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JUNE 2, 2000 B-SCHOOL Q&A: PLACEMENT Meet NYU's Placement Director "Stern has a history of sending a lot of our students into investment banking and an increasing number into consulting. ... But there is an increase in the number of students pursuing jobs with dot-coms and high-tech firms."
Q: It's been an exciting year for placement offices, as student and recruiter needs changed. Are students taking more risks at NYU, which is heralded as a hot spot for the financially minded? A: The new media world has had a significant impact on the opportunities that our students are looking at. We see an increased interest among students in new media firms, entrepreneurial ventures, or more of the established dot-coms. The MBAs are also looking at Internet-related opportunities within established companies. There's a strong interest in finance that's not going to go away. But the school has been attracting students that have a broader interest across many career areas. We see that play itself out in the opportunities that students are pursuing and interviewing for, and the companies that the students are ultimately accepting offers from. Q: That switch must have had an effect on your day-to-day responsibilities. A: It certainly did. We have strong relationships with the traditional companies. Now, we have to cultivate and build relationships with many new firms. About 50% of our job postings are related to the Internet, which is quite a significant difference. Last year, we weren't seeing anywhere near that volume of Internet-related opportunities open to our students. Q: How would you describe your role as director of career counseling? A: My job, and my office's job, is to serve two major constituencies: our corporate recruiters and the students. Much of the job is helping them find each other. We help our corporate clients figure out how are they're perceived on campus, and how they need to effectively position themselves to get the targeted students. We help the MBAs to identify what are the most important skills and values. The MBAs should evaluate their opportunities for the long term. In this marketplace, that's tough because there are some very large short-term rewards. They have to deal with long-term career management. Each of the decisions they make now positions them for long-term career development. Q: You've got a lot of students to look after: 840 full-time MBAs and 2,000 part-timers. How does the office juggle the demand? A: We've got a very strong staff with career counselors and relationship managers to manage our corporate relationships. We've got a very strong reputation among our students for providing them with the information, resources, and opportunities they're looking for. The part-time population is actually a different animal. They're employed, and their issues are fundamentally different. Q: What are their issues? A: They're interested in career development and career management, as opposed to changing careers. We help them move within their corporation and to use the MBA to help them position themselves for long-term growth. Q: What is it that part-timers have to do when they return to work with their MBA after three or four years of study? A: The beauty of the Q: So they have to remind their co-workers and bosses, and then ask for more responsibility? A: Absolutely. There's no question that there's a process of them negotiating new responsibilities and opportunities to take on new projects and work with different people. They demonstrate to the people within their organization that they've developed new skills that position them differently within their organization. Q: What's the more consuming part of your job as a point-of-contact for both full- and part-timers? A: I'm the director of career counseling services, so my primary focus has been career management and how to manage a successful job search. We put equal resources into both groups, because both processes have to be happening simultaneously. Q: As more students pursue individual career searches, and others request meetings with companies that don't traditionally come to Stern, have you had to alter the way the operation works internally? What has it done to the dynamics of your work environment at NYU? A: One of the major issues is that some of our traditional recruiters have not [hired] the numbers [of students] they expected to. Some interview schedules were not filling up as they have in the past. The acceptance rate of offers has not been as strong as it has been in certain companies. We're reaching out to those firms to help them to modify their recruiting practices so that they can be more effective next year. For instance, a team in my office worked with a food and beverage firm that didn't make the numbers that they wanted. Our team functioned as consultants and organized a focus group of the students that interviewed with the company, identified the students' perceptions of the firm, and gave that feedback to the firm. The firm can use that to reposition themselves or to get involved with student clubs [to attract more students next year]. The career fair will probably play an increased role. The student clubs have also organized a West Coast trip with our help. Stern isn't the only school doing that, but it's a significant effort on the part of the students. That also gives students a great deal of exposure to the different dot-coms. Q: Networking is the tag word of the year at most B-schools. A: Yes, it's interesting because the hiring practices of the [traditional] firms, the new media firms, and the entrepreneurial firms is a multipronged and grassroots process. We get lots of opportunities through our office, but at Stern's Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the staff works very closely with the Technology and New Media Group, and the Entrepreneurs Exchange. They collaborate and organize a series of different entrepreneurial lunches, or brown-bag dot-com lunches, as well as a business-plan competition.
