I've noticed that most top MBA programs report that roughly 85%+ of students receive offers at graduation, with that number increasing to 90%+ three months after graduation. Why is this the case? Did they pursue a difficult career path or are a lot of students just getting no offers for various reasons? Seems a bit scary to quit working, pay for two years of school, and have a 1/10 chance of being unemployed after graduation.
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The only explanation I can think of is that those 10% have too high expectations and aren't settling for anything less than $300,000 yearly salary and a fancy title. I'm interested in hearing what other people think about this.
It seems about right to me. Any person who is paying tuition by himself, be it via savings or student loan, is bound to have some sort of reservation price at which he is willing to 'sell' his labor to potential employers. And as far as my knowledge goes, top MBA programs are not exactly cheap and when you add up the cost of your time (our most valuable resource, right?), it adds up.
There are a surprising amount of people who just don't really give a shit about recruiting, and everything else can probably be boiled down to "too high expectations" in some form: ppl going for PE/HF who refuse to do banking, MBB hopefuls who won't settle for corporate strategy or even Accenture, etc. Another big factor are international students who want to stay in the USA. The need for a visa is a major extra hurdle that really screws over a lot of students, particularly those who want to do marketing/CPG. Also, tech companies typically recruit pretty late in the year, so people who whiff on tech on campus recruiting end up kinda fucked and have to do their own recruiting off campus which can take a while.
^This. I will also add people looking into nonprofit or other non-traditional paths (e.g. sports, entertainment) to the laggards.
I wouldn't say that everybody has "too high" expectations. People go to top programs with clearly defined goals. Everybody I've spoken to from my school that didn't have a job at graduation was because they wanted a specific career path (PE VC or HF) and were holding off until getting the exact off they want. Almost every single one of these people COULD have been employed if they wanted to. I wouldn't be afraid of going to a top program because of that statistic. It's a safe bet that of the 10% who didn't have offers almost all of them would have been employed if they had taken an easier path like banking or consulting.
What about rich kids who are not looking for work?
Great responses, thanks for shedding some light onto the stats.
Yeah, I would feel the same way. If I'm foregoing my salary and paying about $120k for tuition, I'd expect to at least double my salary. But who knows when the time comes, I might settle for anything.
I know a few people who come from wealthy families that go and don't recruit through the major channels. they may be looking to join a firm through some connection (which they could have done prior to mba anyways), and then ultimately work for the family or the family investment office... it's pretty standard. MBA is like something they do os their dads feel better about giving them a good position in the firm. They're also usually extremely smart and well-educated so this just adds to that. I know that's not the typical profile - but from my experience a lot of these kids are very capable (it helps going to Andover/Deerfield -> Harvard, top internships since HS, etc... not to mention listening to your father the magnate talk about business at dinner since the age of 5)
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