The document discusses several key factors for MBA graduates to consider when pursuing their careers, including developing specialized skills in growing industries, gaining work experience either before or during their MBA, conducting thorough research on potential employers, and networking. It also emphasizes the importance of soft skills, being resilient in your job search, preparing for interviews, and ensuring good fit between your goals and the company culture. While an MBA provides valuable business knowledge, communication skills are also highly valued by employers.

1. Is an MBA Enough?
Start from the big picture
Survey the job market; look at it considering
long-term perspectives. Try to work out what
job market needs will be, in order to deter-
mine where to concentrate your knowledge
and skills to be up to date with any expected
developments. “Start from long-term, big pic-
ture stuff: what are your values and how do
they relate to the long-term industry trends.
Then pick your goal,” says Duncan Chapple,
a career guru and EMBA graduate from the
London Business School.
In the meantime, don’t forget to listen to what
excites you. “It's much easier to do well in a
growing marketing, in a role you'll enjoy,”
adds Duncan.
Susan Friedell, an
MBA graduate
from IE Business
School, shares
the same opin-
ion. “Don’t be
afraid of the
unbeaten path:
many people go
into consulting and finance, but don’t be afraid
to follow your own dreams and interests,”
says Susan.
Cristina Sassot, Director of Admissions of
ESADE Business School MBA Unit, also advises
that there should be a fit between personal
and professional goals. "It is important that
our students find the best fit in terms of per-
sonal and professional goals for their future
position. Once they fully understand their
needs, they can search for the companies
that best encompasses this within their cor-
porate culture which will allow them to fully
develop within the role," says Cristina.
International outlook and spe-
cialisation
In the context of a heavily globalised world,
the international outlook of MBA graduates,
who will become future global business lead-
ers, is a key to success on the job market.
The other key prerequisite is specialisation ;
specialisations in innovation and entrepre-
neurship are highly valued since they will form
the basis for sustainable economic growth in
the current tough economic environment.
Work experience
Work experience - both pre-degree and through
internships - makes a great difference suc-
cess for management graduates in the job
market, according
to a trio of
research surveys
conducted in 2011
by the Graduate
M a n age m e n t
A d m i s s i o n
Council.
“Work experi-
ence, whether before the degree or as an
internship, gives employers a level of reas-
surance that graduates can hit the ground
running,” says Michelle Sparkman Renz, GMAC
director of research communications.
“Employers value the skills, knowledge, and
abilities that those with graduate-level degrees
bring to the job, but they also want to know
that they can function well in the work envi-
ronment,” she adds.
The employer survey, conducted by GMAC,
also found that 41% of the employers world-
wide, planning to hire MBA’s, wanted gradu-
Key Must-dos to Find a Career
Having MBA hard skills under your belt will not immediately open the doors to a successful career. There are many other
factors you need to consider with due care if you want to succeed in your professional development. Here are some key
must-dos in landing a job.
MBA Careers
72 Access MBA Guide- 2012-2013
Find the Best Fit

