Firms Want Grads Who Will Give More
Business school graduates expect to balance high-profile, high-paying jobs with family and leisure time without making a long-term commitment, according to participants attending a recent conference on MBA recruiting.
Those goals, however, are often at odds with those of employers, who are looking for highly skilled people with management ability willing to devote their lives to the firm in exchange for high salaries.
Participants at the 1989 Forum on MBA Recruiting, sponsored by Roundtables Inc. and Citicorp, said that while high salaries are an important consideration, other factors are increasingly being weighed by MBAs when considering employment.
“What came across clearly was that students are factoring in life style with career opportunity,” said Elizabeth Katsivelos, of Columbia University’s graduate business school.
“Salary, while a consideration, is not the driving force for many,” Katsivelos said after last week’s conference, which was closed to the press.
She noted that many of today’s graduates must make job choices while considering a spouse’s career.
Quality of Life
An MBA graduate’s choice of employer is affected by various factors, led by peer pressure and “quality of life issues,” said Peter Veruki of Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville and one of the organizers of the conference, which was attended by corporate recruiters from more than 80 companies.
“Students are greatly influenced by what fellow students see as prestige jobs, or ‘what’s hot this year,’ which has been investment banks, venture capital firms and real estate development,” he said.
“Peer pressure comes when a student gets an offer, say from a large manufacturing company that takes a long-term view of its employees, and his colleagues say: ‘Go there for two or three years. It’ll look good on your resume.’ ”
At the same time, many prestigious companies make heavy demands on their employees. “They want an MBA who will work 60-hour weeks, have a bag packed all the time and be ready to fly to the coast on a moment’s notice,” Veruki said.
Thomas Broitman of Price Waterhouse said such demands are justified, at least in the investment banking and financial services industry. “The MBAs can’t have it both ways, at least to start,” he said. “They can’t pursue a quality of life and a high salary. They are mutually exclusive.”
