Thursday, 20 December 2012
Parents Snared in College Debt Trap Risk Retirement
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Principals Go Back to School
Kim Lowry, principal of South Elementary, a 500-student school in rural Kennett, Mo., was wary when her superintendent enrolled her in a part-time, two-year business school program. Her school had failed to meet benchmarks under the federal No Child Left Behind law and faced a state takeover. Business classes were the last thing she wanted to do with the money earmarked for improving her school. Says Lowry: “I was very resistant.”
That changed in the summer of 2009, when she attended her first classes at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Under the guidance of professors there, she wrote a plan for transforming her school. That fall she formed teams of teachers that scrutinized student performance, hired consultants to help improve scores on standardized tests, and posted the results of every student in the staff lounge, making teachers publicly accountable for their classes. “I took the best business practices and translated those into education,” says Lowry, who completed the program in January. Her school now meets federal standards, and its test scores jumped by 26 percent in English and 29 percent in math while she was in the program.
The White House wants to help fix 5,000 underperforming schools, and the Education Dept. has distributed more than $4 billion in federal School Improvement Grants in the last few years. That has given school districts both the motivation and the funds to change, and many are turning to Darden for help. Over the last eight years, Darden has worked with nearly 200 schools in 12 states.
This year, 48 schools from Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico are among those enrolled in the program, and state education officials are participating alongside the principals. Those states want to “take [the UVA program] and create it in the Southwest” at a university in the region, says Paul Koehler, director of the Southwest Comprehensive Center, a nonprofit that advises states on how to fix troubled schools.
Some education professionals question whether the results are worth the $75,000-per-school price tag for the two-year program, in which principals attend classes at Darden for a total of 20 days, UVA staffers visit the districts, and participants are in frequent contact with professors. Grover Whitehurst, an education policy analyst at the Brookings Institution, says Darden’s offering needs to be more “rigorously evaluated” if other states are to clone the idea. “It is important, before we start trying to replicate this, that we are pretty confident the results would hold up,” he says. Frederick Hess, an education scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, says the program may make administrators better managers, but it’s unclear whether they learn how to deal with the toughest challenges, such as negotiations with teachers’ unions.
The program, a collaboration between Darden and UVA’s Curry School of Education, helps principals and administrators approach troubled schools with the eye of a manager, says Executive Director LeAnn Buntrock. Participants examine case studies on companies such as General Electric (GE) and Walt Disney (DIS), study organizational behavior, and learn how to analyze data. “We’re not trying to make businesses out of school systems, but certainly a lot of leadership and business principles apply,” Buntrock says.
After the Cincinnati Public Schools began participating in the program in 2008, the district asked successful administrators and teachers to coach counterparts in struggling schools, and established a program that paired local business leaders with principals. Cincinnati saw 14 of its 16 underperforming schools meet No Child Left Behind standards after the program.
At the first 57 schools that completed the program, reading proficiency increased an average of 33 percent and math scores rose an average of 37 percent, Darden says. But schools in St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., and on Indian reservations have seen mediocre or negative results, and a handful have withdrawn from the program after the first year.
This spring, Darden will add a “district boot camp” for superintendents and curriculum directors. They’ll attend the additional training session before principals take classes, with the idea that as soon as their schools start the program they’ll be able provide them with adequate support to make necessary changes. Says Buntrock: “This will give them more of a runway so they can hit the ground running.”
The bottom line: A $75,000 B-school program for principals has improved test scores, but some experts say it may do little to fix the toughest problems.
For U.S. MBAs, Going Global Has Never Been Easier
Ever since the U.S. economic crisis hit in 2008, business school insiders have speculated that increasing numbers of graduating MBAs would head overseas for jobs. This hasn’t happened. If anything, fewer graduates of top programs are heading overseas for work. At eight of Bloomberg Businessweek’s top 10 full-time programs, the percentage of graduates taking positions outside North America was down or flat in 2011, compared to 2008. The exceptions were Harvard Business School, from which 20 percent of graduates went overseas in 2011, up from 18 percent in 2008, and University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, at which 19 percent of graduates took overseas jobs in 2011, up from 12 percent in 2008.
While a greater number of MBA students from the U.S. show interest in emerging markets, they are not working overseas in larger numbers, despite double-digit growth in demand for MBA talent in India, China, Brazil, and Russia, say business school career-services directors. At University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, about 9 percent of American MBAs typically work abroad, a percentage that has remained consistent. “It’s always been just a fact of life around here that our MBAs work abroad,” says Maryellen Reilly Lamb, director of MBA career management at Wharton.
What is different, say the directors, is the desire by recruiters to hire people who are willing to go abroad in the future and who have the correct documentation such as work visas to do so—along with the willingness on the part of potential employees to do just about anything for the right job. “We encourage students to have an open mind,” says Marilyn Eckelman, director of graduate management career strategies at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. “MBAs are really re-starting their careers. The economy and job market over the last couple of years has persuaded students to be more open to geographic flexibility and mobility.”
MBA graduates will make concessions for the right opportunities. Ronald Rolph, a 2011 graduate of University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business who served in the military before attending business school, was looking forward to working stateside. Still, he turned down an offer for a position in the United States to work for the same private company in a preferred role that combines engineering, construction, and project management in the mining and metals industry in Santiago, Chile.
Rolph, who was not at liberty to identify his new employer, says his dream of working in the U.S. is far from dead. “Just because you go overseas initially does not mean you’re relegating yourself to working overseas for the rest of your career,” says Rolph.
Americans who opt to take overseas jobs after graduating from U.S. MBA programs account for only a portion of those pursuing careers on foreign soil. Many decide to pursue an international career before setting foot on campus, then choose an international program.
While two-thirds of London Business School graduates launch their post-MBA careers in London, only 20 percent of them are still working there five years later, says Fiona Sandford, director of career services at LBS. Many students, she adds, come to the program for its multicultural environment, hoping to create a resume that global companies will find appealing. While LBS grads also find work in emerging markets and others around the world, Sandford suggests that students stay abreast of immigration policies so they know exactly where they are eligible to work and are more likely to be hired.
A willingness to work overseas, while attractive to employers, will only get you so far. Having the right skills—from the ability to speak a foreign language to knowledge of a region’s economy and business practices—is equally important, says the Carroll School’s Eckelman. If the opportunity is right, she adds, graduates and employers can usually overcome those kinds of challenges.
“Explore all your options and don’t rule anything out,” Rolph advises. “Generally speaking, Americans have a U.S.-centric mindset and that’s an outdated point of view. Look globally. It’s the wave of the future.”
Join the discussion on the Bloomberg Businessweek Business School Forum, visit us on Facebook, and follow @BWbschools on Twitter.Q&A: Meet Adam Pervez, the Happy Nomad
Adam Pervez seemed to have it all when he graduated from Madrid’s IE Business School with an MBA in 2009. In a tough job market, he’d landed his dream job, a six-figure position in Denmark working for Siemens Wind Power (SI), helping the company develop capacity for offshore wind turbines. But Pervez soon found himself unsatisfied with the corporate lifestyle, even though he was working in a field he was passionate about. He’d focused on corporate social responsibility and sustainability while in business school and realized he wanted to have a direct impact on poor people in developing countries, rather than help the developed world become more energy efficient. So 10 months later, he did the unthinkable: He quit his job and launched what he has dubbed the Happy Nomad Tour and began traveling the world to put the theories behind corporate social responsibility and social entrepreneurship to the test.
In the past six months, Pervez—who has dubbed himself chief happiness officer—has traveled to 10 countries in Central America and South America, including Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama, living on just $10 a day. He spends his time volunteering, offering business advice to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), nonprofits, and family businesses and chronicling his journey on his website. His ultimate goal? He hopes to get the corporate world to think differently about its approach to corporate responsibility, start his own NGO, and inspire MBA students to use their education to help people in the developing world.
Bloomberg Businessweek’s Alison Damast recently spoke with Pervez, 29, who just finished a volunteering stint in Colombia, about how he came up with the idea for the Happy Nomad Tour and his future travel and career plans. Here is an edited transcript of their conversation:
What were your career goals when you started out in business school and how have you deviated from them?
