MBAs Go Micro

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Job Postings Down

Career services teams are doing their best to connect students with this previously overlooked class of employers. They have a big incentive: In a survey by the MBA Career Services Council, an association of business-school career officers, 46% of career-services officials said full-time job postings were down by more than 10% this winter as the market for MBA talent continues to dim.

At the urging of schools, many small and midsize companies are taking advantage of the poor market for MBA talent by doing things that the "big guns are doing"—everything from campus visits to posting positions on b-school job boards to calling up career offices and asking for referrals or recommendations, says Kip Harrell, president of the Career Services Council. Some are even asking schools to host small business career fairs, says Dan Marques, Babson's manager of entrepreneurial development, who's organizing one at his school this spring.

For students who are considering small or midsize companies, one downside is salaries, which are typically far lower than they would be for the finance and consulting jobs most MBAs gravitate towards at graduation. And the jobs themselves might be short-term gigs, since many MBAs will be tempted to jump ship when the economy rebounds and big companies—particularly big financial services firms—start hiring again. Says CSC's Harrell. "That will be the challenge when the economy turns around."

Flattery Helps Fetch Them

To seal the deal, B-schools are encouraging smaller employers to use the personal touch. Andy Chan, career services director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, recommends that schools use résumé books to pinpoint students they're interested in hiring. An e-mail or a quick phone call to the students will flatter them and help get their attention, he says. "The personal touch works, especially if it comes from the CEO of the company" he says. Other CEOs send staff to campus networking events or to speak before student clubs. At Mad Greens, Hodgson often invites students he's interested in to have lunch with him at one of his restaurants. He also sends staff to recruiting events at local business schools, even bringing samples of their salads and homemade dressings for students to taste.

For their part, students are reaching out to small companies using methods they might not have employed with big companies, who typically interview students at on-campus recruiting events. Dariush Afshar, a second-year Wharton MBA, e-mailed the CEO of the company he was interested in, a 10-person social media company called DotSpots. The two set up an interview in Los Angeles, and after several more meetings Afshar received a job offer. His new job: vice-president for business development. "He seemed to be struck by the level of homework and research I had done," Afshar said of the CEO. "I didn't get this job through any formal recruiting process. It was really doing my own ground work."

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Damast is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

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