MBA Supply Finds It’s in Big Demand

Helen Park celebrated her 24th birthday on Thursday with nine job interviews.

Giggling and nervous, the UC Riverside MBA candidate confessed she was “pretty excited,” but pronounced herself confident and prepared. “I’m going to walk away with a job!” she exclaimed.

Park was among the 600 MBA students from a dozen business schools who attended the West Coast MBA Consortium, a three-day job fair at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine that ends today. Billed as Southern California’s largest MBA recruiting event, the consortium provided ample evidence of the sizzling market for MBAs.

When it started seven years ago, in the depths of the recession, 15 employers showed up and job offers were scarce. Last year, about 50 companies turned out. This year’s event was sold out by September after more than 60 companies signed up, including Walt Disney Co., Netscape Communications Corp., Eli Lilly & Co., Nissan Motor Co., Pacific Bell, PepsiCo Inc., Rockwell International Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.

Most of the MBA-elects attending the job fair will likely have several job offers in hand before picking up their diplomas. And salaries are rising along with demand.

Average salaries being offered to UC Irvine’s 1998 graduating class are about $60,000, up about 10% from last year, said Randy Williams, director of UCI’s MBA Career Services and the event’s lead organizer.

If signing bonuses and other incentives are factored in, the average starting salary is probably closer to about $75,000, Williams said. By Thursday morning, he had heard of three UCI students who had received offers in excess of $100,000.

“That’s not uncommon at UCLA or Stanford,” he said. But the demand for MBAs is so intense that some students from the so-called “second-tier” business schools are also commanding stratospheric salaries.

These MBA students are benefiting from the healthiest overall job market in years, in which strong corporate growth is pushing unemployment down and fueling demand for workers across the board. One of the hottest job categories in the last year has been professional services, which includes many of the consulting, marketing and finance jobs these students are headed for.

The most sought-after students are those who combine good communications skills with “an understanding of how technology is changing the paradigm of business,” said Williams.

“If you have that package you are in probably one of the hottest job markets I’ve ever seen.”

Dressed in navy blue and gray suits, the MBA students--average age in the mid-20s--squeezed into the packed job fair, resumes in hand, smiles carefully affixed to hopeful faces. Many had already submitted their resumes through the Internet--the first year the service was offered--and already had interviews lined up.

Others were trying their luck by waiting patiently in line to shake hands with the company recruiters manning the booths.

“You have to change your tune for each company,” said Sean Drummond, a University of Utah MBA student planning to graduate in June.

Working his way to the head of the line at the booth of the technology consulting firm American Management Systems, Drummond said the strong job market was encouraging but the interview process was still nerve-racking.

“We’re missing classes and have to make it all up,” he said. “So you have to worry about that, and put your best face on.”

In addition to UCI, UC Riverside and the University of Utah, other schools that participated in the event were Arizona State, Brigham Young University, Claremont Graduate School, Pepperdine University, Santa Clara University, UC Davis, the University of Arizona, the University of Washington and Willamette University of Salem, Ore.

“It’s a seller’s market,” said Virginia Legg, manager of business, engineering and quality systems at Intel Corp., which has sent a representative to the event for six years.

But Legg said it takes more than money to attract the brightest students. Intel appeals to many young business people, she said, because of its egalitarian corporate culture.

“It’s very entrepreneurial,” she said. “The dress code’s comfortable. It’s a very informal environment. No one at Intel has an office, not even [Chief Executive] Andy Grove.”

With the advantage in the MBA’s court, Pete Alexander, Western regional sales manager at Textronix Inc., said he, too, has had to “get a lot more creative” in his recruiting efforts.

With more than 100 openings to fill, the $2-billion technology concern has been offering more attractive benefits, relocation and auto packages to prospective young executives, Alexander said.

Perhaps most important to students, he said, is assurance from a company that it will help them develop their careers.

“If a company just talks the talk, and doesn’t walk the walk, they stagnate pretty quickly,” he said.