It’s a Seller’s Market for MBA Students

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 600 MBA students from a dozen business schools who attended the West Coast MBA Consortium, a three-day job fair at the Hyatt Regency 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 and 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, one 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 past 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 on Thursday, 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.”

Stepping to the front of the line, Drummond spoke to the AMS recruiter for a couple of minutes. “I think it went well,” he said later, then smiled and shrugged.

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.

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

But Legg said it takes more than money to attract the best and 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.

Training and professional development is an area often overlooked by businesses, Alexander said, but it can make the difference between success and failure.

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

Qualcomm Inc., the fast-growing digital communications company, had one of the busiest booths at the job fair. With plans to hire 2,000 new employees worldwide this year, recruiters say they have their work cut out for them.

Ginger Andersen, Qualcomm’s manager of accounting services, said the company was well-known among students, and that helped attract applicants. Partly that’s because of the recent publicity surrounding a company employee who was arrested in Russia on espionage changes--although that’s the kind of attention they’d prefer to avoid, she noted dryly.

But she said it’s also because of the company’s popular e-mail product, and its ownership of Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, where this year’s Super Bowl will be played.

IBM Corp. also has a “large demand” for MBAs throughout the computer giant’s operations, said Joyce Wade, the company’s program manager of college recruitment and university relations. She said consortiums such as the Irvine event provide an efficient means of meeting students.

“You get a lot of bang for your buck,” she said.

Despite the robust demand, though, some students said the pressure is still on.

Ken Lai, a UCI MBA-elect, had five interviews lined up by mid-morning. “I’m trying to squeeze more in,” he said. “The more the merrier.”

With the chase for good MBA candidates heating up, Lai said, companies have started the recruitment process earlier and are trying to lock in commitments well before graduation. “I’ll start getting nervous if I don’t have something the quarter before,” he said.