by Carlotta Mast

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MBA career services departments around the globe have launched a variety of programs and initiatives to attract recruiters and help students compete in an intensified job market. Here are some of the highlights.

Hired executive search firms

• The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland brought in Stanton Chase International to coach students and ferret out new career opportunities.
• The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University brought in two experienced executive coaches to help students with their self-directed job searches.
• The School of Business and Management at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) hired executive search and coaching firms to work with students and conduct a series of career management workshops on such topics as “positioning yourself to potential employers” and “breaking into investment banking.”

Increased outreach to recruiters

• Fuqua launched the HIRE-UP campaign, which included reaching out to more than 10,000 company and alumni contacts.
• HKUST distributed books with student résumés to companies and created a Web site where recruiters can search student résumés.
• The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University held face-to-face meetings with more than 200 new corporate contacts.
• The University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business sent staffers to recruit at businesses in person.
• The Rotterdam School of Management persuaded a handful of international companies to create internships specifically for its students.
• The HEC School of Management in France adopted a more flexible approach to recruiting, offering companies customized services based on their hiring needs and encouraging firms to get involved in classes and faculty research.
• The Cranfield School of Management, a one-year MBA program in England, encouraged potential employers to offer students a two-week in-company project as the final phase in the recruitment process.

Added to career services team

• Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) increased its career services staff from eight to 12 people and assigned every student a career services “point person” to work with throughout the two-year program at the school.
• The Johnson School at Cornell University hired an additional staff member to focus on prospecting new companies.
• The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School hired a new career services director from the investment banking industry to increase the number and diversify the type of companies recruiting at the school. The new director, in turn, hired new staffers to seek out new recruiters.
• The McDonough School hired an “executive in residence,” a Harvard Business School graduate with 30 years’ business experience, to assist in advising and preparing students for the career-search process.

Opened doors to nontraditional MBA opportunities

• George Washington University’s School of Business and Public Management invited government agencies looking for management talent to the school’s recruiting events.

• Using four private planes donated by the S. C. Johnson family, the Johnson School flew 25 recruiters to meet with students on its Upstate New York campus.

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