Careers

In November, Clear Admit was pleased to partner with Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business to offer an informative webinar entitled “How to Define Your Career Path.” The webinar was led by Kelley Executive Director of Graduate Career Services Eric Johnson. An interactive Q&A session followed, featuring thoughtful queries from many participants. Johnson, himself a Kelley MBA graduate, offered a lot of helpful advice for any aspiring MBA student seeking to make the most of their career. He first talked about the importance of really knowing yourself—in particular, understanding your skills, interests, and values. For skills, he suggests Read more

No surprise: Georgetown MBAs are making bank! According to the most recent employment report from the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, the average starting salary for graduates was $112,501, which is a 4 percent increase from the previous year. “Every year, we deepen our commitment to applying a personalized approach to our students’ job searches, and every year, the results exceed our expectations,” Doreen Amorosa, associate dean and managing director of the MBA Career Center, said. “From the expanded and customized approaches to the job search in the MBA Career Read more

A record one in four—25 percent—of graduates from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management Class of 2017 headed off into jobs in the technology field, according to the school’s most recent employment report, released earlier this month. That’s up from 22 percent last year and just 15 percent the year before and echoes a trend at many leading business schools this year. Amazon hired 32 Kellogg grads, making it the third largest recruiter in 2017, behind only McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). But Amazon was far from the only tech firm Read more

NYU Stern School of Business earlier this month shared highlights from its Class of 2017 MBA Employment Report, revealing that Amazon hired more Stern graduates than any other company. It marked the first time that a technology company topped the school’s list of leading employers and is reflective of an overall trend of increasing numbers of Stern MBA graduates heading into technology. In the past five years, technology placements have more than doubled, and they represented 16.8 percent of all hires last year—up from 10 percent the year before. Amazon was followed by Deloitte (No. 2), J.P. Read more

Sponsored Content A career in the finance industry is often sought after by MBA graduates. After all, few other industries offer a mean starting salary of $123,259, plus bonuses of $42,175 and other guaranteed compensation up to $35,278. (That’s a total first-year salary of more than $200,000). At Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, finance is a core program and is woven into every aspect, from faculty research to curriculum, immersion programs, competitions, and more. Thirty-two percent of its 2016 MBA class found jobs in the financial services industry. Read more

The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business leads all other business schools in terms of the percentage of its class it sends into the technology industry. As highlighted in our recent “Best Business Schools to Jumpstart Your Career in Tech,” it sent an astounding 52 percent of the Class of 2016 to tech firms. It’s Seattle location—near headquarters for both Amazon and Microsoft—no doubt contributes to its stellar record at placing graduates in plum tech jobs. In fact, Foster students get access to the Seattle tech scene well before graduation, as Read more

Once a ferocious beast in the kingdom of tech with massive product launches and antitrust sagas, it could be argued that Microsoft has spent the first two decades of the 21st century in search of solid ground. The Steve Balmer era, which focused on “devices and services,” brought us the Xbox, the Surface, and the acquisitions of Skype and Linkedin. Wired posits that the fall of Microsoft “stems from its attempts to lock users into its products by refusing to work with competitors,” coupled with a series of “me-too hardware products,” like Read more

It's not that surprising to hear about Seattle-based Amazon recruiting from top U.S. MBA programs such as the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, where it was the number-one recruiter in 2016, hiring 31 of the school's MBA grads. What might be more surprising is the fact that Amazon is also a big recruiter at London Business School (LBS), where it snapped up 13 Class of 2016 MBA graduates, right behind BCG, McKinsey, and Bain. When speaking to students and alumni at an LBS event, Doug Gurr, Amazon’s U.K. country manager, said, “The U.K. is an amazing location to recruit great talent, and LBS is somewhere we find the talent we need.” Read more

These days, it seems like everyone and their mother is on Facebook—no, really, your mom sent me a friend request last week. Your family vacation looked like a blast! As more and more people subscribe to the undisputed king of social media, Facebook seems to hire more and more MBAs to continue to move the company forward into the future. Read more

