Looking beyond the placement statistics

Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal’s Taking B-School column had an interview with Jeffrey Rice, the executive director of career services at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University.

 

“Starting salaries continue to rise. This year at Fisher with about 70% of our second-year students having accepted a job, we are up 10% from last year to a median base salary of $88,000. While starting salaries are always a factor, students are getting much more focused on compensation over the first five to eight years on the job. They aren't necessarily taking the highest monetary offer if they believe the compensation trajectory is higher at a company with a slightly lower initial offer. For example, in consumer packaged goods, if a student starts as assistant brand manager or brand manager, he can expect $80,000 to $90,000. But in five years, he could become a senior marketing director with compensation of $150,000-plus. So he may recoup the costs of the M.B.A. degree quicker on that career path than on another where the compensation rises only $20,000 in five years.”

 

This reminded me of something that's been on my mind lately. When I came to Kenan-Flagler (almost) two years ago for the MBA Experience Weekend, there was a presentation by the then Office of Career Services about the Class of 2005’s placement statistics. I remember writing down and circling the class’ employment percentage and starting salary numbers. That presentation was the most significant event of that entire weekend because it was that presentation that gave me what I call a “safety comfort level” about attending Kenan-Flagler.

 

As someone who had a really tough time looking for an internship last year and who is becoming more anxious about the full time career search, I can tell you from personal experience that these numbers do not matter. If you are a second year without an offer, it doesn’t matter how many of your classmates have something lined up, what matters more is that you are not a member of that club.  The same is true for first years who are still looking for an internship.

 

To all the applicants and perspective students from different schools who read this blog, unless a school can guarantee that in two years time you will be part of that percentage of students who have accepted an offer and the offer is near the median starting salary, do not get emotionally blown away by the numbers given to you by its career office. Think more about how attending that school, taking its classes, and having its name on your resume, will get you into the field that you want to go to.