According to the Global Management Education Graduate Survey, graduate optimism is particularly impressive, especially since only 40% of full-time MBA students had job offers prior to graduation this year, down from last year's 50%. For part-time students, the percent of pre-graduation job offers was at 22%, as compared to 38% in 2009. For EMBA graduates, less than 25% had secured jobs before graduation, a large drop from 2009's 44%.
Despite these significant drops in job offers, the recent GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey show that this year's graduating class expressed much more confidence in the economy. In 2009, only 9% of MBA graduates felt that the global economy was strong, or at least stable, while 2010 findings show that 33% exude such confidence.
According to the survey, this optimism is due to the fact "that employers are shifting away from an emphasis on cost-cutting and retrenchment, devoting more attention to expanding their businesses—and growing increasingly likely to hire business school graduates."
David Wilson, GMAC president and CEO, says, "While the job market may be cyclical, the value of management education is constant."
The press release also lists other major findings from the Graduate Management Education Graduate Survey, including:
- The most popular industries among the Class of 2010 are finance and accounting
- The second most popular industries are products/services and consulting
- The highest success rate was found among students entering the manufacturing sector.
- The second most successful industries are healthcare and energy/utilities.
- Most than half of graduates expect to work in a different field upon graduation than before starting their MBA programs.
The survey also compared job offers and salaries by citizenship. See the chart on the GMAC press release for more information.
Meanwhile, over at Bloomberg Businessweek, a related article ("The MBA Job Picture Brightens"), indicates that while optimism may be on the rise, that positive attitude is only prevalent at top-tier schools. Recruiting opportunities at MIT Sloan, for example, picked up 40% this year, back to 2007 recruiting standards. Harvard Business School and Chicago Booth, the latter of which reported that 80% of its graduates had landed full-time jobs upon graduation, also experienced upticks in recruiting and in job offers.
But the fact that the top ten business schools are experiencing a rush of job landing success doesn't help the rest of the MBA world. The job outlook for grads at most MBA programs is still bleak.
The BW article points out one more thing: While MBAs at top schools may be having an easier time finding jobs this year than last, the salaries at those jobs are not up to par with those of 2007. According to Chris Branin, a recent UVA Darden graduate, "It's much easier to find a $50,000 a year analyst position somewhere than it is to find those jobs that come with an $80,000, $90,000, or $100,000 salary. My feeling is that it's not really hard to find a job. I think what is difficult now is to find the jobs MBAs are expecting to see when they graduate."
Also, obvious as it may be, the article reviews how graduates from top tier MBA programs not only have an easier time finding jobs, but finding jobs with higher salaries.
Related Accepted.com Blog Posts:
- GMAC Releases Results from 2010 Corporate Recruiters Survey
- GMAC Releases Global Management Education Graduate Survey Results
- B-School Students See Light at the End of the Job Market Tunnel
- GMAC: MBA Employers Express Job Market Optimism
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