Job Outlook Good for MBAs Despite Weak Economy, Survey Says » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

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Clear Admit School Guides
Seventeen titles available! Understand how the leading programs compare and learn more about the MBA experience in and beyond the classroom through Clear Admit School Guides. As featured in the Economist.

Clear Admit Interview Guides
Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for admission to top-tier schools.
Oct. 1: INSEAD R1
Oct. 3: Northwestern / Kellogg R1
Oct. 8: Columbia 2009 J-Term and ED
Oct. 9: Wharton R1
Oct. 10: Michigan / Ross R1
Oct. 15: Chicago GSB R1
Oct. 15: Dartmouth / Tuck EA
Oct. 15: Duke / Fuqua EA
Oct. 15: HBS R1
Oct. 22: Yale SOM R1
Oct. 24: UNC Kenan-Flagler R1 (Early Action)
Oct. 28: UVA / Darden R1
Oct. 28: MIT Sloan R1
Oct. 29: Stanford GSB R1
Nov. 4: Berkeley / Haas R1
Nov. 15: NYU / Stern R1

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay*
Berkeley / Haas*
Chicago GSB*
CMU / Tepper
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck*
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard*
IESE
INSEAD
London Business School
MIT / Sloan*
Michigan / Ross*
Northwestern / Kellogg*
NYU / Stern
Oxford / Said
Penn / Wharton*
Stanford GSB*
UCLA / Anderson
UNC / Kenan-Flagler
UT Austin / McCombs
UVA / Darden
Yale SOM
* denotes '08-'09 commentary

Categories
Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.

Interview Reports
A selection of interview field reports from fellow applicants posted to the MBA Admissions Wiki. Add your reports when you are finished with your interviews.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan / Ross
MIT / Sloan
Stanford
UNC / Chapel Hill
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
London Business School

GMAT Resources
GMAC
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT

Writing Resources
Guide to Grammar and Writing
The Internet Grammar of English
English Usage, Style and Composition
The Economist Style Guide
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

Career Guides
The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA.
Vault.com
Wetfeet

Business School Resources
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

MBA Programs: North America
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
Berkeley / Haas
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
Northwestern / Kellogg
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Kenan Flagler
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
UCLA / Anderson
Virginia / Darden
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
Cranfield School of Mgmt (UK) 2
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Manchester Bus. School (UK) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 2
Tsinghua IMBA (China) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list.
AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

MBA Tipline
We encourage admissions officers, students and applicants to alert us of interesting news and developments, please send an email to news@clearadmit.com so we can blog it.

Blog Archive

Monday, May 19, 2008

Job Outlook Good for MBAs Despite Weak Economy, Survey Says

Despite a faltering economy, job prospects remain good for MBAs, according to a recent survey by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). The number of employers seeking to hire MBA graduates is up and projected to climb even farther, base salaries are reported to have increased this year over last and many firms expect their on-campus recruitment efforts to remain steady, although some firms do project a slowdown in this area.

These and other findings were released as part of the 2008 Corporate Recruiters Survey, an annual survey conducted by GMAC in partnership with the MBA Career Services Council and European Foundation for Management Development.
According to the survey, the proportion of employers seeking to hire MBA graduates has grown by 6 percent in the last year. In terms of actually hires, nearly two-thirds of respondents (64 percent) reported hiring MBA graduates in 2007, with even more (70 percent) planning to hire MBAs in 2008. Overall, the companies projected an 11-percent increase in the average number of hires – all good news for MBA graduates embarking upon a job search.

Mo’ Money
Salaries, too, are projected to rise. Three out of four (75 percent) survey respondents said they expect to increase the annual base salary of graduating MBAs in 2008 compared with 2007. According to company executives and managers, a typical MBA candidate can expect a starting annual salary of $89,621 in 2008, up 4 percent over last year. For the highest paying jobs, though, candidates should look to the European Union, where the average total annual salary is $98,617. (The average offered by U.S. companies is $85,581, followed by an average of $50,771 offered by companies in all other world regions.)

On an industry by industry basis, not a lot of change in terms of the employers paying top dollar: The highest average total annual compensation for recent MBA graduate hires is in consulting ($111,539), followed by finance or accounting ($110,114).

Recruiters on Campus
Of employers that actively recruit on campus, nearly half (49 percent) reported that they expect their on-campus recruitment efforts to remain steady in 2008. That said, 15 percent of firms that aggressively pursue MBA recruitment do anticipate a drop-off in this area this year over last.

As with pay, consulting and finance firms top the list in terms of recruitment efforts as well. But there is also hiring strength in several other industries, including healthcare, pharmaceutical, and products and services firms. In fact, in these sectors, recruiters report that they are more likely to hire MBA graduates in 2008 compared to 2007. Meanwhile, while nonprofit and government organizations were least likely to be involved in on-campus recruitment (44 percent) in 2007, they were the most likely to report plans to increase their on-campus recruiting effort in 2008.

Across industries, the MBA continues to be more attractive to corporate recruiters than any other degree or background, according to survey results. Seventy percent of respondents reported being more likely in 2008 to hire MBA graduates (70 percent) than graduates with a bachelor’s or first university degree (54 percent), experienced direct-from-industry candidates (50 percent), graduates from disciplines other than business (40 percent), specialized master’s in business graduates (34 percent), or graduates who hold MSc degrees in business or management (21 percent).

According to the survey results, part of what makes employers look upon MBA graduates so favorably is their staying power. Employers report that 65 percent of their 2003 hires, 74 percent of 2005 hires, and 90 percent of 2007 hires have continued working for the company. In addition to projected high retention rates, the survey also found that employers value MBA graduates for business management knowledge, communication skills, technical or quantitative skills and ability to apply business discipline to any job or function.

To learn more about GMAC’s annual Corporate Recruiters Survey, click here.

# posted by Clear Admit @ 1:09 pm in MBA News, General

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MBA Admissions Wiki
The Clear Admit Wiki is designed to allow b-school applicants to share their experiences through the application process. You can learn from others' experiences and contribute your own reports to the community. Below are the five most popular pages in the wiki:
Wharton Interview Field Reports
HBS Interview Field Reports
Kellogg Interview Field Reports
Chicago Interview Field Reports
Columbia Interview Field Reports

Discussion Boards

BusinessWeek Forums
The BusinessWeek Discussion Boards are a great way to learn about the issues applicants face. Recently BusinessWeek updated their interface, here is a link to the original interface. Also, Clear Admit hosts the Ask Clear Admit thread, which should help answer your questions. Here are the five most recent discussions.

StudyLink Forums
Clear Admit manages the Applying section of the StudyLink MBA discussion boards.

student 2 student
The student-2-student Discussion Boards are managed by Wharton, but include discussions about all of the top schools. Here are the five most recent discussions.

Chicago Discussion Forums
The Chicago Discussion Boards are managed by the University of Chicago. Here are the five most recent discussions.

School-Hosted Blogs

Straight from the source: aggregated posts from students and administration. Below are the seven most recent posts in school-hosted blogs.

Individuals' Blogs

A selection of the latest updates to MBA blogs compiled by Hella.
MBA Applicants

MBA Students

Bloggers by School

The following are links to bloggers at each of the schools listed.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Chapel Hill
Stanford
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
Yale
ESADE
IESE
INSEAD
London Business School

Community Blogs

Bshoolers.com
Community blog with MBA student and alum contributors.

Forté Foundation MBA Diaries
Video blog entries posted by women MBA students.

Owen Bloggers
Independent blog with content by Vanderbilt MBA students.

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