It is really funny, because when I look back at the essay I wrote for business school, I mentioned that I wanted to work for a sovereign wealth fund, in the Middle East, Norway, or Singapore. I saw myself doing finance, or something like that. When I got to Madrid, the business school was having a corporate social responsibility forum. I went there, and it was life changing. It really showed me that business can be a source of good and gave a lot of examples of people out there doing amazing things. So I decided that while I was at IE I was going to focus on this and not do something in consulting or finance when I got out.
What was it that initially attracted you to social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility while you were an MBA student?
I studied electrical engineering in college and before I did my MBA, I worked in the Middle East for an oil services company in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, in their oil rigs offshore. To help make the wells more efficient, I set up explosions inside them so oil and gas would start flowing inside when they were freshly drilled. So I’m the guy who did the explosions in the oil wells. I was harming the environment and harming the earth. I had a big debt to society and I had a lot of amends to make. I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing something positive.
After business school, you found what seemed like an ideal job in the corporate social responsibility arena, working for Siemens Wind Power. Why did you decide to leave the company after 10 months?
It was the perfect post-MBA job and exactly what I wanted. I was living the dream, and I was making $105,000 a year. But after three months I got a feeling in my stomach, and I asked myself, “What now, what is the next step?” I’d achieved everything I wanted, but I didn’t feel good about it. I thought, “What is wrong with me?” I did my own happiness plunge and tried to find out what my passions are and what my ideal life would be. I knew I wanted to travel, volunteer, write my blog, learn something new every day, and tell stories, so that’s how I came up with the Happy Nomad Tour. I wanted to use my education to be an ambassador and an advocate—and give back.
You’ve visited 10 countries since starting the Happy Nomad Tour last August, and you’ve been able to put the ideas behind corporate social responsibility and social responsibility to the test. What are examples of projects where you used your business skills to improve peoples’ lives?
I started out volunteering and cleaning cages at a dog shelter in Mexico, so initially I was applying zero of my MBA. But as time has gone on, that has changed. I’ve volunteered at a co-op of Mayan women in Honduras and built them a website where they can sell their work to a wider audience. The only electricity they had came from car batteries, so I installed solar panels in the village, using my electrical engineering background and Siemens Wind Power skills. In El Salvador, I worked with an NGO that is only a year old. They’re trying to construct very low-cost housing and rural libraries for people in villages but were having funding problems. I helped them develop a more sustainable funding model so they would have more money coming in and not be so reliant on donations. I stay at a lot of hostels that are often small, family-run places, and I often find myself doing marketing and strategy and helping them build their small businesses. For example, in Panama, I stayed with a family trying to offer their home as an eco-tourism hotel and helped them with their advertising and publicity campaign.
You’ll still be on the road with the Happy Nomad Tour for at least another year or two visiting Asia and the Middle East, but what do you see as your long-term goal when you’ve completed the journey?
I’m learning new things every day, and it is definitely snowballing into something. I could see myself starting an NGO based on a model that is financially sustainable through creating local employment, like the organization I helped in El Salvador. I don’t think I could see myself returning to the corporate world, but I’d like to share my ideas with executives about how they can be part of the solution. And last, I’d love to speak to MBA student to inspire them to think differently about their education—as in how to apply it to solving the many problems that exist in the world today. I’d like to show them via my example that one need not pursue finance or consulting post-MBA. There is a world of opportunities available to MBA graduates, literally.
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I have now completed the first of five terms at INSEAD. So far it has been exhilarating. In addition to the curriculum, there were so many people to meet and so many events and parties to attend. My days were jammed full of things to do from the moment I woke up to the moment I stumbled into bed late at night. INSEAD is demanding, especially considering that the contents of a two-year MBA program are crammed into one. But this is what I had been craving.
This term has been mostly about getting acquainted with my classmates, coming to grips with life in France, studying for the first time in four years, and enjoying the student lifestyle. It’s also been about exploring my dream job. Many go to business school with entrepreneurial ambitions and attempt to launch a startup at some point after graduation. I’m no exception. While everything I experienced was important, the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp stood out from the rest, making me grateful I enrolled at INSEAD.
I was lucky to be among 34 students who attended the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp weekend, a workshop/competition run by startup guru Paul Kewene-Hite, an INSEAD professor with years of experience. The aim of the bootcamp was to transform our ideas into viable business models and pitch them to a panel of angel investors and venture capital firms. In real-life ventures, entrepreneurs can spend months getting ready to make a pitch. In true INSEAD style we operated at a much faster pace with only 48 hours to prepare. Despite this, many of the ideas at past bootcamps have gone on to become successful businesses.
On a Friday evening after class, we set off for bootcamp. As soon as we got there we launched into our ideas, and each person stood up to share. (We were told not to prepare any business plans beforehand, but to come with ideas and let them blossom.) Then, after some discussion, we formed teams to move our idea forward. Most of the initial proposals sounded feasible, although a few wacky ones came about, including aluminum underwear to protect the male genitalia from cell phone radiation. My teammates—David and Aliyah—and I got together to pursue an idea we had come up with earlier in the week: smart (data gathering) clothing. Noticing a gap in the market, we had a vision. We believed we had an innovative solution (one that doesn’t require customers dressing up like Power Rangers or Tron characters).
Guided by Paul in a step-by-step method to develop our ideas, we started with such basics as creating a mission statement, market visualization, and customer acquisition. We moved on to such advanced topics as financial projections, a development timeline, and raising capital. With each step, Paul talked about best practices, mixing in his own real-life experiences. Seeking more feedback, we also presented our work to our peers, and the ideas started evolving into workable concepts. We were able to visualize more and more how each group’s venture was going to work, as well as which issues needed to be addressed.
Passions ran high. Some truly innovative ventures were discussed, many of which had high earning potential and also could change society for the better. By Saturday night everyone was buzzing with excitement for the final pitch on Sunday afternoon. I stayed up until 3 a.m. with David and Aliyah, and we finalized our market research and financial projections.
Not everything went smoothly, and not every idea survived. One group changed its business from a tech venture to salmon farming in Mexico. (Salmon demand is increasing in Mexico, yet there are no native salmon, so they have to be imported. This creates an opportunity for domestic fish farming.)
We also hit roadblocks on our journey. In the wee hours of Sunday morning we discovered that a product similar to ours had already appeared on the market, and the company had established relationships with some of our target customers. Our concept still had several advantages, and we gained courage from this. Customer analysis was good: We identified contacts in our network we could rely on for introductions to customers. And our financial projections and timeline looked realistic. The hard work continued on Sunday as we continued to prepare for the pitch. At that point every team was in a competitive position, and there was no certainty about whose idea was going to win.
Against some outstanding competition, it was a tough fight to impress the judges, but we pitched well and handled the Q&A competently. However, we didn’t win. The winning proposal was a career counseling service to help Indian students realize their potential. It was delivered emotionally and passionately by V, one of our classmates. V comes from a traditional Indian family who had dictated his career path in information technology for him. He studied the subject and worked for four years before realizing his true passion of teaching. V wanted to help other students and their families discover what they want to do in life and how to achieve it. There are currently no services like this in India, and it could bring enormous benefits. We all believe in V and expect great things from his venture.
The weekend wasn’t all about winning a pitch, though; it was more about realizing our potential. I went into the bootcamp with slight fears about being an entrepreneur—trading a stable income for a high-risk project, working without structure, and potentially being consumed by the 24/7 job. Yet I came out of this weekend with an even greater hunger to pursue a business of my own. While David, Aliyah, and I didn’t win, we found a connection and trust in each other and wouldn’t hesitate to pursue another venture together (O.K., radiation-proof underwear might make me think a bit longer before committing). I guess one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is getting over your initial fear of failure, uncertainty, and hard work. From this weekend, however, I got a taste of entrepreneurship, and the nectar was sweet.
Between journal entries, you can keep track of Joshua’s business school adventures at the Business Schools Facebook page. Follow the Bloomberg Businessweek B-Schools team on Twitter.
