MBA Job Market

An employment report of Stanford's class of 2008 showed up on the GSB admissions blog last week. I hope that my two years at the GSB will help me figure out how to get a $200K signing bonus (the upper end of the signing bonus range). Kidding. Well, sort of. But seriously Stanford, give us some real news -- what is going on with the class of 2009? What about the class of 2010 summer internship search?

Just two days later, the HBS Director of Admissions blogged that 77% of those seeking employment in the Class of 2009 have received offers. That number sounds high at first glance but let's note a couple things. The first is that we have nothing against which to compare this percentage. What was the figure in February 2008? Feb 2007? The Feb 2006 number had to be amazing given how frothy the market was back then. The second thing to note is that she clearly says they have received offers, not that these students have accepted offers. There is a big difference between getting a couple offers that you are loathe to take and having a job offer that you are thrilled to accept.

Meanwhile, the MIT Sloan career development office told Business Week in its grimly titled February 2 article MBA Job Outlook Dims that about 50% of the class of 2009 have job offers, flat from last year. Over at UCLA Anderson, about 33% of the class of 2009 have a job lined up, "down significantly from January 2008." UVA Darden students are in better shape, 67% of whom have job offers -- still down from 81% this time last year.

Business schools admissions officers are clearly trying to reassure applicants that there will be internships and jobs for them in the future and that leaving their current jobs is not foolish. I personally don't have the option to stick around with my current employer, so they need not try to convince me. I'm convinced!

PS: If you're interested in Stanford employment reports going back to 2003, click here. I'm too lazy to dig through those but let me know if you learn anything interesting.