MBAs must rethink job options

Wharton MBA students aren't all looking to be consultants or investment bankers anymore.

This year's MBA career placement report reflects a growing diversity in the types of jobs students holding Wharton MBA degrees look for.

"Students are now looking at things beyond investment banking and consulting," said Peter Degnan, director of Wharton's MBA Career Management. "We're seeing a peak of students looking at health care, media and entertainment...."

Statistics from the past five years show that the percentage of MBA graduates entering consulting has decreased from 35.5 percent in 1998 to 20.9 percent this year.

Also, the percentage of Wharton MBA graduates who have taken jobs in the health care, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries have increased from 2.7 percent in 1998 to 8.5 percent this year.

In Degnan's eyes, this is certainly a good thing -- "It's nice to see that we're convincing more companies from other industries to come to Wharton to recruit students."

Still, the job market is not as strong as it was several years ago, and MBA job seekers are feeling the effects of the economy's downturn.

"It's a tough market out there," Degnan said. "I think it's taking longer than most people would have hoped or thought."

For example, Degnan explained that McKinsey, a management consulting firm that used to hire several hundred MBA students each year, hired only about 30 in 2003.

As a result, students have been looking for jobs in less traditional fields.

Resulting from the tough job market over the past few years, job offers have decreased from 97.2 percent in 1998 to 82 percent this year. Also, the median total compensation package for graduates went down from $158,000 in 1998 to $115,000 this year.

Top business schools across the country are showing similar trends.

At Stanford, while the bulk of students are seeking employment in consulting and investment banking, they are also branching out into more unusual areas.

"We had some sizable increases in consumer products, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology," said Andy Chan, Stanford's director of the MBA Career Management Center. He added that this was partly because of lower numbers hired for investment management and investment banking.

"I think there's a correlation between where there were jobs and where people ended up," Chan said of the economic situation, adding that salaries have not changed much in recent years.

Similarly, 2003 MBA graduates at the University of Chicago, with the same median salary as Wharton students, have also found jobs in a variety of fields. While most students have gone on to jobs in financial services or consulting, 6.3 percent have entered the world of health care and 6 percent are working for food, beverage or tobacco companies.

At Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, students seem to have dramatically tested the waters of various fields. While 37 percent of their 2003 MBA graduates found jobs in financial services and 14 percent in consulting, 8 percent have gone into technology, 8 percent have gone into health care and 8 percent have found jobs in the nonprofit sector.

With an unusually competitive job market and an increasingly diverse MBA student body, Wharton students are starting to think long and hard about career choices.

However, despite some variations, most have pursued employment in the tried and true fields of consulting and finance.

Ronald Clark, for example, is seriously considering accepting an offer from the investment bank where he interned last summer.

But, he said, he and his peers are having a more difficult time than they would have liked.

"Let's face it," the Wharton MBA student said, "it's not 1999. People aren't calling your house saying 'I saw your resum‚ online, we'd love to offer you $500,000 to come work for us for two years.'"

But, Wharton MBA student Peter Haanschoten, who received a consulting offer from the firm he interned with last summer, says things are looking up.

"I'm beginning to see more full-time positions and more companies than when I was looking for a summer internship," he said.

Chan was almost as optimistic.

"I think that the job market in 2002 and 2003 were pretty tough," Chan said. "I think it's getting better... but not a lot."

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