You are an MBA and You Want to Work in Russia?

Russia is "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma" - Winston Churchill could not have explained it better.

Up until the 80s Russia was behind the "steel curtain", unavailable for foreign investment. The 90s have seen the frenzying madness of the Western invasion and the radical change of the business practices. Back then to grab a piece of the Russian market was easier than stealing a candy form a child - consider just one example: the Production Sharing Agreement of the Sakhalin II project. As the government was regaining its stake and say in the "free" market in the 2000s, foreign investors (including those who helped the country survive the cash-lean 90s) are being gradually ousted either by giving preferential contractual terms to the national companies, by imposing quotas and restrictions (e.g. visas) or by direct attack as in the case when importing of Georgian wines was completely banned. Yet, it's a BRICS country and the market potential is enormous, and having a Russian location on your CV is well-regarded by the international headhunters. If you are young, ambitious, you are not afraid of challenges and multiple setbacks, you want to learn fast and make your career double-quick, Russia is definitely for you. The question is: are you definitely for Russia?

Let's consider two variants: (1) you are Russian and (2) you are not.

For Variant 1, there are also two options: (a) you have got a Russian MBA, you are a United Russia party member and working in Gazprom is the summit of your career aspirations - Russia needs you! You will have no problems whatsoever to get a job and retire happily from the same company having no need to learn English or any other language whatsoever. Option (b) suggests a bleaker future: let's assume that you went abroad to study, you share basic democratic values and you believe that performance and pay must be somehow related. Forget about the Russian companies (for reasons click here) - unless you are extremely adaptable, a good actor and have thickish skin, the system will manage you out… or throw out offhand… you will be luckier in the latter case. Hence, it is the Western or Western-like companies, i.e. those Russian companies that have accepted the international business practices and at least know what a Conflict of Interest or Anti-Corruption legislation are. Off the top of my head, examples of such companies are Yandex, TMK or Kaspersky Lab. These companies combine both: the satisfaction of getting the adequate reward for your ideas and services and being still unspoiled by the corporate dogmas of the process driven blue chips. When it comes to opting for a Russian branch of a large multinational, you already know what you signing up for… with a Russian twist.

 

Now - suppose you have set your mind on a prospective employer in Russia: it's only a part of the deal. Even though increasingly the workplace flexibility becomes a popular demand item, the Russian labor legislation has not moved an inch yet - read my earlier post on this: the country is not ready. If you are a Gen Y biz whiz expecting to work by your own rules, do spend a could of weeks studying the Labor Code of the country you are potentially going to work in. Add to this a possibility of the authorities not renewing your permit, the cost of living (1st in Europe - check www.numbeo.com), traffic congestion, sky-high salaries, rich cultural life, -35 C in winter, kind but unsmiling people, and boundless business opportunities - and you've got the mix that you need to consider.

 

Keep in mind that the market requirements for top execs and for recent MBAs or mid-level professionals differ significantly. If only a few years ago merely being a foreigner with some corporate experience would have bought you a one-way Aeroflot ticket to Russia, today this privilege is mostly reserved for the CEO -1/-2 level executives. If you are still on the steep curve of your career, the following requirements are essential:

• Speak Russian
• Possess a rare skill (marketing, subsurface engineering and industrial safety are no longer considered rare skills)
• Be humble about your expatriate roots and conceal well your intentions to revolutionize the way business is done in Russia

Having previous work experience in Russia or in one of the Russian-speaking countries is, of course, desirable, just like education in a Russian educational institution. Skolkovo is the most popular business school in Russia today, but be careful whether their offer aligns itself with your career aspirations. Their executive education programs are stellar and provide you with an invaluable network of contacts, Skolkovo MBA still needs to prove its worth. One important point: many Russian top executives choose Skolkovo primarily for the opportunity to gain contacts - while Executive MBAs elsewhere attract mostly mid-level managers aspiring to proceed to the next level of their careers, in Skolkovo you will be studying in one class with CEOs, VPs of huge Russian corporations and self-made extra successful businessmen. I gave a class on Change Management a month ago to an Exec MBA class, and I should say that the level is there.

  How to get to a Russian company - the scheme is pretty much universal:

 

1. Strain your personal connections: even now Russia is more an Aseopian country than Eurasian, so friends and family matter more than rules and papers;
2. Have a strong network of recruiters and headhunters: the market is hot right now and I have never been refused a personal meeting with a recruiter from any well-known agency if I wished to;
3. Shortlist your desired future employers, put on your best suit and start visiting their HR departments (with a little bit of LinkedIn preparation and prior phone calls).

