How Duke Helps Students Connect

In 2005, about 85% of graduates at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University had job offers by May, and 92% had job offers by August. This year, the school rolled out a new Intranet system to help students manage their on-campus recruiting process. That was a priority of Sheryle Dirks, the director of the school's Career Management Center (CMC), who says she wants to focus on customizing services for students. With the new Intranet, MBA candidates can apply for jobs, sign up for counseling, bid on interview slots, post job leads, and network with other students.

Before coming to Fuqua in 1998, Dirks worked as the director of admissions at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Illinois. During a brief hiatus from Fuqua in 2003, she was a consultant for North Carolina State University. Dirks recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online project assistant Janie Ho. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

How's the job market looking for Fuqua grads this year?
On-campus interviews for first- and second-year students should be up 20% to 25% this year. Job postings for both are up almost 50 percent year to date.

What advantages do Fuqua students have in the job market?
Duke MBA students have a broad general management curriculum and collaborative leadership [skills] (see BW Online, 3/26/06, "Creativity Comes To B-School"). They need to be able to see the big picture, to think about what one department does in relation to another.

One of our key investment banking recruiters in New York said he could train a typical undergraduate to do the same number crunching that an MBA would be paid a lot more to do. However, he wants somebody to see the big picture, to think about cross-functional needs, and to one day manage that company.

Geographically, where do Fuqua students usually gain employment?
Typically, New York is our No. 1 city. The Southeast, more specifically Atlanta, and the West Coast, like Silicon Valley, always flip-flop between second and third place.

What companies usually come to recruit at Fuqua?
Our top employers for full-time and internship programs in the 2004-05 academic year were...

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