Joshua Jian is a first-year MBA student at INSEAD in Fontainbleau, France. Having always planned on earning an MBA, Jian worked for J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong before enrolling in business school. He says business school will be a journey of self-discovery, during which he will learn what he would like to do besides finance.An MBA Alternative: MIT Sloan's Master of Finance Program
For years, MIT’s Sloan School of Management offered no degree to rival the master of finance programs at Princeton, Columbia, and Carnegie Mellon. That changed in 2008, when the university made finance its first new one-year master’s program in more than 25 years. (It previously offered a finance certificate.) “MIT produces new degrees very rarely,” says Andrew Lo, the director of Sloan’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering.
Enrollment in the MFin program will increase to 120 students for the class of 2013, up from 57 for the class of 2010. Despite this growing popularity, however, administrators face a number of industry challenges, including how Wall Street’s troubles have begun to take a toll on graduates’ career prospects.
The program reported 92 percent of its 2011 class had job offers three months after graduation, down from 100 percent for the class of 2010. More than 220,000 job cuts are expected in the global financial-services industry this year, eclipsing 174,000 dismissals in 2009, Bloomberg data show. And in a fluid regulatory environment, teaching finance grows more complex. The so-called Volcker rule proposes to separate the investment banking, private equity, and hedge fund businesses of banks from their consumer lending units.
MIT expects students who aim to work in finance, and who may have opted for an MBA in the past, to gravitate toward an MFin in the future. Sloan MFin students are younger than MBAs on average (71 percent of the 2011 class had work experience of six months or less, vs. an average of five years for MBAs). And the MFin student body is predominately international, with about 78 percent of the 2011 class coming from outside the U.S. The median salary for 2011 MFin graduates was $82,000, and BlackRock, Cambridge Associates, Citigroup, Deloitte, and Morgan Stanley were the class’s top hirers.
Lo spoke with Bloomberg Businessweek‘s Erin Zlomek about the program. Here is an edited transcript of their conversation:
With so many cuts in the financial industry, how are your graduates finding jobs, and what opportunities are they taking?
The international focus is a strength of our program and is partly dictated by our diverse class. These students are eclectic in the kinds of positions they want and the cities they want to interview in. We have a variety of small and large firms that recruit with us. Students also go on international job treks. (A recent trip was to Banco Santander.)
Students who are passionate about finance are likely interested in the notion of risk and reward and how different resources are channeled through different securities markets. When this is true, careers can develop across many industries, even outside of finance. Take health care. One of the most challenging aspects in health care is figuring out how to finance innovation–it is very expensive and risky. An industry as far removed from finance as health care requires financial innovation, and with the right kind of vehicles, tremendous innovation can occur.
Also, I think our students recognize that when an industry is in flux, those are the times when the most opportunities are being created.
What skills do graduates of the MFin program tend to have?
Our grads understand particular programming languages–namely, Matlab, which is common in the financial world. Our students are trained in areas like risk management and derivatives, and they know how to deal with financial data. They’ve been exposed to different trading strategies. They also know how trading systems can fail and cause significant loss if not properly managed.
How does the application process compare with that of the MBA?
The applications are quite similar. Where it differs are the essays: We want the applicant to be specific about why they are interested in finance. We want applicants to have a good appreciation for different career paths in the industry. In this program, we are not trying to turn out a better day trader–we are trying to turn out responsible financial innovators.
Describe your curriculum.
We start all of our students with a rigorous introduction into financial theory and cover the basic capital markets, corporate finance, and accounting. This gives them a solid foundation of the mathematics and economics of these markets. Students can then take electives on topics such as investments, risk management, and fixed income. There are also action learning courses, such as a seminar in financial engineering, where they get to work on actual problems posed by financial institutions. There is also an externship, where students spend two to four weeks also working on actual projects.
How did the 2008 financial crisis influence your curriculum?
We decided to give our students broad exposure across various sectors of the finance industry. Regulatory change introduces new wrinkles–our students understand financial theory so they can practice within these structures and help institutions deal with the coming changes. The Volcker rule will be quite sweeping in its changes. Lots of derivative trading is leaving banks and being set up separately as hedge funds.
Is there an ethics component to the program?
This is an important issue. We introduce ethics modules in each part of class. For example, there is a case study about a financial institution that engaged in quantitative models, and there was a mistake in the model. After the mistake was discovered by senior quants at the firm, they decided not to disclose it to investors, nor did they fix it. That situation is not typical at financial institutions, but it involves ethics and disclosure, and those lessons are taught in tandem with other things in class. We did not relegate our ethics training to a lecture about being honest and moral. We felt ethics components had to be incorporated in the material we are covering.
Join the discussion on the Bloomberg Businessweek Business School Forum, visit us on Facebook, and follow @BWbschools on Twitter.MBA Essay Questions That Put Applicants in the Spotlight
In an effort to better determine which applicants will best fit in on campus, business schools are turning to nontraditional MBA admissions essay questions. The purpose is to garner information beyond the usual resume, work experience, and leadership potential featured in the rest of the application. And it doesn’t hurt that these more personal questions call for more interesting and creative responses that capture the attention of the admissions committee members reading them.
Ultimately, schools want to enroll students who are a good fit for their offerings and culture, and this is one of the ways they are attempting to find their perfect matches. Each business school has crafted its own unique question—from the Columbia Business School option of writing about an outrageous business plan to the New York University’s Stern School of Business “personal expression” question, which has applicants sharing their passions about everything from music CDs to recipes. The majority of these nontraditional essay questions are meant to unearth personal characteristics, style, and attitude as a means of understanding the type of contribution an applicant would make to his or her class and the campus community as a whole.
Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business asks applicants to share either something that is surprising about them or their proudest moment. Although the last application cycle was the first time these two options were offered, a similar question has been around for about three years. One of the most memorable responses came from someone who participated in the Warrior Dash, an extreme 5K run that has participants crawling through mud and leaping over fire, says James Frick, director of MBA admissions at Tepper. Many others, he adds, used these essays to discuss family, often to convey their gratitude to their parents for helping them grow into the person they are today.
Applicants to the UCLA Anderson School of Management must answer a direct question about the people and events that have shaped their character. For the past couple of years, this question has replaced other more roundabout questions attempting to get at the same information, says Craig Hubbell, associate director of MBA admissions at UCLA Anderson. One applicant wrote about what he learned working on his grandparents’ farm, including how he will incorporate these skills into his future career and pay particular attention to work/life balance in an attempt to avoid working himself to death as his grandparents did. Someone else wrote about being homeless as a child, and another shared the story of her life in a polygamous family. “It’s interesting when you are reading essay after essay late at night,” says Hubbell. “[It] grabs your attention.”
The admissions committee at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business keeps its interest piqued with a question asking applicants to describe themselves to future classmates in 100 words or less. “We want to see how people present themselves in a quick snapshot,” says Soojin Kwon Koh, director of admissions at Ross. A successful response was one in which the applicant defined himself as though he were an entry in the dictionary. “I really like this question,” she adds. “When I’m doing a final review of applications, this is the one I turn to because it gives you a sense of how applicants view themselves.”
Asking a specific question about life—what brings you the greatest joy—is how the admissions committee at the UC, Berkeley Haas School of Business seeks to understand the personality of applicants better. In its first year, this question has acquired mixed responses, says Stephanie Fujii, director of admissions at Haas. The most successful applicants, she adds, share their authentic selves through the essay. “Embrace this as an opportunity to tell us something that’s not easily translated from your resume,” says Fujii. Some of the best responses, she adds, focused on why an applicant chose a particular subject as their joy or passion.
Passions are a common theme for business schools seeking students who will make the best fit. More than 10 years ago, NYU Stern began asking applicants to describe themselves using any method they would like. People have shared collages, mocked-up guitars, personalized board games, View Masters with little pictures depicting their life, statues, even menus. Last year, the school updated the question to allow for USB, DVD, and CD submissions, too, says Isser Gallogly, assistant dean of MBA admissions at Stern. The possibilities seem almost endless.
While many applicants feel overwhelmed by these kinds of unexpected and nontraditional essay questions, administrators say there are benefits for the applicants, as well. “Embrace it,” says Gallogly. “Applicants often feel as though their profile is typical. They worry how they’re going to stand out, and questions like this help them set themselves apart.”
