MBA recruiting down at business schools

Posted on | February 9, 2009 | No Comments

The Wall Street Journal reports that business school hiring is down this year.

Talking to MBAs in the Bay Area, the clear driver of this is that financial service firms and management consulting firms are doing little to no hiring.

Investment banks, private equity firms, and investment management firms simply are not hiring. Either they are in dire financial straights (the banks), or are unable to get the debt financing that allows them to conduct business (PE and hedge funds).

Management consulting firms (like McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc) are hiring but at a greatly diminished pace.  Basically these firms are only hiring individuals that worked at their firms before business school or former summer interns.

So is this a big deal for business school students at top tier programmers? Yes and no.  Investment management and consulting firms make up about 50% of hiring in a business school class. Of course then, it’s going to be problematic if they aren’t hiring.

At the same time,  most students find their internships and full time jobs through networking, job boards, and pounding the pavement. The most interesting, unique and challenging jobs are often found through cold calling and the alumni network. These jobs are still out there, they just take some diligence to find.  In fact, we recently launched a job board at HBS with their newspaper, the Harbus. It’s been relatively popular so far.

Ultimately, the bloodletting in the financial sector is going to unleash a tremendous amount of talent into the economy.  Some of the best and brightest in business will hopefully be starting their own companies, working at non-profits, or helping ailing companies adapt and thrive.

Every crisis presents an opportunity.

Comments