This fall, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business has launched a new course for MBA and BBA students: “Living Business Leadership Experience Course.” The course idea was piloted as a Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) in the spring with the goal of giving students a chance to run an actual business, start a business, and vet business ideas for three major companies: Shinola (a Detroit-based luxury brand), Ford Smart Mobility, and the NPR Group. Read more

Though it has been almost a decade since the global financial crisis of 2008, investment banking and the financial services industry still aren’t the same. Overall, the percentage of MBAs interested in a career in finance is continuing to drop, especially as the products/services and tech industries lure more and more grads. According to the most recent 2017 Alumni Perspectives Survey Report by the Graduate Management Admission Council, the percentage of alumni from two-year, full-time MBA programs working in the finance/accounting industry dropped to 11 percent this year, trailing the products/services (28 percent), tech (16 percent), and Read more

More than 10,000 MBA students, business school representatives, recruiters, and business executives filled the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia late last month for one of the largest career conferences serving minority professionals. The conference has been around since 1970, but for the first time this year the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) and Prospanica, the association of Hispanic professionals, joined forces to present it. The result was an incredible opportunity for attendees to network with companies and each other, take advantage of career development programming, and interview for and secure job offers from hundreds of companies spanning multiple industries. Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management had a group of approximately 55 students attend, a mix of first-year and second-year students, according to Cynthia Saunders-Cheatham, executive director of Johnson’s Career Management Center. “It was double what we have had in recent years, and perhaps the largest attendance we ever had for an MBA diversity conference,” she said. "Having a joint NBMBAA/Prospanica conference, in addition to the Philadelphia location that was driving distance away [from Ithaca, NY, where Johnson is located], helped to drive attendance." The connections that students made while there have already resulted in multiple job offers, she added. Read more

For years, social impact has been a growing area of emphasis at business schools. Increasingly, MBA students are stating that a well-paying career isn’t enough: They also want to make a difference. As Sherryl Kuhlman, the managing director of the Social Impact Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, told U.S. News & World Report: “Our students want to make the world go round in a different way. [They are no longer willing to] take a job they don't like so they can give their money away later. They want to merge the money and the purpose." MBA programs incorporate social impact into their programs in various ways, through global experiences, coursework, clubs, competitions, and more. MBA students may also have opportunities to team up with corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations to get hands-on experience during their graduate studies. So if you’re interested in social impact, what opportunities should you look for within an MBA program? Read more

If you are a prospective MBA applicant looking to business school as a way to enter or accelerate your career in the consulting industry, you are certainly not alone. According to the 2017 Prospective Student Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), consulting is once again the most sought-after postgraduate industry, with 33 percent of applicants surveyed citing consulting firms as their destination of choice. The consulting function, too, is a top draw. One in four indicated it as their chosen job function, after just marketing/sales (30 percent) and finance/accounting (28 percent). With so many MBA graduates vying for roles in the consulting field, one of the best ways to distinguish yourself is by going to one of the business schools best known for training top-notch consultants. Of course, this requires thorough research and a deep knowledge of individual school programs. Lucky for you, Clear Admit has done some of the legwork.  Read more

While a career in investment banking may not be as highly sought after anymore among MBAs, it’s still a fairly popular option. And according to a U.S. News interview with Jeff McNish, assistant dean of the Career Development Center at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, investment banks and consulting firms are raising their compensation offers to draw in more students. These companies are willing to pay a premium to draw MBA talent. The question is, which are the best investment banks to work for? Vault Banking 50 recently released its annual ranking of the best investment banks in North America. The list was compiled through a survey of 2,400 banking professionals and used a weighted formula to review such issues as quality of life—including culture, satisfaction, work/life balance, training, and compensation—and overall prestige. This year, Goldman Sachs took the #1 spot—with a score of 8.380—maintaining its title of “best investment bank to work for.” Coming in at a close second was Evercore (8.311), followed by Centerview Partners (8.308), and Morgan Stanley (8.114). The top 10: Goldman Sachs Evercore Centerview Partners Morgan Stanley Moelis & Company Greenhill & Co. Lazard Perella Weinberg Partners Bank of America PJT Partners Read more

