Hello MBAs:
October is now in the books. Recruiting is in full swing, with most of on-campus recruiting finished up. Fall is in the air, and midterms are in the past – thankfully! Red leaves, beautiful mountains, and great friends – it’s a magical time of year.
First, a shout-out to all MBAs who accepted an internship or full time role in October!
Let’s jump into placement trend:
Full Time: Good month, sitting at 23% cumulative through October. We are ~8% points behind benchmarks, but we have time to make this up.
Internship: A good month, just slightly behind benchmarks, but so far, in good shape.
Let’s turn to International Placement:
Full Time: October was slow, we all need to pick up the pace.
Internships: Still early, but no progress (thru Oct) on internship acceptances.
Turning to FT Job Offers:
I always like looking at the job offer flow rate – a leading indicator for placement. Through Oct., Full time is only slightly behind, and probably on par when considering some students may not have reported yet. So, jobs appear on par, with placement lagging – hopefully, the placement is only a timing issue.
Intern to Full Time Conversion:
Last year, we ended with 36% of all Full Time accepts coming from the internship experience. Historically, this figure is around 40% for conversion to FT. So far, through October, we are sitting at 15% conversion. Not shown, but last year through October, conversion was 19%. So, again, consistent to other placement data, we are a little behind last year. This again is probably timing. People might be holding out longer until they accept, to strive to increase options, which is totally fine.
Now, we turn to detail on Internships. First – Job Offers for Interns:
October was a GREAT result for job offers for 1st years! Across the board, except for Placement, we have exceeded last year. Placement will come, it’s a timing issue, as long as the offers are coming. I didn’t think it would be this strong this early given the macroeconomic environment. Great job by the 1st years here!
1st Year KPIs:
Overall MBA: Hours worked and # Informational Interviews held have exceeded our Goal – GREAT Job. We need work on hitting our goals on Job Applications and Mock Interviewing – especially. Real Interviews are lagging our goals as well. The table shows by track breakouts. Hardest working track is Marketing, followed closely by Finance. Ops/SC need to put more work in. Entrepreneurship is difficult to assess this early as many are looking at non-traditional MBA recruiting paths.
Special Report – NBMBAA & Prospanica:
NBMBAA:
I wanted to share the results of NBMBAA from our Qualtrics survey. NBMBAA was huge this year, and we took far fewer students this year than in years past.
# of Firms in attendance: ~200
# attendees: Thousands
Cumulative BYU Outcomes:
# Attendees: 21
# Interviews: 15
# Offers: 9
Offering Firms: BASF (4), Ford, Danone, Toyota, Georgia-Pacific, Henkel
# Firms MBA’s talked with at the conference:
Quotes – would you recommend NBMBAA to your classmates next year?
“Because it is the largest career fair ever! Over 200 companies, over 400 hiring managers and all the companies are actively looking to hire and give out offers during the month of October. My first year, I got a total of 5 offers. 4/5 of them came from NBMBAA. I anticipate something similar will happen this year from efforts at the conference. Plus, it is so much fun to be with a bunch of other BYU MBA students there :)”
“It’s an amazing opportunity to get a jumpstart on recruiting. I talked with one of the main people in charge of a specific position I am looking at. They have now pushed me to the front of the interviews because they got to know me on a personal level.”
“I got to talk to so many companies and really learn about who they are and what they do in a really short time span. Probably like the equivalent of 100 hours of info interview coordination and execution in 1.5 working days.”
“It was a fantastic opportunity to talk with many large companies that I had an interest in. I was able to practice talking with recruiters and practice interviewing. Then, at the end of it all, I got an internship offer and made it to the second round of interviews with Delta.”
“Whether or not I got an internship offer or even an interview, NBMBAA was such a valuable experience. I was able to speak to and connect with so many different companies and had the chance to broaden the scope of companies for which I was looking for an internship. It was also a good experience to connect more with my classmates. I felt like a different person going to NBMBAA and coming back from NBMBAA. I am more confident and prepared for the next stages of the MBA program.”
PROSPANICA:
One international student went, and had a fantastic experience (his words):
Approximately 100 companies at Prospanica
The student spent total $415 total to attend in New Orleans for the two day career fair.
Estimate that only 30% of firms did NOT sponsor.
He talked with ~20 companies, had one interview with Warner Bros. Made many contacts that want to follow up with him.
Conference Conclusions:
The conferences were excellent this year, and overall very successful for BYU MBAs. Personally, NBMBAA was the best one I have been to in 10 years. Lots of practice with TMAY, Interviewing, and offers. I am a strong proponent of MBAs attending these conferences and making these connections. You will have more companies at your disposal than perhaps in a year of recruiting on your own. Firms of all sizes are there.
OCTOBER SUMMARY:
A good start, we need to pick up the pace. I would strongly encourage all to “make hay” now vs. waiting – given the macroeconomic environment, the FED needing to raise rates to try to tame inflation, it would behoove all of us to take advantage of as many opportunities as we can for placement. Please come pay Perry, Shawna, and me to discuss your recruiting efforts.
To close, a scripture:
“My son, give ear to my words; for I swear unto you, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land.” (Alma 36:1)
That promise is sure, and is from our God. You all will prosper as you keep His commandments.
Best,
Rick