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Internship hunting season is in full swing on most MBA campuses, with students looking to secure the coveted summer internship they hope will lead to a full-time job. Although it is still early, all indicators point to a healthy hiring season, both for MBA internships and full-time hires. According to the latest Graduate Management Admission Council’s corporate recruiters survey, 74 percent of companies polled plan to hire MBAs in 2012, up from 57 percent last year, and more than 20 percent of companies plan to increase the number of internships they offer this year over last.
At Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, those predictions are proving true thus far. Recruiting activity is up 5 percent to 11 percent in most industries, according to preliminary data, with such fields as consulting and technology proving to be especially robust, says Sheryle Dirks, who is associate dean for career management. Even though hiring is on the uptick, the way companies are hiring MBA students is starting to shift, Dirks says. In addition to the traditional on-campus interviewing process, companies are seeking to diversify how they identify and hire talent, she says. For example, she explains, many are now looking to hire B-school students through job postings, company events, or larger school job fairs or conferences. In an increasingly competitive MBA job market, she feels this can make the job search a bit more challenging for students.
Bloomberg Businessweek’s Alison Damast recently spoke with Dirks about how students still looking for jobs and internships should approach their job hunts and how the recruiting season is shaping up on campus. Here is an edited transcript of their conversation:
The buzz on most business school campuses this year is that things continue to look good on the job front. How would you describe overall recruiting activity this year compared with last year’s?
It was a busy fall. I would definitely say activity is up at this time compared with last year, but it is still a moderate increase, and I think that is actually a good thing. That is quite honestly the kind of increase we are looking for, because sometimes when there is an enormous spike in activity, it is not sustainable over time.
Typically, companies begin hiring summer interns when students return from winter break, but it seems like some companies are trying to get a head start on internship hiring. Are you seeing more of them deviate from the traditional recruiting schedule?
In some sectors, certain companies are looking to lock down students early. Some companies do things like boot camps before business school even starts in the fall and are really proactively recruiting at affinity conferences. So yes, some companies are getting out there earlier than ever before and looking to manage their yield on students, and certainly that is a good indicator. We have compared notes with others at top business schools and have seen a number of situations where companies are trying to get out of the gate as early as possible, and many of them have made a good number of internship offers.
Should students be concerned if they are still in the process of interviewing for internships and haven’t yet received an offer?
We have had fewer than two weeks of interviews, and students are already saying, “Oh well, a lot of my classmates have jobs.” It is a very visible process, and it feels a little bit like a fishbowl. It is sometimes easy to look around at things and say, “Everyone has a job.” The reality is year in and year out, March and April seem to be the months most students receive and accept offers. So yes, there is some very visible early activity, but the reality is that the process continues for many students well into the spring, and for some, even into the summer.
A few schools we spoke with a few weeks ago, including the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, said investment banking recruiting is slowing down this year. Is this something you’re seeing on your campus?
Investment banking is down, and the number of students who went to work on Wall Street this year was down slightly. Typically, we have 75 to 100 students attend our Week on Wall Street event. This year, it was more like 65, and those slightly smaller numbers have followed through. I think the message from the banking world is really clear. The spots are limited, and for those not really 100 percent convinced up front that they want [a career in investment banking], it looks like a very small pool to swim in. We’ve also seen this on the internship side. The number of students who submitted a resume to be considered for investment banks is down 15 percent to 20 percent.
On the flip side, what are some of the industries experiencing growth and hiring more students this year?
Consulting is really active at Fuqua right now, and that is one area in particular where there are just an awful lot of students at any given consulting-focused activity or event. Another one that is up for us is technology, and we’ve had a number of students going to larger premium technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. Those kinds of companies have higher numbers than we’ve had in years. We have seen, not a huge spike, but a spike in interest in corporate-focused finance roles, and that is great. I remember days when companies hiring for corporate finance positions were kind of a fallback position to investment banking. I think because of the environment, folks are seeing more of the viability of the corporate finance path.
Any advice you can offer second-year students who weren’t able to land a job this fall and are still looking?
The first thing I would say is to try to relax. I know it is a hard thing to do and is easier said than done, but there are good jobs out there. At Fuqua, for example, we participate in five to six different events in the spring that are genuinely multi-school events. We partner together with other schools, and they all have full-time job opportunities in those spring events. They should also leverage the alumni networks, go out and do professional activities that allow you to meet with people beyond our own alumni, and keep in touch with people you knew and had relationships with before you came to business school. Most importantly, they need to keep in mind there is no magic bell that goes off just because you graduated. It is far more important to find a good job–and a good job that is right for you–than to say, “I have a job,” and then, in three or six months, be looking to make another transition because it was a bad fit or you got laid off.
Join the discussion on the Bloomberg Businessweek Business School Forum, visit us on Facebook, and follow @BWbschools on Twitter.Tyra Banks Talks About Attending Harvard Business School
What has this done for your company?
After my first term, I came back and killed a whole bunch of businesses we were going into. We have to say no more often than we say yes, no matter how much money people put on that goddamned table. Harvard is all about innovation and being first to market. It’s something I’m constantly bringing back to my team.
Were any of the courses ho-hum?
I wouldn’t say any of them were ho-hum. Some of them were intimidating. For me, finance is intimidating. When the chalkboard starts to look like Einstein’s chalkboard, I’m like, “whoa!”
Did any subject come more naturally?
In second term we talked about a tactic that’s highly risky—you take such a leap forward in one direction that you burn the bridge to go backwards. I thought, “Oh my gosh, is that what I did when I retired from modeling and walked off the Victoria’s Secret runway and told the entire world, ‘I am retired!’ before I even had my talk show renewed?” My marketing professor, Rohit Deshpande, is now doing a case study on my business, so I’m going to be part of the curriculum.
Does that make you a little worried?
Of course you’ve got to be worried because these guys are going to come and tear apart your company. As the protagonist of the case, I am welcome to be in the classroom when they present it. So it is like free advice—free, harsh, honest, unfiltered advice. I just have to put on my armor to go there.
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The Government Takes Aim at Risky Student Loans
Congress should consider allowing students to discharge loans in bankruptcy and require schools to do more to protect student borrowers from taking on risky loans. These are two of the conclusions of the first government study (PDF) of the $150 billion private student loan market.
The study, mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Education, found that during the economic boom, private lenders sold high-risk student loans to increasing numbers of students, growing that market by $15 billion from 2001 to 2008.
Many of the loans had lax underwriting standards. Minimum credit score requirements were lowered to sell more loans. Often loans were marketed directly to students, bypassing financial aid officers who advise students when they make such decisions. “In many cases, the school could not review the borrower’s financial need, compare it to the loan amount, or even verify that the borrower was enrolled,” the report says. (The report does not point fingers at the business practices of any single lender.)
Many students took out private loans before exhausting all opportunities for federal loans, suggesting that the difference between private and federal loans was unclear to them.
Defaults have gone up steadily. About 850,000 loans—just over 5 percent of all private loans—worth more than $8.1 billion are in default. The government measures defaults by loan, not by student.
“Subprime-style lending went to college and now students are paying the price,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement.
According to the agencies, things have improved after bottoming out in 2008, when the Department of Education essentially bought up the private loan market as part of the massive government bailout. Lending standards have tightened since then, making it harder for lenders to sell loans and pushing them to make it easier for borrowers to repay. In 2011, 90 percent of private student loans had a creditworthy co-signer, compared with only 67 percent in 2008. School financial aid offices now review 90 percent of loans. Both agencies are developing online tools to help students do comparison shopping for loans and understand their obligations.
“Students were yet another group of consumers that were hurt by the boom and bust of the financial crisis,” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray said on a conference call with reporters. “They are now overwhelmed by debt and regret the decision.”
The agencies say they can only go so far in recommending changes to protect students. The rest is up to Congress.