A job is possible for any determined MBA graduate. Obviously, the ideal job differs from graduate to graduate, but if you’re into sustainable choices for consumers, Unilever might be right for you. The company specializes in household products like soap, shampoo, and even iced tea. Well-known brands like Lipton and Dove are also underneath the Unilever umbrella. The corporation consistently makes it onto Forbes‘ top companies lists. Currently, Unilever is 103rd on the Global 2000 and 87th for America’s Best Employers. In 2013, it also came in 63rd among Innovative Companies. While students who study Read more

According to U.S. News & World Report, a career as a financial manager is the third hottest job for a graduating MBA student in 2017, while a career in accounting ranks number one. Indeed, finance careers pay well and they offer robust job growth, low unemployment rates, and the opportunity for MBAs to use both their quantitative and creative skills. According to Shawnice Meador, executive director of MBA career and leadership at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flager Business School, who spoke to U.S. News, "These sorts of roles are really critical for a company since they’re trying to make sure that they’re making strategic financial decisions." With respect to preparing students for careers in finance, the University of Cambridge Judge Business School takes a multifaceted approach.  Read more

Sara Neher, long-time assistant dean of admissions at UVA’s Darden School of Business, recently announced the debut of a 12-part MBA application tip video series for the 2017-18 admissions season. The brief videos—each between three and five minutes long—cover individual components of the application and are designed so that applicants can watch them all at once and/or return to them one by one as they work on different parts of the application. “I really encourage you to watch them because they will give you tips that will help you prevent mistakes and know what we are looking for,” explained Neher in an introductory video. “We do mean for the application to be pretty straightforward, but I think it always help to have a few extra tips and a little bit of thought behind what the questions are really asking.” Read more

Recent Wharton/Lauder graduate Victoria Cheng left Philadelphia for Hangzhou, China, where she’ll complete a one-year rotational program at e-commerce giant Alibaba. She came to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School MBA program and Lauder Institute East Asia program with the goal of working in China upon graduation. But that doesn’t mean this MBA techie hasn’t lost sight of her longer-term interest in self-driving cars. In a recent “Wharton Stories” feature on the school’s website, writer Kelly Andrews shares more of Cheng’s story, as well as Cheng’s own astute strategies for recruiting—which seem to have served her Read more

Entrepreneurship is one of the fastest growing career choices; Forbes estimates that approximately 543,000 new businesses are started each month. That said, the truth is that 90 percent of startups eventually fail, which makes it vital for budding entrepreneurs to learn from their predecessors. Recently, Erik Basu, a UCLA Anderson School of Management MBA alum and founder/CEO of Sentek Global, and John Tabis, Anderson MBA ’06 and co-founder of the Bouqs Company, shared their advice about running a company. And while both company founders offered different perspectives, their advice is valuable for any potential entrepreneur. We thought it made perfect fodder for today's Friday from the Frontline.  Read more

