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Internships: Never More Important
Once used mainly as a way for MBAs to get experience, they're now widely seen as the best way to get into a company that'll hire them ffice ffice" />
Company internships have long been an important part of the B-school experience, offering students a chance to explore an industry they hope to move into. Starting in 2000, however, landing the right internship became an almost life-or-death matter for MBA students, as internships increasingly replaced on-campus recruiting as their best shot at a job.
Internships, moreover, show no sign of losing any of their new importance as the economy improves. The classes of 2004 and 2005 can look forward to 25% to 35% more internship offers this year than during the economic slump, and the number of full-time jobs offered to interns is expected to rise by roughly the same amount. For one, JP Morgan Chase & Co. projects an increase of 25% both for internships and full-time hires for the classes of 2004 and 2005, according to Alison Corazzini, head of investment-banking recruiting. With employers historically end up converting 50% to 65% of internships into full-time positions, that should mean a lot of new jobs.
MULLING THE OPTIONS. Many companies are doing away with second-round hiring altogether, preferring instead to find all their new hires in their pool of interns, says John Flato, career services director at Georgetown University and a former corporate recruiter for Ernst & Young, Cap Gemini, and Honeywell.
At some schools, the trend is already quite pronounced. Last year at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, only 31% of the 239-member graduating class had received offers from their summer internship program by the time they graduated. This year 41% has already received an offer, even though graduation is still months away. At Carnegie Mellon University, the graduating MBA class had received 117 offers as of mid-January, 2004 -- 40% more than at the same point last year, says Ken Keeley, executive director of the Career Opportunities Center.
The improving economy, meanwhile, has boosted students' confidence. Many more than in the recent past are taking their time deciding on whether to accept their offers. At Fuqua, 55 students who have job offers -- about half stemming from internships -- have yet to decide whether or not to take those jobs. "People accepted jobs last year because they didn't have an alternative," says Jean Eisel, Fuqua's Director of MBA Career Management. Adds Carnegie Mellon's Keeley: "There's not that sense of panic you saw two years ago and last year."
The relief may be premature, notes Hanigan. On-campus job recruiting at this point in the hiring cycle remains a bit of a wild card. Some companies do it to promote their brand to students and maintain relationships with schools' career offices as much as to actually hire. Yet at Columbia University, where students have natural geographical entree to the investment and retail-banking communities, a number of blue-chip banking firms started recruiting in mid-January, rather than the traditional February or March, to fill full-time positions.
SHRINKING BONUSES. Even so, many students are taking a speculative approach to the job search. A major reason is that, with just-in-time and as-needed hiring rampant, many students last year found better jobs in April, May, and June -- which used to be considered fatally late in the hiring season, says Regina Resnick, assistant dean and director of MBA Career Services at Columbia.
Sentiment about which industries are the most desirable is shifting, too. Investment banking and consulting no longer appear as exotic as they did in the boom years, when upwards of 80% of newly minted MBAs would head off to jobs in those specialties. Today, fewer than 60% of students will enter or return to such positions. The percentage drop is partly because fewer consulting and investment banking positions are available, but it's also because those jobs still require brutal work hours and the seven-figure bonuses that made them so lucrative are no longer a given.
No one hot job category has replaced I-banking and consulting, although some sectors are gaining in popularity. Pharmaceutical companies, which avoided the corporate scandals that enmeshed many financial companies, are becoming more attractive, as are luxury-goods companies and manufacturers. The herd mentality, Hanigan says, is gone. "We see twice as many attendees at our on-campus briefings at our select schools [Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt University's Owen School of Business, Pennsylvania State and the University of Maryland's Smith School of Business] and résumé drops from MBAs requesting interviews now," says Steve Howarth, who as vice-president and general auditor of Black & Decker (javascript : target=" _blank?>BDK ) runs the company's Financial Development Program and hires for the company's finance team.
OPENED DOOR. The story, writ larger, is similar at General Motors (javascript : target=" _blank?>GM ), whose presence has remained steady over the past three years at the 30 business schools at which it recruits, although its full-time recruiting is at a "slightly lower" level now than it has been over the past few years, says Mark Roberts, GM's director of talent acquisition. While the number of internships GM offers remains roughly unchanged from a few years ago, he says, they have gained importance. "Students shouldn't look at the internship as an opportunity for experience," says Roberts. "They should view it as an opportunity to gain employment."
For now, rampant on-campus recruiting and multiple job offers for every grad are things of the past. If those phenomena ever make a comeback, it won't be until at least 2007 or 2008, says B-school industry expert Hanigan. And that can mean only one thing for the current crop of MBA students: When it comes to finding an internship, you've really got to get it right.
By Kate Hazelwood
Edited by Thane Peterson
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发表于 2004-2-13 08:54:00
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