  The decision is yours just like choosing the way how you are going to build your career in Russia. Working here is like walking on thin ice: exciting but dangerous. Make sure that you are familiar with Russian history, culture and political life (even if you are a Russian!).

 

Having started with a British politician, I would like to finish with a verse by a famous Russian poet Fyodor Tuytchev - you decide which you like better… but only after you have really come to know this vast and passionately cold country:

You won't perceive the Russian Land,
You'll fail to measure it with measures.
From common way apart it stands -
You can but trust in Russian treasures.

  

Generation Y: Russia is Not Ready

Today I was a guest speaker at Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, trying to convey the Executive MBA students the importance of Change Management and why it should or should not belong to the area of responsibility of HR. One thing struck me as hard to believe: those heads of large departments and directors of companies have never heard about the Generations Theory, do not know anything about the Millennials, Boomers or that they belong to Generation X, and they give no cognisance to the fact that the nature of their workforce is changing.

I shared just a couple of slides to rest my case on changing demographics and Russia's total unpreparedness for that shift. Let's begin with some numbers. These are the projections of the State Committee of Statistics for the demographic picture of Russia 10 years from now - in 2012. The chasm (words fail me to come up with a better definition for what's looming in a very near future) cannot be negated: in 10 years the number of 20-24 year olds who form the core of the future potential of a company or of the entire nation will be half of what it is now. Given that we are already struggling to resource the business and the war for talent is rampant, I fear to imagine what it is going to become in the years coming. Should there be no strategy for talent import in place pretty soon, the business will be facing a collapse situation. A basket case of a country...

But that gap will become everyone's headache in a couple of years. Right now everyone seems to be relaxed and laid back, watching listlessly the revenues from the natural resources Russia is so lucky (or unlucky) to possess. We are so content with the situation that no heed is taken that the workforce is changing and that Generation Y is voluminous enough to make its statement in the world of business. The European businesses have recognized the needs of the new generations and have taken the necessary steps to make sure that they are able to attract and retain the top performers by providing the so-much-valued flexibility and the opportunities for self-actualization that characterize Generation Y. Below is a slide from Top Employers research done last year across Europe:

What do we see in Russia? The business (nor the Government) could care less what type of people will be shaping the nation's economy or are shaping already. Why? Let's take a simple example of working from home. Across the world, it's a reality. In Russia,

• if you don't come to the office, according to the Labor Legislation it is an absence;
• there are provisions for home work, but if you decide to go that way, the employer will have to attest the working conditions and certify that your apartment is fit for working - can you imagine conducting an exercise like that?
• if you work from home and an accident occurs, is that an industrial injury and the company is liable?
• etc, etc, etc.

The legal hurdles to such a seemingly simple issue are tremendous, and everyone is keeping silent: the unions (which is a joke in Russia right now, really), the business, the government, the civil society (which is maybe even a bigger joke than the unions).

Thus, what I left the students with were questions and problems. Hopefully, they left the classroom with more questions than they had come with because that definitely was my intention. Skolkovo is supposed to nurture crème de la crème of the Russian busines elite, so if they don't start asking the right questions at the highest levels, who will?

Study in Spain, Work Elsewhere

Spain is a great country. It gave this world Velazquez, corrida and Serrano ham. It is the birthplace of flamenco and really loud people, and anyone who comes to Spain cannot fail to get infatuated with the contagious easiness of being and enjoying this life to the brink of our capacity.

Apart from the mundane pleasures, Spain carries the heritage of a strong scholastic tradition: its universities are well-ranked and many streets bear such grand names as

José Ortega y Gasset or Diego de Zúñiga. In fact, according to many international agencies of good repute and my personal experience, Spain is a great place to study: the cost of living is lower than in many rivaling countries, the climate is amazing and party life is rampant. You study hard too. (see Spain - the Country to Do an MBA!)

The hard truth hits afterwards. What are you going to do with this splendorous education that you have obtained so arduously? Considering the fact that Spain continues to fight its own economic development, getting a job there for a young MBA graduate may be tricky. Where I say "tricky", read "problematic", and when I say "problematic", read "hardly possible". I am looking at my MBA class trying to remember who wanted to stay in Spain after they had graduated from IE Business School. Virtually everyone. Well, most of them, unless they had hard-set family business plans back home already in gear. How many are there now? A meager bunch, and some still looking for a job. One day they too will despair and go looking in other countries.

Why is it that MBAs are not wanted in Spain. I see there are a number of reasons. First, the economic crisis has had its toll: the unemployment rates are low and the companies are not that eager to hire. This is easy to understand with a little caveat that hiring high-potential employees delivers high value to the company and the results that they are able to produce result in growth and creation of more workplaces.

