MBA Graduates Face Tough Job Market

With layoffs on Wall Street and a contracting economy, MBA classes of 2009 are facing a very difficult hiring climate. Although many investment banks and other financial institutions are still recruiting, the number of financial institution has declined and some banks are only recruiting half the number of students they recruited last year. Students, recruiters, and school administrators alike have expressed concern regarding the tight job market.

“If I was a second-year student I wouldn't be too optimistic," said Dan Waters, who was recruiting at a job fair at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Kellogg Assistant Dean Roxanne Hori said, "It certainly favors the companies to be more selective, which they're going to be in this environment because everybody's being more conservative in their hiring targets."

Despite Wall Street’s predicted loss of 45,000 jobs, Chicago Graduate School of Business Assistant Dean, Stacey Kole still expressed some reserved optimism, "We’ve seen firms go away and the level of M & A activity is down. But there is still a lot of demand for these folks." Some Business School graduates have already accepted offers, while others have been told that they must postpone their start at work. Still others face fierce competition from both their peers and from those who graduated a few years ago and find themselves back on the job market due to layoffs.

First year student, Ngaio Palmer, summed up the situation, "Most will have a job offer by the time they graduate, but it may not be their preferred company and it may not be their preferred location. But at this point, beggars can't be choosers."

If you are thinking about applying to B-School after being laid-off, please click on the link.

 

Comments

[Robert]

My advice it to hit the job boards hard, there are tons of high paying jobs posted:

http://www.linkedin.com (networking for professionals)
http://www.indeed.com (aggregated listings)
http://www.realmatch.com (matches you to the perfect job)

There is a perfect job out there for everone!

[Alicia]

This article, from my perspective is very factual but not only for MBAs but for other disciplines as well.

I work for Wall Street Survivor, a fantasy stock market game, and we have see an increase of students registering for our University Investment Club Contest. They state that they want to have a better understanding of finance and the market. This is what we offer.... at no risks!

Looking forward to reading more in the future.

Alicia
Wall Street Survivor
http://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com

[Koko's Tree]

Absolutely the present economy has and will make it tough for prospective graduates looking for the work they want when the graduate.

The problem for most of these graduates is that they are unsure of what steps they need to take to get the jobs they want. Checking postings on-line is definitely a fast and easy way to see what is out there.

However, many jobs never make it to the posting boards and those that do are flooded with applications so it is tough to stand out in a crowd of electronic resumes.

As mentioned above, using job fairs is a great way to get yourself in front of many prosepctive employers in a short period of time and gives you the added bonus of being able to leave a lasting face-to-face impression on potential recruiters.

Too many people simply post their resume or look on-line and don't get out and do the foot work required to get themselves a really great job that suits them.