Outsourcing the MBA Job Hunt

With jobs in short supply, B-schools are using social media outfits and executive search firms to connect MBA and EMBA grads with employers

By Geoff Gloeckler

Until recently, MBA students had the job recruitment process down to a science. Recruiters would come to campus, students would interview for summer positions, everyone would get an internship, and at the end of the summer, most would return to campus with a full-time job offer in-hand. Unfortunately, that formula isn't working at the moment. Fewer companies are coming to campus, and those that do are hiring fewer students. Because of this, many members of the recently graduated MBA Class of 2009 are still jobless nearly three months after graduation, and prospects for the Class of 2010 aren't looking much better. So B-schools are calling in reinforcements.

In the past six months, a number of top MBA and Executive MBA programs have partnered with Web-based search firms to offer students another way to find jobs in addition to the traditional MBA career services office. They include Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business (Tuck Full-Time MBA Profile), the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile), Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan Full-Time MBA Profile), and Duke's Fuqua School of Business (Fuqua Full-Time MBA Profile). "In today's market, schools are looking at all options that may help source a position," says Kip Harrell, president of the MBA Career Services Council and associate vice-president of career and professional development at Thunderbird School of Global Management (Thunderbird Full-Time MBA Profile).

One of those options is a social networking and job search Web site called Doostang. Originally developed by an MBA grad of Stanford (Stanford Full-Time MBA Profile) as an online outlet for MBA students and prospective employers to meet, Doostang has become an exclusive destination for students and alumni from top universities to source jobs and to network. Wharton was the first MBA program to partner with Doostang in February, and since then, other schools such as Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management (Johnson Full-Time MBA Profile) and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business (Darden Full-Time MBA Profile) have followed suit.

Inside Edge

For students, one of the big advantages of such partnerships is that they get access to job postings and individuals—alumni of other schools—that are unavailable through their own school's career services office.

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