Dwoskin is a staff writer for Bloomberg Businessweek in Washington. Weise is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek.MBA Journal: Busy Season
As I began my third term at INSEAD in January, I started getting serious about the job search. My already crammed calendar had to accommodate more entries: CV workshops, interview training, company presentations, networking events, organized industry treks, and schmoozing with alumni, all with the hope of landing job interviews. For some students, this was a luxury they could afford to miss out on, as they were sponsored by their firms and were not actively looking for new jobs. There were others who were going to be their own bosses, pursuing entrepreneurial dreams. But most of us had to knock on other people’s doors and persuade them to hire us.
Some people had a focused approach to recruitment, and they zoned in on a geographic area or a particular industry. Others flirted with generalist roles that would give them flexibility later on. Some people took the scatter-gun approach, attending nearly every company presentation and sending off applications to just about every company listed on the careers board. I, however, came to business school to do something outside the box. I wanted a role in the tech sector, and I wanted to live in Switzerland.
By April, I was getting nervous. I had sent off a fair number of applications but had interviewed with only two companies. Students were in an interview frenzy; on-campus recruitment had hit its peak (all the consulting interviews were taking place around April). I wondered if I had made the right decision. Should I have applied to consultancy as well? I decided to take a break from it all and go on holiday. Seven days in Morocco provided the perfect distraction. Eating and shopping in Marrakesh’s Djemaa El Fna market, seeing Roman ruins at Meknes, chatting with friendly Moroccans on long train rides, and staying in a traditional riad made for unforgettable memories. The deep forest of Fontainebleau and the pressures of getting a job seemed a million miles away. Not having a job at graduation and waiting for the right one to come along was better than taking a job I didn’t want.
I came back to Fontainebleau as term four was drawing to a close. I had missed the climax of the interviews. Some people landed their dream job. Others didn’t get their dream but settled for something they could accept. And there were those who were disappointed. After getting turned down by a company, these students could ring the “ding” bell and the nearest person had to buy them a drink to help drown their sorrows. No one wants to ring this bell.
Suddenly, at the end of April, I became very busy. Companies were getting back to me about my applications. And I learned something that might come in handy for you: You may be asked about what you write in the extracurricular or hobbies section of your CV, even if it’s karaoke. At a top commodity trading house, I was put on the spot by my interest in karaoke. Indeed, I was asked to sing, and I belted out You’ve Lost That Loving Feelin’. It was certainly a memorable icebreaker.
Among all the companies for which I was interviewing, one stood out as my dream job. I interviewed for a corporate development role in a growing Swiss tech company that develops advanced sensory network and analytic solutions. One of their solutions is a flood warning system on one of the largest rivers in China. I am greatly interested in this exciting area of technology.
I realized I had a lot to offer prospective employers, including professional experience in the field. After all, I had provided financing for this segment of technology during my time as a banker. I had also helped a friend with his startup by providing agriculture analytic solutions. You might also recall that a few months ago I wrote about my experiences forming a smart athletic clothing venture at the INSEAD Entrepreneurial Bootcamp, providing real-time analysis of athletes’ performance. It almost feels like fate that I stumbled upon this opportunity.
So my year here is wrapping up, and come July, I will have earned an MBA. It has been challenging, stimulating, and eye-opening. I have made great friends, landed my dream job, and gained valuable lessons and knowledge. At times, I wish I could have slowed down and enjoyed every moment more—in particular, savoring the final few weeks with friends before we go our separate ways. At other times, I was so hungry for the next stage of life that I wanted to hit the fast-forward button. No need for fast forward anymore. We have reached the end of this film and the start of a new one.
Joshua Jian is a first-year MBA student at INSEAD in Fontainbleau, France. Having always planned on earning an MBA, Jian worked for J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong before enrolling in business school. He says business school will be a journey of self-discovery, during which he will learn what he would like to do besides finance.WGU: A Second Chance at College
In 1997 two leaders of the Western Governors’ Association, Republican Mike Leavitt of Utah and Democrat Roy Romer of Colorado, started talking about the need for more alternatives in higher education. Their goal: to help adult students who had dropped out of college before getting their degrees.
The result is Western Governors University (WGU), an online mix of course offerings in health sciences, business, information technology, and teacher education. The concept has been embraced by the six Democrats and 13 Republicans who make up the Western Governors’ Association. Now in its 15th year, the nonprofit WGU, funded entirely by $6,000 annual tuition fees, has awarded nearly 17,000 bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Current enrollment stands at a little less than 34,000. Students, who average 36 years old, are required to put in at least 20 hours a week but are given six-month “semesters” over which to spread the work. In a 2011 survey, 65 percent of WGU graduates said they received a raise, a promotion, or a new job responsibility as a result of their degrees.
Laura Huish, of Farmington, N.M., had long aspired to become a teacher but couldn’t go back to a traditional college full time because she also had to care for a young child. She discovered WGU while working as a school secretary. “It was perfect. I could work, be with my kid when I needed to, and work at the degree online,” says Huish, who enrolled in 2009. She earned her degree in three years and last year was hired as a full-time teacher at a primary school. “It’s not for everyone,” says Huish. “You have to be motivated.”
Two years ago, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels issued an executive order creating WGU Indiana, calling it Indiana’s “eighth state university.” The move allowed WGU students from Indiana to apply for loans and other aid. “Governor Daniels had said there were 750,000 Hoosiers who had started college but hadn’t finished, and this could get more of them more credentials for better jobs,” says WGU spokeswoman Joan Mitchell. Indiana has 2,600 students enrolled in WGU, a tenfold increase over just those two years. Texas and Washington have since taken similar steps.
“No one is claiming that this is the same market as Harvard and Princeton,” says Andrew Kelly, an education analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. “But elected officials strapped for public money for education are looking for ways to reap a larger return in innovation, hopefully boosting the earning power of the citizenry.”
Strauss is a Bloomberg Businessweek contributor.College Tuition's 1,120 Percent Increase
Schools are investing and building more than ever—and students are paying for it.
Data: Bloomberg; Labor DepartmentSaturday, 23 June 2012
How I Got Here: The NFL Network's Kim Williams
Kim Williams, chief operating officer at the NFL Network, is used to a fast-paced, international lifestyle. After attending high school in Italy and earning a BA in Asian Studies from Connecticut College and an MBA from Thunderbird, she parlayed her global business experience into finance and operations positions at some of the most recognized companies in the world. For her work, Williams was recently named 2012 Woman in Sports and Events Woman of the Year. As part of Bloomberg Businessweek’s “How I Got Here” series, Melanie Danko spoke with Williams about her diverse resume and current role managing the NFL Network. What follows is the story of Williams’s career progression, in her own words. (Some quotes have been edited for space and clarity.)
Name: Kim Williams
Current Position: chief operating officer, NFL Network
Education: MBA, Thunderbird, 1992
My experience at Thunderbird was very positive in terms of breadth and depth, especially working with people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. It was such a rewarding experience and it drove me to want to experience business abroad.
Work Experience:
— General Electric International, Financial Management Program (FMP), London, U.K., 1993-1994
I had this notion that I wanted to work for a smaller company when I graduated. My first job was with General Electric (GE), not exactly the definition of a small company. I was looking forward to being abroad and I assumed I would find a job at a smaller company when I got to London. I never expected that 11 years later, I would still be working at GE.
— Nuovo Pignone, GE Oil & Gas, financial analyst, integration leader, Florence, Italy, 1994-1996
— Nuovo Pignone, transaction quality leader, Florence, Italy, 1996-1997
The nice thing about GE is that it’s such a diversified, global, and far-reaching enterprise. I was responsible for much of the Pan-European activity. It exposed me to a lot of different cultures. My role was very operational. GE was looking to acquire a large oil and gas company in Italy, the largest employer in the region. My role was to join the acquisition team and then stay on as part of the integration team. This experience was the most impactful of my career. I was only 26 years old and I went down with a team of three others who spoke Italian and a [chief executive officer] and [chief financial officer] who did not.
My responsibility was to teach the GE culture, as well as the business from a financial perspective. Frankly, it was a job I had no business having at 26. It’s a testament to GE giving people a chance to shine. It was pivotal in my career. I was representing the acquisition and was able to present to Jack Welch. I picked up skills that I still use today: how to build consensus, how to be comfortable and confident even if you don’t have all the answers, asking questions, and working collaboratively.
