According to the book by Vault "MBA Career Bible", based on the recent research concerning the present and future of MBA careers, the MBA degree opens up the widest career opportunities for the MBA bearers. Today, many business positions require an MBA for advancement. Moreover, the candidates without a MBA degree are not eligible for the majority of investment banking and management consulting firms as well as the major consumer products companies, including Procter & Gamble, Kraft and Colgate-Palmolive. The company can hire you without an MBA degree but it will be impossible for you to have an extensive career advance.
In the other industries, such as media and entertainment, the MBA degree is not necessary for the advance yet, however, it is gradually becoming the major admission requirement.
The most prominent MBA career paths are the financial-services and management consulting companies, which today offer richer salaries and more bonuses to their recruiters. Banks also renewed developing MBA careers for the graduates, although there was a decline in the bank MBA hiring in 2001.
The MBA careers are numerous, but there are several factors, influencing the success of a particular MBA job seeker. What are they? First, the MBA careers depend on the status of the business school, which you have graduated from. The business school ratings well coincide with the payment rates, as the leading firms prefer hiring the graduates of the top business schools. The second factor, inducing the contemporary MBA career opportunities, is that the companies still tend to hire the candidates not only with a fresh MBA degree, but also with the experience in the job functions they are supposed to accomplish.
However, the surveys of the MBA careers in the US show an increase in the number of interviews directly on campus. For instance, at Stanford University' Graduate School of Business, the increase of campus interviews was up to twenty four percent from January to March 2005.
The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley announced a thirty five percent increase in the number of interviews on campus, including such industries as the real-estate development, hedge funds, and technology.
At New York University's Stern School of Business, banking and consulting are the major career opportunities in 2005 and by the spring of 2005 already three quarters of the Stern MBA graduates had received job offers.
In The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey, about forty five percent of recruiters said that starting salaries became higher in 2005 than the year before.
The extensive career advance is the primary reason why people start a MBA. Furthermore, the business schools provide an excellent career service to their students, although to support every individual student is an actually time-consuming occupation.
Nevertheless, the situation is dramatic for the international students, as the US has closed the US workplace for foreigners, thus, opening and increasing the MBA national market in the US. This process is to continue during the next few years, which will have a positive effect on the national MBA market development.