MBA Insider: Careers Q&A August 14, 2008, 4:41PM EST

Kellogg Career Services Q&A

The director of Kellogg's Career Management Center talks about how the school is preparing its grads for a tighter job market

Roxanne Hori
Northwestern University

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The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University hasn't yet seen the effects of a faltering economy trickle down to its graduating MBA students, says Roxanne Hori, assistant dean and director of the school's Career Management Center. But she is bracing for a tightening of the job market a year or two down the line. Hori has held her position for 13 years, and predicts that Kellogg students will feel the ripple effect of the current economic slump soon. But both she and the students—many of whom graduated into a tough economy when they completed their undergraduate degrees— have survived downturns before. And savvy students have begun to show interest in growth industries like high tech, as they see opportunities dry up in the troubled financial sector.

Still, the Career Management Center isn't leaving it all up to student initiative. It offers an array of tools to help students get employers' attention. Among the ways the center tries to give students an advantage is through its bidding system, which gives students a shot at the jobs they want the most, even if they don't have as much related experience as other candidates. And under Hori's leadership, the career management center gives students lessons in everything from their elevator pitch, to business dinner etiquette, to PowerPoint.

BusinessWeek last spoke to Hori three years ago. At that time, job prospects were better, the financial sector was seeing growth, and the housing bubble hadn't yet burst. Recently, Hori spoke with BusinessWeek's Francesca Levy to discuss ways that her center has changed with the economy. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.

The last time we spoke to you, in December 2005, the job market was looking very different. How has the current economic climate affected the job of the career services dept?

The reality is that for the class of 2008 and 2009, we haven't seen a significant negative impact. The class of 2008 is still pretty positive about finding a job, and some from the class of 2007 have given up on other jobs to keep chasing their dream jobs, which is good. And students are still finding summer internships. They seem to be tracking right on target. There's a lag time between what happens in the economy and what happens on campus. We're expecting to experience more of an impact next year.

How is the career management center preparing for that impact, and what challenges will it face?

The challenges will be making sure people feel like they're equipped with the right tools, being able to unearth potential opportunities, and making sure students are mentally prepared for how competitive it's going to be.

The class of 2009 has an average of five years of work experience. So a lot of them came out of undergrad in 2002. Fortunately or unfortunately, they have been through this before. So there's already some knowledge of what they need to do to prepare. But we have to make sure they feel confident that we're doing outreach and providing right tools.

Since the last time you spoke to us what else has changed? Are students interested in different industries, or have new companies started to recruit at Kellogg?

A couple of things have changed. One, we've seen a resurgence of high-tech interest. On my last trip to California it felt like people on the West Coast were not feeling the same pinch economically as, for example, New York. But technology companies are certainly back hiring MBA students—not in as much of a drunken frenzy as 2000 and early 2001 but in a sober, more deliberate way.

There has been increased interest in private equity and venture capital, a fair number of students still wind up getting jobs in that arena. Consulting continues to be very strong in student interest, and 12% to 13% of our class goes into banking. There is growing interest in retail and in entertainment media.

It seems that alumni involvement is a big part of your career placement strategy. Can you talk about what roles alumni play?

Alums play a pretty critical role in recruiting and the job search.