Where MBA Grads Want to Work...

ralph

692 1.074

Posted May 25, 2010 21:54

There's a new Universum Group survey out, one that ranks companies in terms of where newly-minted MBAs want to work. Quite expectedly yawn-inducing, McKinsey and Goldman Sachs are highly ranked - but the top spot doesn't belong to an investment firm, a real estate firm, or anything else typically business... but to the tech company: Google! And Apple takes the number five spot.

Does this reinforce some kind of larger shift, where grads are following money that is flowing away from the traditional earners (that, I'll point out, weathered the dot-com boom of the 90s just fine,) and toward a more compu-centric, tech-focused business culture?

I kind of doubt it. No, I think that after the current recession/slowdown/whatever-you-want-to-call-this, the real estate and investment firms will be just fine, whether they're attracting recent MBAs or not.

What I think we're seeing is a different kind of shift: one where, to some extent, "culture" and "lifestyle" have become priorities for job seekers; and, of course, the dress-down, start-up images of Google and Apple have been ingrained in the minds of those who would have, twenty years ago, been just fine with wearing a suit and tie to work everyday.

Ranting aside, here's the top ten list (with the obligatory notes about how surveys are usually flawed because of sample size, etc, etc.) :

1. Google
2. McKinsey & Company
3. Goldman Sachs
4. The Boston Consulting Group
5. Apple Computer
6. Bain & Company
7. J.P. Morgan
8. Walt Disney Company
9. Nike
10. Johnson & Johnson

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fishball

91 162

Posted May 26, 2010 07:16

I don't think it's a shift away from the traditional consulting/finance roles, but rather that

1. Google's comp matches McKinsey's/Goldman's comp
2. They're hoping for stock options.
3. They think that Google might be a more "exciting" option in terms of the career path that it offers.

But I think #1 and #2 have a lot to play with attracting MBAs.

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ralph

692 1.074

Posted Jun 07, 2010 20:04

You're right... Stock options at Google would be nothing to scoff at. "Exciting," yeah, probably more so than Goldman-Sachs, etc.

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SabrinaA

132 263

Posted Jun 26, 2010 18:57

Surveys are always flawed...this ranking exercise by FT is also based on survey...it is never perfect...all depends on the kind of sample size you have taken and how you have taken.

_Nes

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ralph

692 1.074

Posted Jun 29, 2010 06:58

Surveys are always flawed...this ranking exercise by FT is also based on survey...it is never perfect...all depends on the kind of sample size you have taken and how you have taken.

_Nes

Of course. According to Universum group's methodology:

The results are based on the answers of 5,732 students, studying to receive their MBA, and 21,561 number of individual employer evaluations from 50 schools nationwide. Each respondent is presented with a list of 290 national and international employers,

50 schools doesn't sound like a lot to me (especially because the find-mba directory lists 747 in the U.S. alone,) but depending on a couple of other variables that number of students could represent a good cross-section.

How I think that this differs from say a ranking survey is that I don't think the schools would have any reason to manipulate the data. With the rankings you might end up with a school that only reports 20% of its placements because the other 80% are crap, for example. There's no incentive for the schools to do this kind of thing for the choice employer survey.

<blockquote>Surveys are always flawed...this ranking exercise by FT is also based on survey...it is never perfect...all depends on the kind of sample size you have taken and how you have taken.

_Nes
</blockquote>

Of course. According to Universum group's methodology:

<blockquote>The results are based on the answers of 5,732 students, studying to receive their MBA, and 21,561 number of individual employer evaluations from 50 schools nationwide. Each respondent is presented with a list of 290 national and international employers, </blockquote>

50 schools doesn't sound like a lot to me (especially because the find-mba directory lists 747 in the U.S. alone,) but depending on a couple of other variables that number of students could represent a good cross-section.

How I think that this differs from say a ranking survey is that I don't think the schools would have any reason to manipulate the data. With the rankings you might end up with a school that only reports 20% of its placements because the other 80% are crap, for example. There's no incentive for the schools to do this kind of thing for the choice employer survey.

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