Source: The Wall Street Journal
by Melissa Korn
April 3, 2014
No job yet? No problem.
Second-year M.B.A. students at a number of schools are holding out for the perfect job, even if that means rejecting safe-bet offers and graduating into unemployment.
The attitude reflects a major shift from just a couple of years ago, when business students aimed to lock in their postgraduation plans by winter break and those still looking in April were assumed to be deficient in some way.
The change comes as students flock to technology firms and startups, which typically can’t predict staffing needs too far in advance and so tend to hire closer to graduation than do finance and consulting companies.
‘I’m not nervous,’ says Ellen Cory, a second-year student at Dartmouth’s Tuck business school, who has turned down several job offers. JOHN TULLY FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
It also reflects students’ growing confidence in their own abilities and more optimism about the job market.
While this year’s shift is difficult to quantify—most business schools don’t begin tracking job-placement rates until graduation—interviews with current M.B.A.s and their career-services officers suggest that, as “just-in-time” spring recruiting heats up, patience is a virtue.
“The current student population is definitely willing to wait for the right opportunity,” said Jennifer Bridge, director of recruiting at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
The wait-and-see approach was already taking hold last year. Just over 84% of 2013 graduates there had job offers as of graduation, but only 74% had accepted the overtures, according to the school. The differential between offers and acceptances at Haas has historically been closer to four percentage points.
That’s especially a change from the economic crisis that began in 2008, when job seekers of all stripes leapt at any offer for fear that another one might not come along.
Banks and big multinationals still draw a crowd at fall recruiting events, but even those elite job opportunities aren’t enticing everyone. In the coming weeks, some recruiters who first hit campuses months ago will be returning to scope out candidates who weren’t ready to commit earlier in the year.
Students who went on spring break without contracts signed no longer have “a sense of feeling like the odd man out,” said Jonathan Masland, director of the career development office at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.
Ellen Cory, a second-year Tuck student, said she has already turned down offers from Cargill Inc. and BT Group PLC, and is certain she’ll land her dream job by graduation. Ms. Cory, 31 years old, is pursuing strategy or operations positions in the hospitality industry in Washington, D.C.
“I’m not nervous. I’m not behind for the type of position I’m trying to get. I’ve seen classmates get a lot of great jobs. And I have confidence that I will be able to find a job that satisfies me,” she said.
Her husband, Bryan Cory, also a second-year M.B.A. at Tuck, took his time as well. The 32-year-old interned in the CEO’s office at Siemens AG last summer and got a full-time offer in August, but didn’t accept until January.
Students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business used to feel peer pressure to nab a great job early, but Maeve LJ Richard, assistant dean and director of that school’s career management center, said that pressure is now to explore a new passion, experiment in entrepreneurship or work for a startup.
Steffen Gnegel, a 2008 Stanford M.B.A., accepted a job offer from consultancy Booz & Co. in the first few weeks of his second year of school. He was set on going into consulting and had interned at the company over the summer.
Mr. Gnegel, 37, recalls most of his classmates clamoring to land jobs early in their second year, and says students in the class after him were even more worried about securing employment—any employment.
But given the robust job market in Silicon Valley these days, he said, “I guess they know they can afford” to hold out for the right fit.
Since more students may not want to commit until later in the school year, some companies are pushing back their schedules.
Mark Peterson, director of M.B.A. and graduate career services at Iowa State University’s business school, said one large consultancy that used to make dozens of offers by November instead attended a February career fair this year and only handed out offers last month.
Bloom Energy, which taps M.B.A. students for 5% to 8% of its new hires, doesn’t recruit on a set schedule and rarely does so for positions more than six months ahead of time.
That means those who want to start work after graduation generally only stand a chance at getting a job in the spring.
And they’re willing to wait, said Helen Textor, director of global recruiting and staffing at the Sunnyvale, Calif., clean energy firm. “I’m surprised often at how comfortable they are” turning down other offers, knowing a job at Bloom is far from a sure bet, she said.
Career services officers are adapting their strategies as well. A few years ago, officials at Iowa State’s business school would have discouraged finance or marketing students from turning down any reasonable offers. “Prospects were kind of slim” so it was better to play it safe, Mr. Peterson said.
But now, his office feels more comfortable coaching students to wait for the best offer. Last year, 93% of students had at least one job offer by graduation, and 89% had accepted.
Those students who do hold out may be happier. Tuck surveyed 2013 graduates and found that students who accepted positions after graduation were more satisfied than those who signed up before graduation.
To be sure, not all students can afford to wait. At Stanford’s business school, 95% of 2013 graduates with permanent work authorization—U.S. citizens and permanent residents—had offers three months after graduation, but just 88% had accepted.
In contrast, 94% of those without authorization had received job offers by three months after graduation, and all accepted.
Corrections & Amplifications
The differential between M.B.A. students who received job offers and those who accepted them at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business historically has been close to four percentage points. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the differential was 4%.
