Stanford B-School Pitches a "Premium Product"

Even though on-campus recruiting isn't the focus at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, MBA students get the jobs they want, says Andy Chan, assistant dean and director of the MBA Career Management Center at the B-school. Chan earned both his undergraduate degree and his MBA at Stanford, in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He then made the rounds in the business world, working in consumer products for Clorox (CLX ), consulting for Bain & Company, and helping run a technology business, the Learning Company, before returning to his alma mater four years ago.

Chan is especially fond of the business school's small size, which fosters close ties among students, encourages alumni to help each other in the job market, and allows for personalized career services. Of the 301 students seeking full-time employment in the class of 2005, 95% had jobs three months after graduating. Chan recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online Project Assistant Meredith Bodgas. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:

Why doesn't Stanford have as many companies recruiting on campus as other schools?
I like to describe what we have as a premium product. There isn't a large supply and it's fairly high priced, so it's not for the general market. Coming on campus to recruit may not be a good use of companies' time, because they won't be able to hire many people at once since our class is small. Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School are in a corridor of the country with many businesses around, but we're out in California. Still, many big companies hire our graduates, just not necessarily through on-campus recruiting.

How do the students feel about that?
Students who come here will learn to go about the job process on their own, which is most likely the way they're going to do it for the rest of their lives, so it's helpful to them. They realize that on-campus recruiting would pit students against each other for spots, but if they go out to get the jobs themselves, they're not competing with as many other Stanford students.

So how do they get hired?
Almost one-third are hired through on-campus recruiting. But our students have discovered that there are many interesting jobs out there, and the best way to get one is to get to know an alumnus who works where they want to work. If they hit it off, the alum may say, "We don't have any openings here, but I'd love to create a job for you." The farther away students go, the more the alumni in that area are going to help them, because they're excited to have other Stanford people around. With our small network, people feel, "It's us against the world," and they're more helpful to each other as a result (see BW Online, 1/19/06, "Picking the Right People").

In what industries do students work?
At many B-schools, about half the class or more will go into consulting or banking. In last year's class, 19% of students took consulting jobs and just 5% went into investment banking. Consumer products and services, hedge funds, investment management, private equity, real estate, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce each get between 4% and 9% of the class. Many people think of Stanford as a tech school, but only a small number of our MBAs pursue careers in technology.

What are graduates' starting salaries?
In selective industries, like media/entertainment, the mean is about $71,000. But the average base salary for all industries is still over $100,000, with a mean signing bonus of about $19,000. The students don't feel pigeonholed into investment banking or consulting, because they see that people in all different categories get paid pretty well.

How do you help students determine what career to pursue?
Career self-assessment tools, like Career Leader, can be helpful, but students sometimes hate the answers they get. A test may say investment banking is for you, but you may have already worked in it and disliked it. But it could have been because you had issues with your firm or your manager, or because the work you did within this firm is different from what they do at other firms.

Students must take the time to think about their personal experiences and attitudes. Discussing these with a counselor can help students get the full value of the test. Also, more than 10% of the class take two jobs during the summer to figure out what they want to do.

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