hbs.gif" style="float:left;padding-center:10pt;padding-right:10pt"/>I talked to a good friend of mine who's in NYC. He told me how he ran into an old high school friend in the city, who graduated from Harvard Business in 2007. She told my friend that she was still looking for a job. Apparently, she received offers from bunch of financial firms, but they were all in foreign cities like London, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. Since she really wants to be in NYC, she turned down those offers and is still job hunting.
My question is twofolds. First, how common is it for HBS grads to not have jobs six months after graduating? Second, is it really that much more difficult to get good finance jobs in NYC, as opposed to foreign cities?
Is your friend American? some of my non-american friends find it hard to get a job in NYC, but were instead sent to work overseas in their home cities where there's a greater demand for employees. for american graduates, it's quite rare for firms to send them to London or Asia when they didn't ask for it.
Q: How common is it for HBS grads to not have jobs six months after graduating?
A: I don't go to HBS, so I don't know. From what I've seen so far in recruiting, is that the network helps, but if you don't take the initiative and give it your best shot, you still have to keep going and figuring out for yourself as to what's stopping you.
Q: Is it really that much more difficult to get good finance jobs in NYC, as opposed to foreign cities?
A: It's not so much about NYC vs. foreign cities (or satellite offices). It's more like being at the financial capital of the world and being where the action (read: deal flow) is.
she shouldn't have turned down london.
First, full-time recruiting for business school students happened long before the market turned sour with the credit crunch and all in July of this year - if she did not find a job in NYC before then, I'm not sure what to say. Perhaps she was international and seemed more inclined to go to one of those cities?
I do think it's somewhat easier to work abroad, but NYC also has far more financial jobs than any of those cities except for London possibly. It's pretty rare to be sent abroad without asking for it or without "being punished" for something (e.g. like they do in Liar's Poker).
Unemployment rate for HBS grads after 6 months is pretty low... I don't have the stats in front of me and can't find them at this second but most grads have found jobs by then. With the current state of the financial markets, it's only going to get tougher to find a job at this point.
I think it's like 94,95% have found a job by graduation or within 3 months after.
She probably is in the small subset who find it hard to get jobs (i.e. no substantial prior WE, not motivated to do banking, not interested in consulting, not enough WE to get PE/VC/HF interviews, not willing to stoop down to industry jobs, etc.) Part of it is ego, part of it is lack of focus, and part of it is a belief that HBS entitles you to a plum finance job.
My personal view is if you're an HBS grad, there is no reason you should not have a job. It may not be in the field you want, but so many firms clamor for HBS grads that you should get at least 1 offer before being picky.
I believe that, the job market sucks. My school is the #1 feeder for all banks in London, more than half of my graduating class has not found a job, and maybe only 1/5th have an offer at a BB. Usually people find jobs much faster from my program. (I am a masters student, undergraduates have a much better placement rate at my school, although they are struggling a lot as well)
Remember, you will always be a salesman, no matter how fancy your title is. - My ex girlfriend
Digging up this old post because it's interesting to look at how people saw this in 2008 vs. today
2025: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2025/01/15/when-harvard-mbas…
2008: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna30622026
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