— National Broadcasting Co. (NBC), director, finance, broadcast and network operations, 1997-1998
— NBC, NBC West Coast, vice president and quality leader, 1998-1999
— NBC, NBC West Coast, senior vice president and chief financial officer, 2001-2003
The CFO wanted me to move in a different direction when I was interviewing for a new role. Initially I wasn’t interested, but when I learned about all the changes that needed to be made, it became an extremely appealing role for me. I started working in the “factory” of NBC where I learned a lot about the business of television operations. I then moved out to west coast operations in California, implementing GE’s Six Sigma there and convincing them how it was relevant to the television industry. While I was well-versed in operations, I was on a learning curve in terms of the media industry. I was exposed to both the nuances of the television industry and managing a portfolio for a broadcasting company.
— National Football League, senior vice president and chief financial officer, New York, 2003-2006
— National Football League, NFL Network, chief operating officer, New York/Culver City, Calif., 2006-Present
I went into a job interview with the NFL, but I wasn’t looking to leave GE. I came out of the interview thinking to myself, “I’ve got to get that job!” Things worked out and I got it. Though I wouldn’t describe myself as an avid football fan, I had the functional expertise and I was back to throwing myself into the deep end with a big learning curve—this time in the sports industry. I always saw myself moving away from finance and ended up in the COO position after three years at the NFL. The NFL Network is a great experience in that it’s cutting edge and new to the industry. For example, we’re launching a new morning, weekday show beginning in July and expanding our franchise in the sports industry.
— Final Word
Nothing beats hands-on experience. The actual experience of doing and having a practical mastery, rolling up your sleeves, and making mistakes is incredibly important. Be comfortable learning, asking questions, involving others, and working collaboratively. Have a point of view and have an opinion. It takes time, effort, and work to inspire.
The Recommendation Letter Employers Don't Want
When seeking a reference or letter of recommendation, employers must learn to read between the invariably flattering lines to determine a candidate’s true worth. Drawing on the wisdom of Harvard’s Office of Career Services, Charles Purdy of Monster.com (MWW), and LinkedIn’s (LNKD) connection director Nicole Williams, we present the world’s worst recommendation letter.
Lopez is a Bloomberg Businessweek contributor. MBA Journal: The Path to Amazing
College Hall looks like something out of Harry Potter. The oldest building on Penn’s campus, it’s noteworthy to many because of its imposing design and striking green coloration. But to me, it’s special for a different reason: College Hall is where I took the last exam of my first year at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
We, the Class of 2013, poured out of various buildings after our marketing final and joined up on Walnut Street, drawn eastward like moths toward Center City Philadelphia. The walk marked both the conclusion of a grueling finals week (five exams in as many days) and the realization that we were officially halfway done with business school. Some said it with relief, some with sorrow—but all with disbelief at how quickly it went.
As I think about how to describe my experience so far, I find that I’m holding two images of Wharton in my head. On the one hand is “Little Wharton”: studying with Kathleen, making pizza with Alex, having Jamie and Ann over to watch Project Runway. On the other is “Big Wharton”: sailing yachts around the British Virgin Islands, causing mayhem in Park City, going on lavish trips to Morocco, Thailand, Israel. … I mostly witness Big Wharton from afar (or via my Facebook news feed), but it’s tough to think of myself as lame as I post my own pictures of black-tie parties or trekking in Patagonia to the bewilderment of my friends outside school. Ridiculousness, it seems, is all relative.
While it’s not a nonstop party, there is certainly always a party to be had if you’re looking for one. Often a large one. It’s neither accurate to pretend that this excess doesn’t exist, nor fair to make it seem as though everyone is living this way. There are board games to be played and movies to be watched, too. But I’d be lying if I didn’t mention the “work hard, play really hard” motto that seems to define the experience of so many students.
For some, it’s because they have money to spend, and they view these two years as a blessed reprieve from the brutal job that’s waiting for them after graduation. For others, it’s “What’s another $10,000 of debt when I’ve already racked up so much?” For most, it’s the realization that, along with the education we’re receiving, these opportunities are special, and fleeting, and that if we don’t seize them now, we never will.
And what of my transformation? This was a difficult thing to gauge while I was in school. Just as I would start to get the hang of a class or a concept, it would end, and I’d move on to a new challenge. I could never quite get comfortable, which left me wondering how much I was really learning—my knowledge seemed tenuous, fragile. I had fleeting nightmares of showing up on the first day of my internship, realizing I was completely unprepared, and slowly backing toward the elevator before sprinting to my car and speeding off.
These nightmares were short-lived. The more distance I got from school, the more able I was to see how each shred of knowledge had woven itself into an increasingly solid foundation. I learned and accomplished many things over my first year, but here are the five that most surprised me:
1) Finance. I get it now! Discounted cash flows. Dividends. Leverage. The clouds parted for me one day in Professor Kaufold’s class. I heard choir music.
2) Marketing. It’s less that I learned marketing, and more that I realized what “marketing” really means, and in so doing, I found a place where my left-brain/right-brain balance is not just tolerated—it’s required. (Brand management, by the way, is not for the faint of heart. If you disagree with me, try spending six weeks in a simulation crafted by a statistician with a flair for the savage.)
3) Saying yes. There were metaphorical summits, like getting up in front of a room of strangers and giving a rapid-fire presentation at a PechaKucha night (it’s worth a Google to find one near you). Then there were literal summits, like Mount Betinelli on Navarino Island, the most remote and pristine place I’ll likely ever set foot. I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone and in so doing have given myself reserves of confidence that I’ll continue to add to and draw upon, both personally and professionally.
4) Saying no. A necessary complement to No. 3 above. Steel yourself against the fear of missing out. If it’s not in line with your goals, saying yes would merely take you away from the things you really should be doing.
5) Recruiting, etc. This is probably where I got the most concentrated dose of “professionalism.” For perspective: Before business school, my name appeared on my resume in bright turquoise letters, all lowercase. I’ve come a long way. I still giggle at the pageantry of the application/interview courtship, but if you’re gonna play the game, you might as well learn the rules.
All in all, are these things I could only have learned in school? Well … no. Which is obvious, and evidenced by the successes and accomplishments of those without an MBA. But here’s the thing—I, Lindsay, hadn’t learned them yet, and if I’d stayed on my previous path, it’s fairly certain I wasn’t going to.
People tend to refer to B-school hyperbolically: It was the best two years of my life. My highest highs and lowest lows. But let’s be honest—for some people, it’s just school. I didn’t come here to cause mayhem. I came to learn stuff and get a degree that says I learned stuff. Frankly, I don’t want these to be the best two years of my life. I’d rather they be two amazing years that help put me on a path of continued amazingness. And from what I have experienced during year one, I’d say I’m well on my way.
Between journal entries, you can keep track of Lindsay’s business school adventures at the Business Schools Facebook page. Follow the Bloomberg Businessweek B-Schools team on Twitter.
Lindsay Miller is a first-year MBA student at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Before business school, Miller was an editor at Lifetime Television. In addition, an ad she created for Dove Body Wash won a national competition and aired in front of about 40 million people watching the Oscars.Friday, 22 June 2012
College Graduates' Best Job Bet: Word of Mouth
The commencement speeches are mostly over. Newly minted college graduates are looking for work, pounding their keyboards and working their mobile phones. The unemployment rate for graduates ages 21 to 24 averaged 9.4 percent for the year ended in March, while the underemployment rate—the jobless plus those working at part-time jobs when they want full-time positions—was a steep 19.1 percent, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute.
The experience of stumbling about for jobs is familiar to anyone who graduated during the recessions of the mid-1970s, early ’80s, and even the start of the ’90s. Yet since the 1970s, access to information has exploded. Considering the expansion of the Internet, powerful search engines, and social media, it should be much easier to match potential employees with employers.
Apparently not. “We find that in the U.S., information about work and jobs is relatively hard to come by for someone seeking employment,” says James Manyika, a director of the McKinsey Global Institute. Says Adam Cobb, assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania: “The best way to get a job now is the same as in the ’70s and the ’80s—word of mouth.”
