UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS SCHOOL-RECRUITER RELATIONSHIP
By Dominic Basulto
While the attention of most potential MBA applicants
during the fall is rightly focused more on the application process itself
than on post-MBA career opportunities, understanding the business school-recruiter
relationship is crucial for understanding how the business schools think.
Once one understands how they think, it becomes easier to develop a
cleverly marketed application strategy for the "Top 10" business
schools. After all, the business schools are looking for a particular
type of candidate - and this prototypical candidate is the exact candidate
that the leading consulting firms, investment banks, and Fortune 500
companies would like to hire. There are three crucial aspects to the
business school-recruiter relationship: (1) elite business schools act
as "filters" in order to assist firms in the recruitment selection
process (2) image is more important than substance during recruiting
season and (3) business schools and recruiters exist in a precarious
equilibrium.
ELITE BUSINESS SCHOOLS ACT AS "FILTERS"
IN ORDER TO ASSIST FIRMS IN THE RECRUITMENT SELECTION PROCESS
One of the most important notions is that the elite
B-schools act as "filters" for the leading recruiters. In
an analogous sense, gold miners during the California "Gold Rush"
sifted dirt through a sieve, trying to separate the gold from the dross.
Essentially, the "Top 20" B-schools are looking for the gold,
and the recruiters are more than willing to delegate this responsibility
for several reasons. The intensive application process - by requiring
a plethora of documents, academic transcripts, and essays - makes the
job that much easier for the recruiters. A business school such as Wharton
effectively says to the recruiters: "We have chosen 800 students
out of 8,000 highly-qualified applicants during a 9-month process that
has been continuously refined over the past 40-50 years. According to
our rigorous analysis, these students represent the highest potential
candidates in the world." Likewise, the core curriculum is adapted
for the unique identity of the program (e.g. Stanford's stresses strategic
analysis) and ensures that all candidates are conversant in each major
area of business marketing, finance, strategy, human resources
management, etc. Finally, B-schools establish unique events such as
seminars and inter-term business trips that change and adjust the recruiting
profiles of the students
In understanding the idea that B-schools act as filters,
it comes as no surprise that personal characteristics and "cultural
fit" become paramount. Once a candidate has been accepted to an
elite program, academic excellence and competence in business fundamentals
is assumed. At Stanford, for instance, recruiters are not allowed to
ask MBA students for their grades. Recruiters who visit the campuses
of the leading B-schools are assessing the relative values of the candidates
for the nest-higher position, not the immediate post-MBA position. As
one JP Morgan banker once remarked, "We're hiring Managing Directors,
not Associates." In essence, these companies realize that the new
MBA hires will be the new members of top management within 4-7 years.
Being able to do the functional part of the job, then, is only part
of the equation - more important is evincing those personal traits that
define the best upper-level managers.
The characteristics needed for entrance to business
school are exactly those that are needed for upper-level management;
if you can convince the admissions officers that you have these personal
traits, then you have also convinced them that you are worthy of admission.
Most important is demonstrating a diverse set of interests as well as
the ability to "walk and talk" like an MBA graduate. After
all, the leading business schools know that being able to converse over
a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild about hobbies or extracurricular
activities is just as important as being able to discuss the financial
aspects of an internet IPO. For example, each year the Yale School of
Management stages a 1-day event at a local country club, where students
are instructed on the finer points of business etiquette by a professional
image consultant.
IMAGE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SUBSTANCE DURING RECRUITING
SEASON
In addition to the B-school students themselves, both
the B-schools and the corporate recruiters have a very real stake in
the recruiting game. This is a game that has been repeated many times,
so all the players are well aware of the rules. From the B-school's
perspective, the bottom line is seeing that every student is placed
in a suitable position after completion of the MBA program. This fundamental
concern of the career services office at each B-school, however, is
often surpassed by more pressing concerns such as average number of
offers per student, average annual starting salary, and total number
of firms recruiting on campus. These are the typical yard-sticks by
which MBA programs are evaluated in the rankings. On the other hand,
firms are eager to attract the most capable students possible, meaning
that they move instinctively to the elite business schools for "first
pick of the litter." What exactly constitutes the "elite"
business schools is largely determined more by perception than by reality.
