Bargain Prices for Hiring MBA Graduates

The MBA ain’t what it used to be.  According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, MBA graduates are not receiving the same hefty salaries they did a short while ago.   Now with the economic downturn, many MBA graduates are moving from Plan A to B, even Plan C.   The pickings are slim, and the mere fact that a candidate holds an MBA is not particularly impressive.

So, the question is whether the MBA is worth the money.  About $100 Thousand or more in tuition fees.   So once when a MBA signed to a six figure salary and bonuses it all made sense.  Now it doesn’t.   However, the jury is still out on this.

But all those MBA graduates who thought they would find cushy jobs in investment banking and the brokerage houses have confronted a rude awakening.   Those jobs are slim and not to be had.   No one is clamoring for them, so the Porsche, the luxury pad, is all on hold.   Nothing like reality to redirect one’s ambitions.

As a business, you may be able to recruit a highly qualified candidate, an MBA graduate, in fact, at bargain rates.   You may catch your candiate right out of school or recently canned from a financial institution.   That candidate will be looking for work.   That candidate will also be looking for the kind of work that will tide him over until the economy turns around and there are more opportunities in the job pool.

So while you may not pay them much right off, you may consider rewards and incentives to keep him in your staff when the economy does turn around.  If it does turn around to the point where there are more jobs in banking and brokerage houses.   These people are often young and inexperienced, but most are well trained an business savvy.   With seasoning, they may do you some good.

But be careful.  With the cost of the MBA being steep, and the returns not being as generous as they once were, there will be more than a few graduates that will try to fake that degree.   If nothing else, it may hold true even more for employment candidates who claim to have received their degrees abroad.   So, as part of your preemployment screening program, be sure to run education verification checks, or international verification searches.

Otherwise, what you are recruiting is akin to buying designer fashion on Santee Street in downtown LA.   Sometimes the article is genuine, and quite often it isn’t.

Check them out before you hire.