MBA Job Prospects are Not So Bleak

MBA graduation a mere week ago and I am already in the midst of a job searching frenzy. To be honest with you, being on vacation after your MBA studies (or being unemployed as others put it; those who always see the glass empty) is a great opportunity to think what it is that you really want. Especially it is not so stressful if you know that you are in demand and the article that I am pasting below corroborates the sentiment.

I had a conversation with head of Attraction & Recruitment at one of top employing multinationals last Friday and she shared her concerns with me that the MBAs are becoming pickier and the offer rejection rates soar, while the company was moving in the direction of not providing any special treatment to recent MBA graduates. We had a good debate around it and my point of view was that there are different types of MBAs: those who demand high salaries and challenging high-level positions commesurate with their experience and academic knowledge and those who jump on the bandwagon and have unrealistic expectations from the job market merely because they were lucky enough to go to a business school, no matter how prestigeous it was.

Not providing a special treatment for your HiPos (high potential employees) is dangerous in a way that they (1) might become demotivated and (2) will miss the development opportunities that otherwise would boost them up the career ladder in your organization much faster. Besides, there is an eternal need for role models, so why hide them from the rest of the company and keep the brilliant performance records just in the HR vault?

But I have gone on a tangent here. What I wanted to say is that the playing field looks green and the sun is shining for those MBAs who are graduating now. I am looking forward to landing a fantastic job in the next month or two!

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MBA job prospects brighten

 New research shows that MBA job opportunities have increased this year compared to last, and are set to increase further still in the coming months.

Released Tuesday, the Graduate Management Admission Council’s (GMAC) Global Management Education Graduate Survey reports that 54% of all graduate business school students looking for employment had received at least one job offer when the survey was conducted in March. This is in comparison to 32% at the same time in 2010.

“There is a clear connection between the optimism employers are expressing and the improving job prospects business school graduates are seeing,” explains Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officer of GMAC, the organization behind the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT). “Organizations need smart managers to deal with challenges—and they rely on them to seize opportunities.”

GMAC’s research correlates with research released by QS late 2010, where employers predicted large increases in hiring in many sectors during 2011.

In the QS Top MBA Jobs and Salary Trends Report 2010/11, employers in both the consulting and finance industries reported large MBA hiring expectations throughout 2011. This trend, first reported by TopMBA.com in February, is highlighted in GMAC’s 2011 Corporate Recruiter’s Survey, also released today.

According to QS’ research, other sectors set to offer more MBA job openings this year include the electronics, IT, metals/mining, recruitment/HR, and utilities industries.

MBA salaries increase further

While MBA graduates are set to enjoy a greater amount of job openings compared to last year, compensation for those jobs is also expected to increase.

“Salaries are also on the rise,” GMAC states.

“For example, graduates from two-year full-time MBA programs reported a 73% increase in their post-degree base salary compared with what they earned before beginning their studies, on average. This is an increase from the 64% average salary boost seen by their peers in the class of 2010.”

According to GMAC’s Corporate Recruiter Survey, MBA employers now feel confident enough in the economic climate to focus on expanding their operations, resulting in 67% of responding employers expecting to hire new MBAs in the coming year. This figure has increased from 62% last year, and 50% in 2009.

On the other hand, only 36% of employers reported that their companies were focusing on overcoming economic challenges, a decline of 13% since 2010.

“After two years of contraction, we see a pronounced improvement in the job market for business school graduates,” says Gregg Schoenfeld, GMAC director of research and author of the graduates’ survey report.

“Based on job offers, hiring is up in all industries, and more than half of the students who were looking for work had job offers two months before graduation. Last year, that figure was lower than one-third.”

GMAC’s Corporate Recruiters Survey includes the responses of 1,509 MBA employers, based in 51 different countries, while the Global Management Education Graduates Survey reflects the responses of 4,794 graduating business school students of the class of 2011, studying at 156 business schools worldwide.