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MAY 5, 2003 B-SCHOOL Q&A: PLACEMENT Duke's Jobs Pro: I've Seen Worse [Page 2 of 2]
A: Even if companies don't participate in résumé drops [in which the B-school collects student résumés for the employer], I've got my account managers following up to see if the company got enough résumés and what else we can do. Most of us are trying to be more aggressive that way. We're running some job clubs, and those are helping us, too. We call them career networks, divided by functional area. For example, I've got a technology group I'm working with, and we've got a marketing group and a finance group. We meet with the students on a weekly basis and give them assignments. We're trying to do everything possible to support people through this. We did the Hire Up campaign with alumni, and they're helping us. And we're trying to be real aggressive in sending out jobs directly to students -- into their mailboxes. Q: What are the crucial job skills that companies are looking for nowadays? A: Team ability. Being a leader, as well being a follower. Also, in this economy, companies are looking to get somebody with prior experience in the field. That has been a challenge for career changers. They often have to either look to do something in their former field -- use their new skills that way -- or take their former experience and make it in a new field. Because there are so many people available, employers are being able to set more specific criteria than they may in a different kind of economy. They're looking for proven potential. Q: How is hiring holding up in the marketing industry? A: I think our students are disappointed that they don't have more options in that area. But our marketing numbers seem to be similar over the last couple of years. When I say that, I mean our students probably aren't coming out with four or five offers in marketing, like they would have before. Q: Is hiring down broadly, or are there particular segments of the marketing industry that are hiring? A: We're more of a consumer-marketing kind of organization, so we're still seeing jobs there. What's also happening is that the internship is becoming more important, so that a company may be saying, "If we make you an offer for an internship, you'd better take it, or we're not going to come back for full-time recruiting in the fall." We're seeing some of that happening, even though we're just starting to register companies for recruiting in the fall. But some of the companies we thought weren't going to be back for fall recruiting at least have registered for a fall date. We're finding that offers aren't being spread across numbers of people. So certain people are getting lots of offers, and others aren't getting offers. In other years, you would find a broader spectrum of people getting offers. For instance, when the investment banks come, they all tend to interview the same group of people. So, if I'm "I-banking Joe," I get four offers, but if I'm trying to break into investment banking, I don't get any. Q: How is hiring in the investment banking and consulting industries? A: Those are two areas that are extremely challenging at this point. We're finding students at times more willing to go into corporate finance. We had more interest this year, I think we would say, in corporate finance than we've had before. Q: How are you managing relationships with recruiting companies? A: My concept is to look at whom I have good relationships with, and make sure that I'm getting them to think of me across the board. I don't want you to come in and just think of me as a marketing school. We'll be spending our time saying to companies: "O.K., I know you've got a nice finance-development program, could we look at this? Is there a way we can build a relationship? If you're not going to come on campus for that, then how else can we put our students in front of you in the year to come?" One basic premise of marketing is that it's easier to keep a customer than to get a new customer. It can be challenging now that companies are making offers to fewer people. If a company comes away from here dry, then they're could say: "If we're going to cut a school, I might cut this school because we didn't get anybody to accept offers this year." Q: Have you heard from companies about what the next couple of years are going to look like? A: You know, from the investment-banking people, I'm not hearing that things are going to broaden. Some of the marketing firms feel good -- at least, they're holding stable. I'm not hearing the cuts I might expect in consulting. It depends on the different companies. But we all know that consulting is still soft, because nobody has extra money to spend, right? Q: If you're a career changer, is now the right time to get your MBA? A: I think sometimes the media makes the job market woes more sensational than they are. We still have people getting great opportunities. A career changer has to think about what they're walking away from vs. what they're walking toward. Sometimes, the way you learn that is by getting an education. If they can start thinking about how additional education is going to get them to something new, I still don't think it's a bad option for people. In fact, I think at most schools about 75% to 80% of the student body are career changers. Investment banking -- that might be the most precarious option. But, you know, I'm never going to say to somebody: "You can't do that," because as soon you say that, they go do it.
BW MALL
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