B-School Graduates Face An Aray of Closed Doors
To attend Boston University’s School of Management two years ago, Leena Dang left a sales job at Merck & Co., where she had worked four years. She says that it was a "huge decision" and that her supervisor wanted her to stay but she believed she would enhance her long-term prospects by earning a master’s degree in business administration.
That may ultimately prove true. For now, however, on the eve of her graduation, 28-year-old Ms. Dang is facing the realities of a brutal job market spawned by a weak economy. The biotech job she covets has failed to materialize, and she can’t help wondering what would have happened had she stayed at Merck. "I feel like I’m getting stuck between a rock and a hard place," she says.
It is a tight spot she shares with other newly minted M.B.A.s, whose employment expectations when they enrolled a couple of years ago were nurtured by employers’ demand for members of the class of 2001; in that year, between 80% and 95% of business-school students had a job lined up by graduation, according to surveys of students at major business schools. This year, the percentage is between 50% and 70%.
Especially frustrated are those students who left good jobs because they saw business school as a midcareer boost. Many now question whether it will give their careers any immediate jump at all. Some can’t even return to the jobs they left behind because the positions are no longer available and companies aren’t hiring. "They’re leaving with quite a bit of debt; and particularly for those who are married, it’s difficult and frustrating," says Fred Foulkes, a management professor at Boston University’s School of Management.
Business-school officials caution new M.B.A.s that they shouldn’t expect to realize the full value of the degree right away. But they also concede that over the past 20 years, many students came to see the degree as a ticket to instant gratification.
"The M.B.A. was always a long-term degree, but during the late 1990s, that perception changed" when graduates were able to net exorbitant starting salaries, says Gary Fraser, assistant dean of the office of career development at New York University’s Stern School of Business; he is hopeful that 72% of Stern’s class of 2003 will have jobs by graduation.
At Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Fred Schwanke is scheduled to graduate this spring but has yet to get a job offer. He taught French at a Baltimore middle school for 22 years before he left to get his M.B.A., hoping to use his French, perhaps at a global company.
Few companies are interested in graduates like Mr. Schwanke, with no business experience. (French also isn’t in high demand, as least while Franco-American tensions simmer.) "I kind of got caught up in the excitement [of the late ’90s] and the idea that you can remake your life and your career," Mr. Schwanke says. "But the last few years have been a reality check."
Even at companies that are traditionally reliable employers of new M.B.A.s, students have faced new competition from nonbusiness students. Jeffrey Tucker, a vice president at consultant Booz Allen Hamilton in New York, says that while the crop of M.B.A.s hired to start this coming fall is more sizable than last year’s, the company is also "aggressively" recruiting from other graduate-degree programs and people with five or more years of industry experience. "It’s just a very tough year for M.B.A.s," he says.
Nathan Farr seconds that. Mr. Farr, who will graduate from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business in Tempe this spring, says he entered business school assuming it would quickly elevate his market value.
But as he prepares to graduate, he is overqualified for the job he held at a Chicago industrial-distribution company for four years, and lacking fresh offers. So Mr. Farr, 28, is taking the same laborious path trod by many other job seekers -- posting résumés online and trying to build a network of contacts. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be graduating without something," he says.
Some schools say students starting in the fall have more realistic expectations of what an M.B.A. will bring them -- and what it won’t. Connie English, associate director of alumni career services at University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, has already gotten calls from students accepted for the class of 2005 who are trying to plan their careers before they commit to the investment. They are asking her how an M.B.A. will pay off in the long run, she says.
Tara Hale, a 25-year-old Stanford graduate who has been working as a marketing analyst for a medical-device company, will enter UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management this fall. She insists she has no illusions about her job prospects in May 2005. "I realize that I may not get my dream job and dream salary right away," she says. "But I know they will be much more easily attainable with the degree."
That may ultimately prove true. For now, however, on the eve of her graduation, 28-year-old Ms. Dang is facing the realities of a brutal job market spawned by a weak economy. The biotech job she covets has failed to materialize, and she can’t help wondering what would have happened had she stayed at Merck. "I feel like I’m getting stuck between a rock and a hard place," she says.
It is a tight spot she shares with other newly minted M.B.A.s, whose employment expectations when they enrolled a couple of years ago were nurtured by employers’ demand for members of the class of 2001; in that year, between 80% and 95% of business-school students had a job lined up by graduation, according to surveys of students at major business schools. This year, the percentage is between 50% and 70%.
Especially frustrated are those students who left good jobs because they saw business school as a midcareer boost. Many now question whether it will give their careers any immediate jump at all. Some can’t even return to the jobs they left behind because the positions are no longer available and companies aren’t hiring. "They’re leaving with quite a bit of debt; and particularly for those who are married, it’s difficult and frustrating," says Fred Foulkes, a management professor at Boston University’s School of Management.