Technology has had a somewhat perverse effect on job-hunting. The barriers to applying for work have fallen sharply: Once a resume is created, job seekers can submit hundreds of applications online with zero or minimal extra cost. The problem is that companies have responded with crude filtering devices, so many of those resumes remain unread. “Technology allows [companies] to search for keywords. And if applicants don’t use the right keyword in their resume, they won’t make the list,” says Susan Cantrell, a research fellow at the Accenture Institute for High Performance.
A large body of research shows that half or more of all jobs come through informal channels—connections to friends, families, and colleagues, according to Limited Network Connections and the Distribution of Wages, a study by economists Kenneth J. Arrow of Stanford and Ron Borzekowski of the Federal Reserve. What matters is a recommendation and personal assessment. Valuable recommendations come from what Stanford University sociologist Mark Granovetter calls “the strength of weak ties.” Acquaintances (weak ties) have networks that go beyond a job seeker’s immediate circle (strong ties). Yet the acquaintances know the applicant well enough to vouch for their character. “What all of the technological advancements have not done is to overcome the primary barrier to getting a job—which, from the employer’s standpoint, is being able to answer, ‘What type of worker will the applicant be?’?” asks Wharton’s Cobb.
Laura Tiffany graduated from the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., in December 2011. She quickly landed a job as a project director at Strategic Resource Partners, a planning, marketing, and research firm in Spring Park, Minn. At college she worked in the career center and watched people send out their resumes online and get nowhere. She met Jon McGee, vice president of planning and public affairs at the College of Saint Benedict & Saint John’s University, who ended up connecting her to a friend, Strategic Resource’s boss. “I know that networking is more important than shooting out resumes that end up in a black hole,” she says.
The online recruiting world is trying to replicate word-of-mouth networking. Jobvite, the social media recruiting platform, surveyed companies to find out what networks they used to identify job candidates. LinkedIn, (LNKD) the professional networking site, was the most widely used at 87 percent of the companies surveyed. LinkedIn does not disparage word of mouth, especially for recent college grads. “Referral is the No. 1 source of finding an opportunity. It comes down to who do you know,” says Nicole Williams, connection director at LinkedIn.
The folks at Monster.com (MWN), the online job clearinghouse, say their Web-based tools can be used more effectively if applicants tailor their resumes to a limited number of job openings rather than send their information off to as many employers as possible. At the same time human resource departments could reduce the flood of resumes by clarifying what sort of candidates they are seeking.
Monster is also embracing social networks. BeKnown, Facebook (FB)’s professional networking app, is fully integrated with Monster, automatically creating links to Facebook connections. “Hiring has always been based on reputation and who you know,” says Charles Purdy, senior editor at Monster Worldwide. “The new professional networking tools and social networking platforms allow everyone to build up a network.” For now, though, the old ways remain the best.
The bottom line: Even in the digital age, word of mouth and person-to-person networking play a critical role in landing that first significant job.
Farrell is contributing economics editor for Bloomberg Businessweek. You can also hear him on American Public Media's nationally syndicated finance program, Marketplace Money, as well as on public radio's business program Marketplace.FAQ: B-School Surveys and Profiles
Answers to all your frequently asked questions about the surveys used to create Bloomberg Businessweek’s online B-school profiles
What’s this survey for?
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Several people at my school received invitations. How can I find out who the contacts are?
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What’s this survey for?
The General, Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, Executive MBA, Distance MBA, Non-degree Executive Education, and Undergraduate Business surveys are the surveys we use to create the online statistical profiles of graduate and undergraduate business programs that appear on the Bloomberg Businessweek website. The Contact Update Survey is used to update our contact information for each school that receives the profile surveys.
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No. These surveys have nothing to do with the rankings. They entitle you to an online profile and nothing more.
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E-mail support at bsurveys@bloomberg.net. Survey support is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.
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No. Only one person at each school needs to complete each survey. Since all the invitations sent to a single school contain links to the same survey, it’s impossible for schools to complete multiple versions of the same survey (e.g. two different full-time MBA surveys).
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Yes. Most schools have multiple contacts for each survey. If, for example, there are three contacts at your school for the Full-Time MBA survey, all three contacts will be able to work on the same survey. If Jane opens the survey first and completes the first five pages, they will be visible to Jim when he opens it later; and when Lisa opens the survey after Jim, she’ll be able to see the work that both Jane and Jim did before making her own contribution. Once a survey has been submitted by ONE contact at a school, it is no longer available to ANY of the contacts at that school, so it’s important to make sure your survey is complete and checked for errors before it is submitted. Once submitted, a survey can’t be reopened; however, it can be edited by a school. See: “I submitted my survey, but I need to make a change. What do I do?”
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Check to make sure CAPLOCK is off when typing the password, or copy and paste the password into the survey directly from the invitation. If you still can’t access the survey, contact survey support at bsurveys@bloomberg.net.
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On the first page of the survey, where you enter your user name and password, is a link, in red, that says: To download a copy of the blank survey for data gathering purposes, click HERE. Clicking on HERE will take you to a printer-friendly version of the blank survey. Do not attempt to enter your answers on this printer-friendly version of the survey; all answers must be entered into the survey itself.
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At the end of every survey, after you answer the last question but before you submit the survey, a printer-friendly version of the completed survey (questions and answers) automatically appears. If you need a record of your completed survey for your records, you can print this version of the survey using your browser’s print function or you can download a PDF of the completed survey using the PDF link at the bottom of this page. IMPORTANT: This will be your last chance to print your survey. You will NOT be able to print your survey responses or obtain a printout or PDF after you’ve submitted your survey.
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Saving is automatic; data are saved when you navigate through the survey using the “back” and “next” buttons on each page, and are periodically uploaded to the Survey Gizmo servers. (Note: data will not be saved if you use your browser’s forward/back button.) There’s no need (and no way) to manually save the survey.
I entered answers into the survey, but when I returned they were gone. What happened?
Several things might have happened. You may have returned to the survey while the data you entered were being uploaded to the Survey Gizmo servers, during which time the information temporarily “disappears” from the survey itself. If you wait 15 minutes and log back in, it should be there. If not, send an e-mail to bsurveys@bloomberg.net alerting us to the problem. Another possibility is that the information you entered was inadvertently deleted by one of your colleagues who may have had the survey open at the same time. In that case you may need to reenter the data.
I answered all the questions on a page, but when I tried to advance to the next page, I got an error message. What do I do?
Most error messages highlight the problematic answer in yellow and indicate what the problem is. If it’s unclear what the problem is, reread the question; the questions frequently include instructions to avoid certain characters (dollar signs, NA, etc.). If a text box is highlighted in yellow, the problem might be that you exceeded the character count, which is included in the question. (Characters include spaces and punctuation. Text should be entered without any paragraph marks or line breaks, bullet points, etc.) E-mail addresses will not be recognized as valid if they don’t include the @ sign and a recognized suffix (.com, .edu, etc.) URLs for websites should include http://.
I have a question about how to answer one of the questions in the survey. Whom can I contact for guidance?
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How can I make sure our school submitted its survey?
Click on the URL in the invitation you received. If you or anyone else at your school has previously submitted that survey, you will be denied access, and you will receive a message indicating that the survey has already been submitted. If the survey has not yet been submitted, you will be able to access the survey. Do not contact Bloomberg Businessweek to confirm receipt of your survey until you’ve tried to confirm receipt on your own.
Does Bloomberg Businessweek employ any data standards?
Yes. Bloomberg Businessweek follows the Graduate Management Admissions Council’s MBA Program Reporting Criteria, as well as the MBA Career Services Council’s Standards for Reporting MBA Employment Statistics (March 2012) in appropriate sections of the surveys. Recent changes to the CSC standards including world geographic regions have been incorporated in the surveys.
How can I make sure our school submitted its survey?
Click on the URL in the invitation you received. If you or anyone else at your school has previously submitted that survey, you will be denied access, and you will receive a message indicating that the survey has already been submitted. If the survey has not yet been submitted, you will be able to access the survey. Do not contact Bloomberg Businessweek to confirm receipt of your survey until you’ve tried to confirm receipt on your own.