But, these sentiments aside, there is another reason: the sovereign debt issues and the austerity measures to follow call for a specific type of managers - those who revel in cost cutting and who are at their best managing rather than leading. MBA schools are trying hard to create leaders, visionaries, reformers… Nobody teaches at business schools how to be penny-pickers and cost-cutters. Well, they do, but these matters end up being swept under the rug, and the MBA students rush on making presentations of spectacular projects costing millions of euros, all about expansion and sustainable growth. I guess what I am trying to say is that MBAs are best suited in booming economies or consulting companies (that will survive no matter what - someone has to do SOx audits, after all).

So it's not about Spain per se. Although MBA hiring soars, the world is still trying hard to recover from the recent economic blow and the new wave of rapid growth is not here yet. So it's time to get philosophical and take it as it comes. If you want to have a challenging  and interesting project in Spain, maybe it's better to wait a year or two and in the meantime have a spell in a BRIC country. Or (yet better) go down to Madrid Centro and have a sangria or two, you are in Spain, after all!

MBA Hiring Soars

The 2011-2012 QS Jobs and Salary Trends Report is now live. 

Over 12,000 companies in 42 countries responded to the international survey of recruiters in the Spring, of which 2157 are actively recruiting MBAs.  The report shows an overall 36% increase in demand for MBAs in 2011 compared to 2010. This represents a turnaround in MBA job opportunities from the 5% decline experienced only two years ago in 2009.

Why should you read the report?

What industries are recruiting most heavily?
What part of the world is experiencing the most growth in MBA salaries?
What companies have been hiring the most MBA’s?

Key findings

• 57% surge in MBA hiring in Latin America - multinational companies planning for future growth by stocking up with talent, especially in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

• Asian employers report a 43% increase this year in MBA jobs followed by a further 19% and then 33% increase in subsequent years - a doubling of MBA opportunities forecast by 2013.

• North America and Western Europe MBA demand increased by 24% and 21% respectively.

• A 21% increase in MBA hiring in 2011 in the Middle East and Africa was lead by energy companies.

• CONSULTING:  MBA consulting jobs are back at record levels in 2011, with a 28% jump in demand in 2011 and a 17% jump in demand is forecast in 2012.

• FINANCE:  Jobs in finance are creeping up following decreases in previous years. In 2011, there is a 27% increase and a further rise of 14% forecasted for 2012.

• IT:  Demand for MBAs in Technology and IT on the rise with over 30% growth in MBA jobs.

• PHARMACEUTICALS:  MBA jobs in pharmaceuticals and healthcare declined in 2010 but are recovering in 2011 with growth of 20% followed by a 26% growth forecast in 2012.

Commencement Speeches and Why We Need Inspirational Stories

I don´t think there is a single business school student who has not listened to Steve Job´s commencement address at Stanford in 2005:



Steve Jobs did three things that made his address so memorable to an extent that the speech is now used in classrooms to teach rhetoric and composition:

• relating personal experiences: who knows your personal stories better than you and, more importantly, who is going to retell them with same conviction and confidence? It's easy to talk about others, about things in general and something very speculative. It takes courage to talk about yourself, but then it's how you change the world and you change yourself at the same time.
• clear structure and the power of three: it is a magic number - it has to be the three wise men, the three little pigs, the three tasks and surely, the three life stories from Steve Jobs (well, the Snowwhite is ruining the party with her dwarfs but let's ignore that for the time being, and really - seven is also a cool number). The transparency of Job's speech is amazing: a few introductory words, telling the audience what he is going to talk about, three clear and concise stories and finishing off with repeating what he has just been talking about. Textbook precision!
• appealing emotionally and talking directly to the audience: engage not only the mind but also the hearts of people, know whom you are talking to: university students and not the same crowd as NASA engineers but they might equally relate to topics of death, love, failure and friendship. At the same time, each and everyone is a homogeneous group will respond differently to the emotional stimuli you are using in your speech simply because all of us have lived through different life experiences and one can never know for sure what strings in people's hearts and minds you'll be strumming when you are up there on the stage holding the mike with your sweaty fingers. Sweaty and at times shaking - you are talking about yourself there as well, you are putting yourself out, and it is the greatest danger and the most powerful tool you can use: laying yourself bare at the mercy of the audience and being strong enough to take it no matter which way the situation turns out.

The month of May normally brings many celebrities to university campuses to share their personal experiences, to give a sense of direction, provide guidance, inspire, ignite, provoke, console - the power of speakers is in their ability to sense the needs of the audience and speak directly to the hearts and minds of people. Listen to these 11 celebrities talking at various graduation ceremonies around the USA: http://bit.ly/iegObB (Tom Hanks is mischievously provocative :)

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.