What Employers Are Looking For In MBA Grads - Poets&Quants

What Employers Are Looking For In MBA Grads

What is the most in-demand skill set for MBAs? It isn’t the ability to break down a financial or plot out a supply chain. No, MBA employers are focused on the ability to listen for and understand feelings, read and respond to body language, and communicate in ways that are both persuasive and purposeful.

In a word, employers are seeking soft skills from MBAs.

Financial Times recently released its top skills that employers want from MBA grads. Among those skills include the ability to work in a team, solve complex problems, and manage time wisely.

Soft Skills Are Crucial

“Soft skills” are the ability to work within a team and among a variety of people. And its highly in-demand.

Just last year, GMAC released its annual Corporate Recruiters Survey Report—an in-depth study on what recruiters look for in MBA grads. The most in-demand skill? Communication and teamwork.

Dr. John Mervyn-Smith, chief psychologist at The GC Index, tells Association of MBAs that collective teamwork is necessary for long-term success.

“The key to achieving long-term success is to transform individual action into collective power. In order to do this effectively, you need to not only understand how you can best contribute and make an impact but also how other team members make their impact – only then will you be able to place them in the right roles and right environments.”

Big Data Skills Are Hard To Come By

Many employers surveyed by FT reported big data analysis as “one of the rarest and most difficult skills to recruit” as well.

According to FT, 13% of companies surveyed even went so far to rate big data analysis skills as “impossible” when it comes to hiring.

With the huge demand in these types of data skills, schools are rushing to try and meet the growing interest from students. According to FT figures, 74% of big data courses in the US reported increased demand last year.

At the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton is going full steam ahead on data analytics.

“Our dean is pushing all the chips behind data analytics,” Eric Bradlow, faculty director and co-founder of Wharton’s Customer Analytics Initiative, tells P&Q. “We have chosen to make it one of our pillars. And our dean has not taken the shortest path to the dollar but one that is consistent with our brand in the long-term. We want to be on the Mount Rushmore with finance and entrepreneurship and marketing. We are not looking to kick off anyone from Mount Rushmore, but we think analytics is as important as any other business discipline today.”

Wharton, one of the few b-schools with an in-house statistics department, has already added 30 to 40 new courses in analytics. And roughly one-third of its faculty has “at least one foot planted in data analytics,” according to Bradlow.

Having The Right Skills Is Hard to Find

The FT report also highlights how recruiters are struggling to hire MBAs who have the right skills.

According to FT, just under half of the 72 employers surveyed say they struggled to hire MBA grads with both soft and hard skills. Compare that to only one-third of companies reporting the same last year.

In an interview with US News, Sjoerd Gehring, VP of talent acquisition and employee at Johnson & Johnson, says the best way to get hired as an MBA grad is to sell yourself from a 360-degree perspective.

Gehring recommends that MBA grads find a company they are truly interested in rather than applying to an endless number of companies.

“If you are really interested in a role at J&J, then surely you will take the time to make sure your passions and skills align well to us and the position,” Gehring tells US News. “By playing the quantity game you’re not conveying that ‘This is the company I really want to work for.’”

Sources: Financial Times, GMAC, Association of MBAs, Financial Times, Poets & Quants, US News

Unconventional Career Paths for MBAs

Management consultant. Marketing manager. Investment banker. Financial advisor.

These are the traditional and common sought-after jobs for MBA grads, according to the American Marketing Association.

Yet, the MBA is a versatile degree that can lead to a number of career paths.

Ilana Kowarski, a reporter at US News, recently discussed a few nontraditional jobs that are suitable for MBAs.

Data Analytics

Big data is everything in today’s digital world. And for MBAs, it’s now an option for a potential career path.

Greg Caiola, a Wharton grad and Data Science Consultant at ZS Associates, says securing a job in data analytics is difficult, but possible.

“Unlike other MBA careers, a career in data and analytics will require significant research and networking on your end,” Caiola says in an interview with Wharton. “That being said – the jobs are there and the connections are there, you just have to put in the work to find them.”

For MBAs seeking jobs in data analytics, it may be wise to enroll in courses on predictive modeling, according to US News. Having data-driven decision-making can make you a particularly competitive candidate.

Higher Education Management

Higher education is constantly reinventing how students learn. With a number of institutions experimenting with online learning, MBAs who can measure the effectiveness of nontraditional learning can be attractive candidates to universities.

“Higher education is going through a huge transformation, and I think there is definitely an opportunity for MBAs there,” Kristen Sosulski, a clinical associate professor of information, operations and management sciences at New York University’s Stern School of Business, tells US News. “I think there’s opportunity both on the analytical side and on the marketing and finance side.”

