compensation over the first five to eight years on the job. They aren't necessarily taking the highest monetary offer if they believe the compensation trajectory is higher at a company with a slightly lower initial offer. For example, in consumer packaged goods, if a student starts as assistant brand manager or brand manager, he can expect $80,000 to $90,000. But in five years, he could become a senior marketing director with compensation of $150,000-plus. So he may recoup the costs of the M.B.A. degree quicker on that career path than on another where the compensation rises only $20,000 in five years.
A: Technology is definitely becoming more and more important in reaching the current millennial generation of students. But companies should realize that today's M.B.A. students can smell spam a mile away and want communication that is individualized and sincere. As a result, some companies are doing more instant messaging and sending more personalized emails, telling students they have been identified as top candidates and inviting them to call with any questions. Podcasts are another increasingly popular way to reach students and give them information about a company and its culture before they interview with a recruiter. Our M.B.A.s really like the progressive nature of podcasts. Companies are also starting to do recruiting blogs, sometimes managed by an employee who is an alumnus from the target school.
Q: Is the recruiting process as heated as it was during the dot-com heyday in the late 1990s?
A: That was a really unusual time, an anomaly. I don't think the recruiting opportunities are as prolific as they were then, but today the choices are less entrepreneurial, less risky in nature. The job offers are coming from more sustainable, stable industries today. And if there's one thing that's definitely true about the millennial generation of M.B.A.s, it's that they're looking for stable companies where the financial rewards are clear and they can see the trajectory for how they can advance.
Q: It appears that recruiters are making a full-court press to woo students. What are some of their tactics?
A: It's pretty amazing stuff. We've had students taken by limousine from the Ohio State campus in Columbus to Cleveland for interviews; others were flown by corporate jet to Providence, Rhode Island. A consumer packaged-goods company put on a two-day event for prospective interns from several different schools and gave each student an iPod with his or her favorite music preloaded on it.
Q: Of course, the bottom line in recruiting is compensation. How much are companies willing to pay M.B.A. graduates in this competitive market?
A: Starting salaries continue to rise. This year at Fisher with about 70% of our second-year students having accepted a job, we are up 10% from last year to a median base salary of $88,000. While starting salaries are always a factor, students are getting much more focused on compensation over the first five to eight years on the job. They aren't necessarily taking the highest monetary offer if they believe the compensation trajectory is higher at a company with a slightly lower initial offer. For example, in consumer packaged goods, if a student starts as assistant brand manager or brand manager, he can expect $80,000 to $90,000. But in five years, he could become a senior marketing director with compensation of $150,000-plus. So he may recoup the costs of the M.B.A. degree quicker on that career path than on another where the compensation rises only $20,000 in five years.
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