In Search of Jobs, MBAs Take Off the Gloves

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When he graduates from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management (Kellogg Full-Time MBA Profile) in June, Karlo Teran will have fulfilled the two goals he set for himself before coming to Kellogg: landing a job in his hometown of San Diego and bucking the trend of following a typical MBA path in consulting or investment banking. Through diligent networking inside and outside of Kellogg, Teran landed the job of his dreams at a private bank in California.

The only catch: His job starts in September. "For the summer, I don't like to lose time, especially in this hard economy," Teran says. He decided to pursue an internship, and he faced fierce competition with first-year students. Many of the internships he sifted through were unpaid, and he noted that the compensation was extremely low for the internship he ultimately took in the marketing division of a Chicago-area sports agent company. But for the opportunity to add to his network, Teran says he would have worked without pay. "The more people you meet and the more experiences you get, the better," Teran said. "An internship is a free experience."

First-years

For second-year students, they may be free experiences, but for first-years who have trouble securing internships, a summer job can mean the difference between a successful launch to a post-MBA career or scrambling for work at graduation. The trickle-down of heavy competition can hit first-years the hardest. John Day, 27, is a first-year MBA candidate at Kellogg going into investment banking. He made it through the cutthroat internship competition and will be working at Citigroup (C) this summer, but Kellogg's career services warned students to be prepared for anything.

"From the beginning, they told us to have a Plan B and Plan C. Pretty soon that morphed into a C and a D, and then they were telling us to talk to our old employers," Day says.

New programs are quickly being invented at business schools to combat this kind of future for first-years. The Career Management Center at the Johnson School started a program this year offering short-term consulting projects with participating companies ranging from three weeks to an entire summer. Of the 100 projects open only to Johnson students, 55% are paid opportunities and 40% are pro bono. Many of the company contacts are Johnson alumni. The projects are open to any current MBA who has not yet found an internship or permanent position—out-of-work alumni need not apply—and so far, the projects have received close to 100 applications.

Karin Ash, the director of the Career Management Center at Johnson, sees the program as an important alternative for those without full-time positions. "Better to stay busy and get one more experience under your belt instead of sitting around moping because you don't have a job," Ash advises.

Mandy Oaklander is a writer for the B-Schools department of BusinessWeek.

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