Looking to earn an MBA to enhance your career or pivot to a different role or industry? If so, you aren’t alone; the majority of first-year MBAs want or need the degree to make a career change. So, if the bulk of a graduating class has a job within three months of graduation, you’d think that most would be satisfied with their school’s career office. Yet in terms of overall satisfaction with their school, many students and alumni cite the career office as an area of weakness. How can that be?
Like so many things, it’s complicated. The fact that someone has a job doesn’t mean it’s their ideal job. A school’s career office can only do so much for its students, and it is so much more than just a placement office. When evaluating their experiences, students consider the quality of programming and how prepared they felt in interviews. Did they have easy access to resume and cover letter reviews as well as company info sessions and mock interviews? Was there a wide variety of quality firms coming to recruit on campus? How accessible was the alumni community? A lot more goes into the equation than just the placement numbers, and each student’s individual situation influences their opinion of the career services they received.
Not all career centers are created equal, so be sure to consider all the angles when deciding where to apply and which business school to attend:
1. Data doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.
94% of University of Florida Warrington MBAs from a recent class were employed within three months of graduation, while 86% of NYU Stern grads from the Class of 2025 had found jobs in the same time period. Does this comparison give the full picture? Let’s look at salary data for the same classes. Warrington MBAs earned an average starting base salary of $125K, while their NYU Stern counterparts pulled in an average of nearly $169K. What is more important to you: knowing you can be almost guaranteed a job, or snagging a higher salary? The answer is not always obvious and is very personal.
2. Job offers are multifaceted. What’s most important to YOU?
Is waiting for your dream job better than getting a job offer after your summer internship? Is a higher salary better than a more interesting or fulfilling job that might pay less? As they say, money can’t buy happiness—but it CAN help pay the bills in a high-rent district such as New York City or San Francisco.
Some MBA applicants are hesitant to ask career service officers very direct questions about recruiting, placement, and salaries—preferring to wait until they have an offer of admission in hand. But if you are going to business school to change industries or roles, doesn’t it make sense to pick the school that is best positioned to help YOU reach YOUR goals? You aren’t a statistic on a school’s website or in a publication’s “Best Business Schools” ranking; you are a real person. Do your research!
3. Career services are still vital to your business school selection.
Once at school, how a student interacts with their school’s career services will depend on their goals. Are the days of free lunches, coffee chats, and extravagant recruiting dinners over? Given the changing nature of MBAs’ job searches, are MBA career centers now dinosaurs? Yes—and no. They are evolving. What previously was dubbed the “career office” is now called “career services,” the “career development office,” or “career management” to reflect the subtle and not-so-subtle changes in their function.
At Dartmouth Tuck, 90% of 2025 graduates had landed jobs within three months of graduation, and 70% found employment through school-facilitated activities. This is not surprising, as the majority of Tuck grads go into traditional consulting and finance roles, which have highly structured recruiting processes. At Stanford, 16% of 2025 grads were entrepreneurs who started their own businesses. In general, many of those seeking less traditional roles found jobs through proactive networking activities. Others found employment through their own contacts and legwork, while some were sponsored, went to work for family businesses, or pursued higher degrees.
When composing your list of target schools, it is important to look at what industries and companies recruit at your schools AND how many students eventually go to work in those industries or companies. As of now, many students at most schools still do use career offices for their job search, but you should look beyond how they can help you in your job search.
Schools now offer career coaches or advisors, industry specialists, peer advisors, and relationship managers to help students define and refine their search—whether they’re seeking a more traditional consulting/marketing/finance job or they’re an entrepreneur looking for partners. Additionally, career centers offer online guides that are essential for almost every type of search: S&P Capital IQ, Plunkett Research Online, PitchBook, Vault Guides, and Dun & Bradstreet. Yes, students can use these resources to connect with potential employers, meet with graduates, and get information on recruiters, but career offices provide so much additional value.
When was the last time you really updated your resume? Sticking a description of a recent promotion on the resume you created in college doesn’t count. What about job interviews? Has it been a while since you had one? How about cover letters? Many companies still require them. All major schools provide resume and cover letter writing guidance and workshops as well as mock interviews to help prepare their students for any type of job search. Even nontraditional companies often use traditional recruiting techniques.
Although the traditional career office may have gone the way of the traditional job search, don’t overlook the importance career development services can have on your job search and hence your list of target schools.
If you want personalized help with your MBA journey, schedule a free consultation with a Stratus admissions counselor today!