2. ates with three to four years of experience.
32% wanted MBAs with at least five years of
experience and just 27% of the companies
planning to hire MBAs sought to hire gradu-
ates with less than three years experience.
Conduct in-depth research of
recruiters
"Research the companies that interest you
and do not expect someone else to find you
a job: it’s your responsibility," advises
Susan.
Use any channel available - company
websites, media reports, internet forums
and blogs, company employees, people
who know anything about your target
recruiters. Do not ignore anything. Even
the most insignificant detail might help.
Companies who need top managers do
not want only to see skills, they want to see
a problem-solving attitude. When you know
the details, it will be muh easier for you to
present a good problem-solving approach to
a question raised during the interview. Create
a broad professional network, using all kinds
of events and channels to network like social
networks, professional networks, etc.
Know how employers hire MBAs
This is also part of the research you need to
do. A recent report by the GMAC shows that
when searching for new candidates, 76% of
employers, the vast majority, use employee
referrals or their own companies’ websites
for job postings and resume submissions. 69%,
or six out of ten companies, recruited grad-
uate business school students on-campus.
Companies in the United States were more
likely to recruit on-campus than firms in other
parts of the world, accounting for 55%, or
more than half of their recruitment drive. 35%
of employers reported using social media for
candidate sourcing and job advertising.
With current employee referrals being used
by the vast majority of employers, access to
business schools’ alumni networks - one of
the many perks b-school Career Management
offices provide to MBA students - may become
crucial in getting a job.
Networking
This quite logically raises the question of net-
working. Raid Hoffman, the creator of one of
largest professional networks, LinkedIn, dis-
tinguishes old-school “networkers” from “rela-
tionship builders”. The first pursue relationships
based on what they think others can do for
them, while the second group, that of the
“relationship builders”, think of the other per-
son first. Hoffman likens professional net-
working to dating and gives the following
advice: “When you’re deciding whether or
not to build a professional relationship with
someone, there are many considerations:
whether you like him or her; the capacity for
the person to help you build your assets,
reach your aspirations and position you
well competitively and for you to help
back in all the same ways. […] And, like
with dating, you should always have a
long-term perspective.”
Having fun when building a professional
relationship and trying not to consider it
as a boring obligation is vital for its future
ultimate role to help your career develop-
ment, Hoffman advises further.
Remember that investing in relationships will
pay dividends in the long-term.
Develop your soft skills
It is simply not enough to possess knowl-
edge, awareness, management and profes-
sional skills. A top manager should have much
more:. the soft skills. “With MBA hard skills
under your belt, focus on developing soft
skills in listening, influencing and negotiat-
ing,” advises Duncan. He believes that seri-
ous attention should be placed upon
73
It is Your Job to
Find Yourself a Job

3. “language” skills. “Building accuracy and vocab-
ulary is hugely powerful, both in your native
language and in your other languages.”
Be resilient
Treat the job search as a real job. Spend work-
ing days and working hours devoting all of
your time to the job search. Consider the job
search as a systematic effort, plan your time,
CV and cover-letters writing and tailoring
them to the requirements of the targeted
employers. Job search is not about ran-
domly applying for jobs.
Prepare for the interview
The day will come when you receive an
invitation to interview and you need to
be ready for it. So, do your homework and
prepare for the interview. Forbes report
that according to a recent research among
recruiters, there are three basic ques-
tions which need to be answered during the
interview: “Can you do the job?”, “Will you
love the job?”, and “Can we tolerate work-
ing with you?”.
The wording may be different, but every ques-
tion, however phrased, is just a variation on
one of these topics: Strengths, Motivation,
and Fit, reports Forbes quoting top executive
recruiters.
If you are the one being interviewed, prepare
by thinking through examples that illustrate
your strengths, what motivates you about the
organisation and role you are being inter-
viewed for, and the fit between your own
preferences and the values of the organisa-
tion you are applying for.
In fact, interviews are exercises in solution
selling. They are not about you. Think of the
interview process as a chance for you to show
your ability to solve the organisation and inter-
viewer’s problem. You need to highlight
strengths in the areas most important to the
interviewers, talk about how you would be
motivated by the role’s challenges, and dis-
cuss why you are a fit with the organisation’s
culture.
According to the latest GMAC’s Corporate
Recruiters Survey, the MBA degree is still a
key asset in one’s CV, The 2011 survey is based
on responses from 1,509 participants repre-
senting 905 companies in 51 countries world-
wide. It shows that most employers report
that compared with other employees at the
same job level, employees with an MBA degree
demonstrate higher or much higher abilities
in many areas, including managing strategy
and innovation, strategic and system skills,
knowledge of general business functions,
managing decision-making processes and
learning, motivation, and leadership.
Satisfaction with MBA employees and the
skills they bring to the company remains
high. Almost all employers (99%) report
satisfaction with their MBA employees,
including 79% who are very or extremely
satisfied.
When answering the question, “What
does this mean for you”, the GMAC sur-
vey simply replies: “While business schools
will provide you with the fundamentals
of the business management knowledge as
well as technical or quantitative skills, don’t
forget that communication skills are as impor-
tant to your job prospects as all the other
skills you learn in your MBA programme. Make
sure you develop good leadership and pres-
entation skills; you could have the best budget-
management skills, but if you can't
communicate well with your colleagues and
clients, your skills will be of no use to an
employer.” r
MBA Careers
74 Access MBA Guide- 2012-2013
99% of Employers are
Satisfied with Their
MBA Employees