Why Employers Hire MBA Grads

THE OUTLOOK FROM EUROPEAN EMPLOYERS OF BUSINESS SCHOOL TALENT

In Europe, the big firms prevailed once again, with 35% of the recruiters working for companies with more than 10,000 employees. The top reason for hiring business grads? To support company growth.

THE OUTLOOK FROM LATIN AMERICAN EMPLOYERS OF BUSINESS SCHOOL TALENT

The Latin-American market for MBAs and other business school grads is largely composed of companies that employ between 1,000 and 4,999 employees, a category that represented 45% of the responding recruiters. Like their U.S. counterparts, above all else these companies are seeking business school talent for succession planning reasons.

GMAC also asked employers to identify the skills and traits they feel are most important when evaluating MBA and non-MBA business master’s graduates as potential new hires for their companies.

Among 12 traits that survey respondents were asked to rank as most important, a candidate’s ability to fit within an organizational culture was ranked highest overall, followed by the ability to work in teams, and the ability to make an impact.

THE MOST HIGHLY RANKED ATTRIBUTES DIFFER ACROSS INDUSTRIES, COMPANIES, & WORLD REGIONS

+ Across industries, these same attributes ranked among the top five most important. Leadership potential stood out as the highest-ranked attribute within the energy and utilities sector, and ranked second-most important in the health care and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and products and services sectors. Overall, executive presence, the ability to build external networks, and the ability to work independently were the three lowest-ranked traits (see table below).

+ By company size, small companies value the abilities to build external networks and work independently more so than large companies. Large companies value leadership potential and a candidate’s ability to use data to tell a story more so than small companies.

+ Across world regions, fit with company culture was consistently ranked the most important candidate trait that employers seek. The ability to participate in and build strong teams was ranked second in importance by companies located in Asia-Pacific and the U.S. For European companies, a candidate’s ability to make an impact was ranked second in importance, whereas leadership potential was the second-most important candidate trait among employers in Latin America.

DON’T MISS: THIS YEAR’S MBA JOB MARKET BETTER THAN EVER