Fashion, Sports, and Entertainment

Like any industry, the fashion, sports, and entertainment industries need workers who can analyze what types of products and services sell.

Cara Withers Shaw, the founder and president of Briteboard Marketing, tells US News that MBAs are highly valuable in the film industry.

Shaw, an MBA grad from Pepperdine who went on to hold marketing jobs with Twentieth Century Fox and Walt Disney, says her MBA was critical in giving her quantitative and qualitative analytical skills needed to determine which movies would most likely become box office hits.

While an MBA can be beneficial to many traditional routes, it doesn’t mean grads are limited to just those career paths.

Be sure to check out the full list of nontraditional MBA jobs at US News.

Sources: US News, Wharton, American Marketing Association.

Your Paycheck Isn’t An Indicator of Success

Getting paid a large salary right out of b-school might not be the biggest predictor of your future success.

At least, that’s what Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria believes.

In an interview with Business Insider, Nohria says he judges a Harvard MBA grads’ success by looking at where they’re working between five and 10 years after graduation.

“What we want is to have students, 10 years later, be at an arc in their lives where they really feel that they’re gaining increasing responsibility,” Nohria tells Business Insider. “They feel ready to run a company; they have progressed a lot in terms of their own aspirations, how they want to build their career.”

Salary Is Not The Best Measure Of Success

Nohria is a strong believer that your pay does not equate to your success.

From a financial standpoint, Nohria says “jobs that pay the most in the near term don’t always pay the most in the long run.” Furthermore, he says, graduates don’t necessarily stay at the same first job for many years.

In terms of satisfaction and fulfillment, Nohria says, “just because they pay a lot doesn’t mean that you’re going to be the best at them or you’re going to find the most fulfillment in them.”

And that sentiment seems to ring true among many successful people.

Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington says that while money and power are the two traditional indicators of success in America, she believes there should be a third metric.

“To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric,” Huffington tells Forbes‘ Dan Schawbel, “a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.”

Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, once said that success is a measure of your impact on society, not just a paycheck.

“It is also nice to feel like you made a difference — inventing something or raising kids or helping people in need,” Gates says in a Reddit AMA.

Sources: Business Insider, Business Insider, Forbes, Reddit

Big Data in B-Schools

Big data isn’t a new concept. Yet, business schools have sometimes been slow to adapt their curricula to educate b-school students properly in it.

At least, that’s what Jennifer Gaskin, a contributor at data tech news outlet Dataconomy, says. Gaskin says an understanding of big data is crucial for b-school graduates to succeed in a big data world.

“A business school graduate without an understanding of Big Data and data science is like a buggy-whip maker watching Model-T Fords roll out of the factory and watching their livelihood go with them,” Gaskin writes.

The Evolution of Big Data

The term “big data” was coined 15 years ago.

While big data has been around for a while, companies are still evolving to keep up with its potential. According to the software company SAS, big data has influenced how organizations make decisions and how fast.

“Whereas a few years ago a business would have gathered information, run analytics and unearthed information that could be used for future decisions, today that business can identify insights for immediate decisions. The ability to work faster – and stay agile – gives organizations a competitive edge they didn’t have before.”

And Gaskin agrees. She argues that big data is fundamental to how businesses operate and even exist.

“Big Data isn’t so much an aspect of the business; rather it is the very foundation upon which businesses understand themselves, the marketplace, their competitors, government and regulators and, most crucially, their customers and potential customers,” Gaskin writes.

The Need For B-Schools To Teach Big Data

While many b-schools do an outstanding job of teaching its students in finance, operations, marketing and other traditional fields, Gaskin argues that many schools have been slow to incorporate big data into the mix.

Gaskin points out how the curriculum at a prestigious b-school, like Harvard Business School, can offer a competitive and thorough curriculum, but lack enough courses in big data.

“Among required courses for the two-year program, none deal solely with Big Data or Data Science,” Gaskin writes. “One required course deals partially with information technology, which itself is only tangentially related to Data Science and Big Data in that it helps facilitate initiatives in those areas.”

The solution, Gaskin argues, isn’t to replace current b-school curricula, but incorporate thorough teachings of big data.

“We’re not suggesting schools replace leadership training with classes on how to build a website,” Gaskin writes. “But because technology, Data Science, Big Data and related concepts are so fundamental to how business operates today, schools that can incorporate these into all areas of their educational offerings will be the ones that prepare students the best for the challenges they’ll face today — and the ones we haven’t even imagined.”

Sources: Dataconomy, SAS

 

 

 

 

 

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