Our school has already completed this survey. Why do we keep getting reminders?
For most schools we have multiple contacts, and all of them receive invitations to complete the same surveys. When one contact completes a survey, reminders to that contact—and that contact only—are turned off. Contacts who did NOT complete the survey will continue to receive reminders, even though the school’s survey has already been submitted. If you, or someone using your invitation, completed the survey, and you continue to receive reminders, there’s an easy way to find out if the survey has been properly submitted. See: “How can I make sure our school submitted its survey?”
I submitted my survey, but I need to make a change. What do I do?
Before submitting your survey, you should make sure that all the information is accurate and as complete as possible. Check numbers, names, spelling, and grammar; make sure e-mail addresses and website URLs work. Do not leave questions blank if it’s avoidable. (Substantially incomplete surveys will be rejected.) You should not need to make any changes after submitting your survey. If, however, you discover a substantive error in your submission, or you need to add information that was previously unavailable, contact survey support at bsurveys@bloomberg.net. We will send you an editing link that, along with your user name and password, will allow you to access your previously submitted survey and make the necessary changes. IMPORTANT: When using the editing link, you MUST submit the survey after making your changes; if you don’t, your changes won’t be saved. You can submit your survey (and use the editing link to reaccess it) as many times as you need to.
What’s the General Survey for?
The General Survey is used to gather information that is used in all the graduate profiles (Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, Executive MBA, Distance MBA, and Non-degree Executive Education). It is REQUIRED for ALL graduate profiles. If you complete a program-specific survey (e.g. Full-Time MBA) without also completing the General Survey, you will NOT get a profile. If you only complete the Undergraduate Survey you do not need to complete the General Survey.
We have two different Full-Time MBA programs. How can we create profiles for both of them?
You can’t. Only one profile per program type (Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, etc.) is allowed. When you are deciding which program to profile, we strongly urge you to profile the biggest (or most popular) program—it’s the one most visitors to the Bloomberg Businessweek website will be interested in. We rank undergraduate business programs annually, full-time MBA programs in even-numbered years, and part-time MBA, executive MBA, and non-degree executive education programs in odd-numbered years. If one of your programs is in the process of being ranked, you should profile that program. Do NOT attempt to “combine” or “blend” two programs into one (by summing or averaging data). Do NOT attempt to “reclassify” a program (using the Executive MBA survey to describe your Part-Time MBA program, for example).
How do you determine who receives the survey invitations at each school?
Once a year, in May, we distribute a Contact Update Survey to all our current survey contacts asking them to update their contact information. Schools are asked to designate contacts for specific surveys (General, Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, etc.) Invitations for each of the surveys go to the contacts specified by the school in that survey.
What’s the best way to complete the Contact Update Survey to make sure we don’t miss future survey invitations?
The Contact Update Survey permits schools to designate up to three contacts for each of seven surveys: General, Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, Executive MBA, Distance MBA, Non-Degree Executive Education, and Undergraduate Business. While any contact who receives an invitation to the Contact Update Survey can make changes to the survey, the survey must be complete before it’s submitted. That means it must list contacts for ALL the surveys the school wants to receive. For that reason, we STRONGLY SUGGEST that one contact at each school collect all the updated contact information and enter it in the survey.
To make sure someone at your school receives the invitations in the event that one contact is sick or on vacation, we suggest listing at least two, but ideally three, contacts per survey. It’s O.K. to list the same contact for more than one survey, but do NOT list the same person as a contact for a single survey more than once, and do NOT list multiple contacts with the same e-mail address for a single survey. The idea is to send the invitation to as many e-mail addresses at your institution as possible to ensure delivery. Identical contacts or identical e-mail addresses for the same survey defeats that purpose.
If you’re providing contacts for any of the graduate surveys (Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, Executive MBA, Distance MBA, or Non-Degree Executive Education), you must also provide contacts for the General Survey. To make sure that the General Survey is completed by one of the graduate contacts, we STRONGLY SUGGEST that the contacts supplied for the General Survey include at least one of the contacts for the graduate surveys. The General Survey is REQUIRED for any graduate profile. If, for example, your school completes the Full-Time MBA Survey but fails to complete the General Survey, your school will NOT get a Full-Time MBA Profile on the Bloomberg Businessweek website. The General Survey is not required for an Undergraduate Business profile.
Are there any special steps my school should take to make sure the survey invitations don’t get trapped in our spam filters?
Yes. To make sure you receive invitations, reminders and other important email
communications concerning these surveys, please notify your IT administrator that the emails will be coming from bsurveys@bloomberg.net and that the domain name is sgizmo.com.
European Clothiers Cash In on U.S. College Ties
F&M: From the school (left) and the clothier
Franklin & Marshall College may not have the cachet of Yale University in the eyes of many Americans, but for trendy European teens the Pennsylvania liberal arts school easily trumps the Ivy League icon. The school’s moniker is emblazoned on sweatshirts and other garb sold by an Italian company of the same name that Europe’s youth can’t seem to get enough of. While few of those wearing the clothes know about the school, “I don’t think they care,” says Entheo Leung, a salesman at London’s Selfridges department store, which sells the clothing line in a display with decades-old pictures of F&M athletic teams. “They just know it’s a brand everyone is wearing, and they want it.”
Italian designers Giuseppe Albarelli and Andrea Pensiero started the Franklin & Marshall clothing line after finding an old sweatshirt from the school at a New York flea market in the 1990s. Without getting approval from the school, located in the old mill town of Lancaster, they began selling $43 T-shirts, $265 tracksuits, and other garments, using the school’s name to stand out among preppy clothiers such as Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and Ralph Lauren (RL).
Companies have long used imagined school logos such as “State University” or “Ivy Rugby Club” on their clothing. Now, Franklin & Marshall and other European brands eager to lure fickle 18- to 24-year-olds are forging business ties to real U.S. colleges. “This is a move by brands to reinforce some authenticity around what they do,” says Lorna Hall, retail editor at fashion forecaster WGSN in London. “The U.S. preppy college look translates well to Southern Europe. The Italians in particular love the formality and detail of it.”
British retailer Jack Wills, which calls itself the “University Outfitters,” sponsors club polo teams at Yale and Harvard (and has formal licensing deals with the Oxford and Cambridge rugby and polo teams in England). Gant, founded in New Haven in 1949 but now Swedish-owned, has a deal with Yale to sell $115 button-down shirts bearing the school’s name. This year, Gant took the collection to the U.K., Europe, and Japan and is putting as much as 25 percent of its marketing budget behind the Yale shirts, says Chief Executive Officer Dirk-Jan Stoppelenburg. “For us it was about rediscovering who we originally are,” Stoppelenburg says.
Franklin & Marshall (the company, which didn’t respond to requests for comment) signed a licensing deal with F&M (the school) in 2003 after using its name without permission for several years. The brand’s popularity has spread north from Italy and taken hold in Britain. In 2011 the company opened a store-within-a-store at Selfridges. “It’s selling really well,” says Leung, the department store clerk. “Christmas time was crazy. The higher prices actually attract [young people], and their parents are usually buying anyway.”
The college benefits not only from the additional revenue but also from greater visibility abroad, says Cass Cliatt, who helps oversee the school’s licensing deals. “We are fortunate to work with a European company that promotes F&M around the world,” she says. In 2010, the company also donated €100,000 ($125,000) to fund a four-year scholarship for one student, and this spring executives met with the college president for the first time, Cliatt says.
Apparel licensing deals are negotiated country by country and typically cost the licensee about 10 percent of the wholesale price of each garment, says Chris Evans of Oxford Limited, which manages licensing for the University of Oxford. Cliatt declined to discuss the terms of her school’s agreement with the Italian company.
One group of frequent collegiate consumers might not be shelling out to emulate the academic look any time soon: alumni, normally one of the target markets for such apparel. “It’s fantastic for the school that this company is marketing F&M as a high-end brand,” says Adam Marcus, a grad now working at a Boston venture capital firm. “But it’s unfathomable that I would pay $265 for a sweat suit that I got for free in college as a soccer player.”
The bottom line: European brands seeking to cash in on the preppy look are using more logos of American universities on their clothing.
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