Amazon is Changing Its MBA Hiring Strategy

Amazon is Changing Its MBA Hiring Strategy

If you didn’t attend a top b-school and you want to work for Amazon, you’re in luck.

The tech giant announced plans to hire MBAs from a broader range of b-schools and fewer MBAs from top universities in an effort to expand its management base, Fox Business reports.

SHIFT IN HIRING PRACTICES

In the past, Amazon has hired almost exclusively from America’s most elite b-schools.

The tech giant hires nearly 1,000 MBAs a year and while it doesn’t plan to slow down, the company does want to change how its hiring, the Wall Street Journal reports.

And the numbers are showing that shift in strategy.

MIT Sloan School of Management and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University both reported 60 percent declines in Amazon-recruited grads from 2016 to 2019.

INCREASED DEMAND IN TECH SKILLS

Part of Amazon’s shift in hiring strategy may be attributed to a change in what the company is seeking in MBA hires.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the company plans to hire more than 1,000 MBAs in 2020 across nearly 80 schools in hopes of finding grads who can demonstrate a combination of business and tech skills.

We previously reported how demand for MBAs with tech skills has surged in recent years.

Adam Rodnitzky, vice president of marketing at Occipital Inc, a company that designs and sells cellphone software and sensors, says MBAs are just as critical to growing tech companies as engineers.

“After all, a tech company needs more than just a product to grow,” he tells US News. “It needs a market as well. Once a product finds a market, the complexities of doing business become manifold and can quickly eclipse the experience or resources of a founding team.”

Sources: Fox Business, Poets & Quants, Poets & Quants, US News

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