In assessing where to recruit, the B-schools move in packs, following
a herd instinct. Within New York City, for instance, there has been
a pecking order which dictates that Columbia Business School is favored
over Stern (New York University). Selecting the B-school that you attend,
then, inevitably means selecting how recruiters will perceive you
While firms themselves view the respective business
schools in terms of image and relative standing in the rankings, it
is no surprise that the students themselves view the range of potential
employers through an equally critical prism. In the world of consulting,
firms such as McKinsey and BCG are often viewed as comprising the "first
tier" while in the area of investment banking, it is Goldman Sachs,
Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch that are considered the "elite"
firms. Of course, the relative image of these firms is far less resilient
to change than those of the business schools themselves, as it depends
primarily on total compensation level. Nevertheless, students use the
relative prestige of the respective firms as a sway of measuring their
post-MBA success. The same "prestige" that is associated with
such names as Wharton or INSEAD also is associated with the above-mentioned
firms.
BUSINESS SCHOOLS AND RECRUITERS EXIST IN A PRECARIOUS
EQUILIBRIUM
Business schools deal directly with the firms that
are hiring MBA graduates. There are rarely any third-party intermediaries
involved; that is, recruitment agencies for the leading hirers of B-school
grads. In return, each major firm has a person responsible for "MBA
recruiting," who acts as a conduit for applications for the $100,000
jobs. Getting into this conduit is only possible by being a current
MBA student. That is the beauty of the MBA degree - it is practically
the only entrée to these high-paying jobs.
There are two sides to this equilibrium between B-schools
and recruiters, of course. The B-schools attempt to establish a strong
relationship with key recruiters while key recruiters demand access
to the best and the brightest. Not surprisingly, this relationship can
become intensely personal. Firms feel mistreated if given worse ties
or places for interviews, while B-schools can feel slighted if firms
announce that they are only hiring one of two from a class of over 300.
In the interest of its students, B-schools lobby these firms to interview
as many students as possible. The level and intensity of this lobbying
can assume the proportions of a high-stakes poker game. For instance,
if Harvard Business School feels that a particular company is not hiring
enough of its graduates, it may decide to assign the company worse interview
times and dates in the next recruiting cycle or even threaten to accept
fewer professionals from the company into the next class at HBS.
The key link in the is recruiting game is B-school
alumni. Alumni have the ear of both the B-school and the firm for which
they work. B-schools with strong alumni networks (e.g. INSEAD has 20,000
alumni in 31 countries) have more leverage during recruiting season.
In fact, most recruiter teams that visit a campus will include at least
one alumnus who can assess the relative value of the MBA candidates
in the current graduating class. That is, an alumnus from Harvard will
most likely interview an aspiring candidate from Harvard Business School.
Alumni involve themselves for at least two reasons; they are, after
all, choosing with whom they want to work as well as assuring that their
MBA degree is "endorsed" by the mere fact that the company
is hiring even more graduates from their B-school.
In conclusion, understanding the business school-recruiter
relationship is a necessary first step in understanding how business
schools think. In short, business schools are businesses - and like
any business, they need to be concerned about their end users (the firms
who hire new MBA graduates). Candidates currently seeking admission
to the "Top 20" business schools should demonstrate that they
are the "gold" that the leading banks, consulting companies,
and Fortune 500 companies will be eager to hire.
Dominic Basulto is a 1998
graduate of Yale School of Management and currently works as a consultant
for Pericles ABLE. He represents Pericles in America and does MBA Advising
through the internet. For more in formation please write to info@pericles.ru
or call us at 292-6463/5188 www.wetfeet.com.