Q: It seems that no B-school is complete without business-plan competitions. A: It's a wonderful opportunity for the students to get that experience. The competitions give them exposure to the venture capital firms. Those activities bring a steady stream of entrepreneurs to the school and in contact with our students. Q: What percentage of Stern MBAs are staking out jobs with such firms? A: Right now, about 63% of our students are reported to be placed. Stern has a history of sending a lot of our students into investment banking and an increasing number [of students] into consulting. That hasn't shifted significantly. But there is an increase in the number of students pursuing jobs with dot-coms and high-tech firms. Q: Speaking frankly, MBAs that head into finance in New York snag lucrative salary packages. NYU is no exception: in 1999, the average grad had a salary of $77,653, with a $20,250 signing bonus. With more Stern grads going to dot-com companies, will the salary levels at Stern dip? A: We're seeing strong salaries from the dot-coms as well. The average salary so far is up about 10% across the board. This is more anecdotal, but we're seeing strong salaries from dot-com companies, along with options. The same is true for students pursuing Internet consulting. That is an area with very strong salaries. Q: Even from day one, focus on the final career package is paramount for many MBAs. Is there too much focus on the career side of the MBA? A: That's a very real [issue]. The students have a huge challenge when they come on campus, which is that there are all kinds of demands made on their time in terms of juggling the academic requirements, the work that they're involved with, extracurricular activities, and the career search. People who are most successful in business school are those who can say that all of it is a major priority, and then figure out day by day how they can manage their time. The students here take their academics extremely seriously. The beauty of it is that it's an easier process in New York. The students can get plugged into companies easily. Q: Are the first-year MBAs' interests on par with their second-year counterparts? A: There is an increasing awareness on the part of our first years that the dot-com summer internship experience or an Internet-related project is very important. Investment banking is always going to have a very strong showing here at the Stern School, and we attract those kinds of students. But we're seeing more students meeting with a career counselor and saying, "I need to have an Internet-related experience this summer." That frequently positions them for consulting [jobs] in the future as well as jobs of all kinds within new media. Q: Even new students are often intent on learning the latest and greatest career hunting tools. Can you explain what Stern's Career Management Series is all about? A: It begins in pre-term. We start with a focus on skills and values. That focus is an important foundation for students to help them identify the skills that are most important to them. Then we roll out this career management series throughout the first semester [of the first year]. It includes a series of alumni panels, workshops on understanding all the [career] options that exist, as well as resume writing and informational interviewing. Q: Are there skill sets that MBAs now need that they didn't need in years past? A: It's extremely important for them to have a broad set of skills. But I'm not sure that this has changed significantly. They've always had to have strong communication skills and strong analytical skills. Students that are interested in going into the dot-com world need a real savvy to know how that marketplace works. They've got to be able to articulate why they want a position, the skills that they have to offer, and why they want to go into a certain company. Q: What are the things the MBAs are looking for? Do they want more diverse companies on campus? A: They're MBA students, so there's always a company that they'd love to see. In many ways, what they're looking to our office for are key resources that position them to effectively manage what is a much more complex job search than it has been in the past. For example, we all have been learning this year how to effectively interview for a dot-com. In some cases, we ask, is there even a traditional interview? We run panels on that. Q: Is dot-com recruiting really so different? A: It can be informal, but I've also heard of plenty that are very structured. We know that the students have to be extremely sophisticated and savvy about the Internet space. They've also got to be in a position to make some recommendations in terms of where that business should be going. In some ways, it can be more like a consulting interview where you're presented with a business problem that you then have to address. Q: Are there other companies that you haven't had on campus before that the students are asking for? A: We've been making strong inroads into strengthening relationships that we've been in the process of developing. We're seeing an increasing number of our students getting into the very top investment banks and consulting firms. These are very strong relationships, and our alumni base is deepening and expanding at these firms. In terms of other firms that we would continue to do outreach for, there could be Internet consulting firms that our students have expressed an interest in, and it's just a matter of doing that outreach and letting them know about our students. The students are also getting in contact with them. Q: What will change next year? A: We've already made some changes. The first, which I mentioned earlier, is the outreach that we're doing to help our corporate clients. And this is the critical time for them to identify how to position themselves with an effective strategy. The other thing that we've done, due to fundamental changes in the marketplace, is to survey our students to identify some of the specific things that they're looking to our office to provide them with. The job search is moving off campus, and for many it is a grassroots process. Q: Any parting advice? A: If I were to give advice to firms — they're challenged because there are so many opportunities for our students — it would be to give the students access to them during the recruiting process. More of the Old Economy firms are involving their senior-level managers in the recruiting process. That's been a very effective tactic to use with the students. But the degree that firms can personalize the approach so that students get to know the company, and what it would be like to work there, is one of the most important things that firms can do as they approach MBA students. Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | JUNE Learn about your online education options |
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