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 Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ), Lehman Brothers (LEH ), Kraft Foods (KFT ), Citigroup (C ), and McKinsey.

What sectors were mainly hiring Duke MBAs?
Finance and consulting were even last year, accounting for 17% each as the chosen field of 2005 graduates. Brand management was also high at 13%.

What's your career-center staff like?
We have 16 staff members. Five of them are career counselors who work individually with students and clubs. It's their responsibility to get to know the firms in their areas and how they differ. Another five focus on employer services, working with current and prospective recruiting companies. They arrange presentations and interview schedules and tell them what's unique about Fuqua.

How do you prepare your students for case study interviews?
We bring in an external organization for a "Train the Trainer" program to teach our second-year club leaders how to give mock interviews. Not only does it better equip those second years to go out and teach the first years, but it makes them better case interviewers themselves.

How many mock case interviews can a student have before a real one?
In addition to opportunities at the clubs and the CMC, companies come and give mock interviews as well. On average, first-year students have five to 10 before they engage in a real case interview.

How do you help international students gain job placement?
We have to be transparent with them about [which] companies do and don't sponsor the visa upon graduation. They're competing against U.S. students and, in some ways, they need to almost be better. We give them extra opportunities to get critiques of their cover letters and practice their interviewing skills.

How do you attract recruiters to campus?
We go to the companies. We send our staff to the National Society of Hispanic MBAs and the National Black MBA Association conferences to support our students and talk with companies. That's been successful for us.

How do you prepare the students before they arrive on campus?
We send them online assessment surveys and return the results to them before they get to campus. We have "Fuqua Talk" online chat rooms and optional workshops for self-assessment throughout the summer.

How do you help ensure students will get placed?
We're accountable for adequate on-campus recruiting opportunities. We keep up with individual students, those with whom we've met, those who've attended our workshops. We reach out to students.

What trends do you see for future MBAs seeking jobs?
The ability to really grasp global business is the most notable trend. Companies that capitalize on emerging global markets, whether it be in China, India, or Africa, will understand that the world is bigger than just the U.S.

Any last thoughts about Fuqua Business School and the direction in which it's heading?
It's a great time to be at Fuqua. Our faculty is considering a new curriculum for the daytime MBA program, which would offer more choices and customization. Our new Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation opened this year, which has had a huge impact on our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. We have plans for a new building in late 2006, which would expand our capacity for academic, recruiting, and co-curricular events. We've also expanded our faculty significantly in the last two or three years, which has given us a lot of bandwidth for core and elective courses.