The release today of the annual GMAC employer survey report from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) means the time has come once again to read the tea leaves as far as what the year ahead promises for MBA grads and the job search. And the tea leaves look auspicious. Globally, 86 percent of companies plan to hire recent MBA graduates this year—up from the 79 percent that hired them in 2016, according to the 2017 GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey Report. In the United States and Asia-Pacific, demand is even stronger, with nine out of every 10 companies planning MBA hires in 2017. Source: GMAC 2017 Corporate Recruiters Survey Report Perhaps even more noteworthy, though, than these healthy anticipated hiring projections was the revelation that the majority (55 percent) of U.S. companies either plan to hire (28 percent) or are open to hiring (27 percent) international candidates, despite uncertainty around changes in H1-B visa protocol that could make such hires more difficult. That’s up from 49 percent that had such plans last year. “This was by far the most surprising thing that emerged from the study,” says Gregg Schoenfeld, GMAC research director. “With all the talk in the U.S. about limiting international hiring, what we actually see is that companies are saying they still plan to hire MBAs and other business grads who require visas—they are not really shying away from this.” Shoenfeld speculates that this could be because not much has actually happened in the political realm to alter visa policy—it’s really been limited to rhetoric. “Companies are saying, ‘We need this group of people to fill our roles so we are going to take a wait-and-see approach about any potential changes and proceed with our hiring plans in the meantime.’” U.S. Tech Firms Double Down on International Hires In fact, the U.S. technology industry seems positively bullish on international hires—a full half of tech firms surveyed indicated plans to hire international candidates in 2017, almost double the 27 percent that said they planned to hire them last year. This marked jump could be related to the ability of international students in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) to apply for a 24-month extension of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) employment authorization that follows their student F-1 visa, Schoenfeld suggests. “But it could also mean that in this time of political rhetoric firms are looking to see whether they have the technical skills they need domestically—or whether they really need to hire internationally to fill the roles they need to fill.” A new survey question introduced this year also yielded interesting data on startups. In response to inquiries in prior years, GMAC added a question inviting responding employers to self-identify their type of company—be it Fortune 100 or 500, Fortune Global 100 or 500, startup, or family-owned. “We found some striking results,” says Schoenfeld. “The largest increase across the board in terms of hiring was reported by startups.” Source: GMAC 2017 Corporate Recruiters Survey Report In fact, hiring projections among Fortune firms, publicly traded firms, and larger firms were relatively flat year over year. But where startups were concerned, three out of four reported plans to hire MBAs and other business graduates this year—up from 52 percent last year. “That may say that these startups are moving beyond that start-up phase and looking to grow their businesses with the help of MBAs and other business graduates,” says Schoenfeld. More startups also plan to hire graduates of specialized master’s programs in 2017, including graduates of Master in Management (37 percent), Master of Accounting (23 percent), and Master of Finance (25 percent) programs. Family businesses, too, saw an uptick in hiring projections, from 71 to 79 percent. As did small firms, with fewer than 100 employees. Of these firms, 66 percent plan to hire MBAs in 2017, up from 44 percent in 2016. Optimistic hiring projections were also found across a wide variety of industries, including consulting, energy, and finance. Nonprofits reported significantly greater appetite for MBAs, with 84 percent indicating plans to hire them this year, up from 67 percent last year. The significant increases among startups, family-owned businesses, and smaller businesses year over year suggest that the perceived value MBAs and other business graduates bring is spreading beyond traditional hirers like Fortune 500 and publicly traded companies. “That coincides with what we find in our alumni studies as well,” Schoenfeld says. “Business school grads do go into a variety of types of companies. Business school isn’t a narrowly defined career path—there are various different paths graduates can and do follow.” Of course, business grads do tend to be the main staple of large company hiring—and less the main staple for smaller companies, Schoenfeld notes. But the striking uptick in business graduate hiring among these smaller companies suggests an evolution may be taking place. Larger, Multinational Firms More Likely to Be Open to International MBA Hires By virtue of asking companies to self-identify by type this year, GMAC also gleaned greater insight into variation among different types of U.S. companies in terms of their willingness to hire international MBAs who require additional legal documentation. Larger companies are more likely to hire or be willing to hire international candidates (34 percent) in 2017, compared with 13 percent of small companies. Among startups, only seven percent indicated plans to hire international candidates, although 57 percent said they are willing to but do not have plans to do so this year. Despite more companies reporting openness to international hires this year than last, a full 45 percent of U.S. firms have no plans to hire international candidates, which represents a greater share of employers than in other regions. Legal documentation and added expense associated with these hires were the most common reasons employers cited for not hiring foreign-born workers. This helps explain why larger, multinational firms are more open to international hires than startups, Schoenfeld notes. “Larger, multinational firms have the ability to place international candidates in various locations around the world,” he says, which gives these companies greater maneuverability in the event that visas aren’t granted. “They also have the staff and resources to fill out those H1-B visa requests and go through that whole administrative process that the government requires,” he says. “In the startup community—where they don’t have those additional resource to go after the H1-B visas—we find they are looking more for domestic talent.” Salaries—Largely Flat in U.S., Europe—Show Greater Gains in Latin America and Asia-Pacific Salaries will remain flat at 2016 rates for the majority of European and U.S. companies (57 percent and 51 percent respectively), but 74 percent of Latin American companies and 59 percent of Asia-Pacific companies plan to increase MBA salaries at or above the rate of inflation. That means that globally, more than half of survey respondents (52 percent) report that MBA base salaries will increase at (34 percent) or above (18 percent) the rate of inflation in 2017. Source: GMAC 2017 Corporate Recruiter Survey Report In the United States, the projected median base starting salary for recent MBA grads in 2017 is $110,000, a $5,000 increase over 2016. But the survey revealed that employers offer a number of benefits beyond salary—and that these benefits often vary from industry to industry. For example, 84 percent of respondents in the technology industry offer employees the ability to work from home. Healthcare/pharmaceutical and technology firms are the most likely to offer stock options, 51 and 55 percent respectively. Manufacturers, meanwhile, lead the pack in terms of offering education benefits, with 71 percent providing tuition reimbursement, scholarships, or professional or leadership development programs. Perhaps not surprisingly, nonprofit/government employers are the least likely to offer signing or other bonuses. But overall, 65 percent of U.S. companies plan to offer a signing bonus to recent MBA and business master’s graduates, with $15,500 being the median bonus offered. The vast majority of U.S. companies—92 percent—offer retirement savings plans—outpacing all other global regions. Read more