Business-school officials caution new M.B.A.s that they shouldn’t expect to realize the full value of the degree right away. But they also concede that over the past 20 years, many students came to see the degree as a ticket to instant gratification.
"The M.B.A. was always a long-term degree, but during the late 1990s, that perception changed" when graduates were able to net exorbitant starting salaries, says Gary Fraser, assistant dean of the office of career development at New York University’s Stern School of Business; he is hopeful that 72% of Stern’s class of 2003 will have jobs by graduation.
At Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Fred Schwanke is scheduled to graduate this spring but has yet to get a job offer. He taught French at a Baltimore middle school for 22 years before he left to get his M.B.A., hoping to use his French, perhaps at a global company.
Few companies are interested in graduates like Mr. Schwanke, with no business experience. (French also isn’t in high demand, as least while Franco-American tensions simmer.) "I kind of got caught up in the excitement [of the late ’90s] and the idea that you can remake your life and your career," Mr. Schwanke says. "But the last few years have been a reality check."
Even at companies that are traditionally reliable employers of new M.B.A.s, students have faced new competition from nonbusiness students. Jeffrey Tucker, a vice president at consultant Booz Allen Hamilton in New York, says that while the crop of M.B.A.s hired to start this coming fall is more sizable than last year’s, the company is also "aggressively" recruiting from other graduate-degree programs and people with five or more years of industry experience. "It’s just a very tough year for M.B.A.s," he says.
Nathan Farr seconds that. Mr. Farr, who will graduate from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business in Tempe this spring, says he entered business school assuming it would quickly elevate his market value.
But as he prepares to graduate, he is overqualified for the job he held at a Chicago industrial-distribution company for four years, and lacking fresh offers. So Mr. Farr, 28, is taking the same laborious path trod by many other job seekers -- posting résumés online and trying to build a network of contacts. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be graduating without something," he says.
Some schools say students starting in the fall have more realistic expectations of what an M.B.A. will bring them -- and what it won’t. Connie English, associate director of alumni career services at University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, has already gotten calls from students accepted for the class of 2005 who are trying to plan their careers before they commit to the investment. They are asking her how an M.B.A. will pay off in the long run, she says.
Tara Hale, a 25-year-old Stanford graduate who has been working as a marketing analyst for a medical-device company, will enter UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management this fall. She insists she has no illusions about her job prospects in May 2005. "I realize that I may not get my dream job and dream salary right away," she says. "But I know they will be much more easily attainable with the degree."
相關文章
-
Obama's Weekly Address:Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes
hi, everybody. our businesses have now added nearly 10 million new jobs over the past 52 months. the unemployment rate is at its lowest point since september XX – the fastest one-year drop in ne -
Obama's Weekly Address:Everyone Should Be Able To Afford Hi
hi, everybody. over the next couple weeks, schools all across the country will be opening their doors. students will suit up for fall sports, marching band, and the school play; moms and dads will sna -
PROVISIONAL AGREEMENT FOR SALE AND PURCHASE
provisional agreement for sale and purchase this agreement is made on between(1) (holder(s) of hong kong identity card(s) no(s). and holder of certificate of availability for sale no.) of (hereinafter -
麥克阿瑟將軍國會大廈告別演講 Farewell Address to Congress
mr. president, mr. speaker, and distinguished members of the congress:i stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and great pride -- humility in the wake of those great american architects o -
Obama's Weekly Address:It's Time for Congress to Help the M
this week, i authorized two operations in iraq. first, i directed our military to take action to protect our american diplomats and military advisors serving in the city of erbil. in recent days, terr -
The Social Value of the College-Bred - 英語演講稿
of what use is a college training? we who have had it seldom hear the question raised might be a little nonplussed to answer it offhand. a certain amount of meditation has brought me to this as the pi -
Risks and challenges of the EU expansion演講範文大綱
在公司奮鬥了好幾年之後,介於某些原因我們會選擇離開,想必這時寫辭職是必不可少的。相信許多人會覺得辭職信很難寫吧,以下是小編收集整理的設計師辭職信,僅供參考,大家一起來看看吧。設計師辭職信1尊敬的領導:此時無聲勝有 -
英語演講:The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Tragedy Address
Ronald Reagan: The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Tragedy Address<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "u:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to -
國小英語演講稿:Love our hometown and A message from Mother
our hometowndear teachers and classes:good moing! my name is chufengyi.i am very glad to stand here and give you a short speech y my tobic is “love our hometown.” i hope you can like.see me ,you ma -
Risks and challenges of the EU expansion演講範文
i. introductionfor several years now the european union is discussing a possible enlargement, because several european countries have applied for membership in the eu. these are especially the former