Feb

9

Recruiting way down at business schools

Posted by Dan

February 9, 2009 |

I guess you can file this one in the “no kidding” file: Far fewer recruiters are hitting up business schools these days.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran this story highlighting the decline in recruiting seen by business schools this winter. According to the story, a survey by the MBA Career Services Council said that 56 percent of business schools reported a decrease in recruiting activity this winter.

Of course, this should surprise no one. The job market isn’t just bad, it’s horrible. And, as Pres. Barack Obama is reminding everyone, it’s not getting better any time soon.

The people you feel worst for are those graduating business-school students who had left secure, stable jobs to go back to school. They’re now graduating and finding fewer job offers than ever. Of course, there’s no guarantee that their old jobs would still have existed had they not left for business school. Still, paying all that money for business school only to find out that you’re not exactly in high demand when you leave? Yikes.

Maybe that’s why I never returned to school after getting my bachelor’s degree way back in 1991. (Or, more than likely, it was because I was too lazy to even contemplate the idea of taking tests, and studying for them, ever again.)

This is an issue in our household these days. My wife, before she left the workforce when she had our first son, worked in apparel design. One of her last jobs was with Montgomery Ward’s, of all places. She was there when that company went belly-up. Today, she works as a costume designer for local theaters. This job pays, but not much.

She’s now interested in returning to school to earn a teaching degree. I think it’s a great idea. (I’d love to retire early!) But we both do worry about the market when she completes her training, something that should be done in early 2011. Will things be better? Will they be better enough to have made going back to school worthwhile?

One of my very first posts on this blog, when I took it over last summer, was that there is no more job certainty out there. We all have to do the best we can to craft our own careers. We have to take risks every once in a while. And, I suppose, that’s what my wife will be doing as she sends off those applications to area schools.


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