Yesterday, we debuted the first in our series on H1-B visas with an examination of what the H1-B visa is and what the process involved to get one is like. Today, we’ll delve deeper to better understand why it’s become such a hot topic right now as well as look at data from a range of sources on U.S. employer willingness to sponsor international MBAs who require legal documentation such as the H1-B. Why Are H1-B Visas Such a Big Deal Right Now? International students attending business school in the United States with hopes of remaining there to work after graduation is not a new phenomenon. According to the 2017 mba.com Prospective Students Report released by the Graduate Management Admission Council last month, almost three in five prospective business school students (59 percent) intend to apply to programs outside their country of residence, up from 44 percent in 2009. While the primary motivator for candidates seeking study opportunities outside their home country is to receive a higher-quality education (63 percent of respondents), those looking to increase their chance of securing international employment represent a close second (58 percent of respondents). Further, 34 percent of candidates who prefer to study outside their country of citizenship intend to seek employment in the country where they prefer to attend school. In this most recent GMAC applicant survey, 58 percent of international applicants named the United States as where they hoped to attend business school. Read more

Despite outnumbering male college graduates and making up 40 percent of the classes at several top MBA programs, women represent just 25.1 percent of senior managers and executives at S&P 500 companies and a paltry 4.4 percent of CEOs, according to Catalyst, a nonprofit organization promoting inclusive workplaces for women. What gives? Leading consulting firm Bain & Company partnered with LinkedIn in late 2016 to answer that very question—and come up with recommendations for how to effect change. Together, Bain and LinkedIn conducted a survey of 8,400 men and women on LinkedIn who work for U.S. companies and hold at least a bachelor’s degree. They asked this group—which included everyone from entry-level employees to top leaders at firms spanning all major industries—about their career aspirations and how confident they felt in their ability to reach the executive level. Analysis of the results revealed that though men and women have similar aspirations when they graduate from college, women’s aspirations and confidence dropped significantly a few years into their careers. Read more

Today’s post comes to us from Nancy Hoque, an evening & weekend MBA student at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. A former solutions architect designing mission-critical communications for the U.S. military, Hoque is also founder of a modest scarf fashion startup for Muslim women. At Haas, she’s played an active role, serving as vice president of Haas Tech Club and the Women in Leadership Club, as well as a Haas Lean-In Ambassador. She’ll spend her summer working in product marketing management for next-generation cyber security at Symantec. Longer term, she hopes her MBA will prepare her for a leadership role Read more

INSEAD, watch out. New York University Stern School of Business is getting into the one-year MBA game—and leveraging its New York City location in a major way. Stern announced yesterday that it will launch two new May-to-May MBA programs, one in tech and a second in fashion and luxury. In just 12 months, students in these programs will complete a foundational business core, a specialty area core, and electives. Along the way, they will work on real-life business projects for companies in tech or fashion and luxury respectively, gaining the experience Read more