Inside Higher Ed posted an article today about top MBA programs launching new programs and building flashy facilities in an ongoing battle to compete with one another for top talent. Although the article suggests that this “arms race” may be showing signs of slowing, it struck me as interesting that there was no mention of career development and placement programs as an area of competition. Especially in the context of todays market, you might think that this would be low hanging fruit for programs to make a meaningful mark on prospective applicants.
I bet if you asked candidates what they are looking to achieve by going to business school, improving their job prospects, advancing their career, or building a network of colleagues to increase professional opportunities in the future, would be at the top of the list for nearly every candidate. (I’m sure if I looked a bit I could find some polls and surveys to support that so feel free to chip in if you can find any.) Given that the current state of the economy, especially in the financial sectors, has left MBA students wondering if their investment banking job offer is still good, (see recent Business Week article) it seems that the first thing a candidate might consider is not the shiny new dormitory or squash courts (although I’m sure that stuff doesn’t hurt) but their job prospects upon graduation, and their preparation for future advancement, which leads me to my next thought.
Clearly schools do tout their placement rates and career resources as competitive advantages. However they usually only show first year placements, probably because that’s all they really know. While that is important, an equally if not more telling statistic would track where alumni land 5, 10, 20 years down the road? If a school claims to have a strong entrepreneurial program yet only 2% of the graduating class goes on to entrepreneurial ventures, something seems off. But what if recent grads go work in finance for 3 years, pay off their loans, and then start their own companies? Now that would really support their competitive claims of preparing successful future entrepreneurs.
