With 25 to 29 year olds making up an increasingly - larger percentage of the population in the US and in Asia, the raw numbers of students eligible to apply B-schools is set to keep application numbers up throught the decade," says a report from Business Week. But what exactly is an MBA and why is there such intense competition for places? An MBA is a graduate management degree, which prepares professionals for management responsibility. It is one of the best-known degree in the world, and more people take it than any other post graduate course.
A growing number of companies all over the world now see a top MBA as an essential management entry-level qualification. Says Janet Raiffa, MBA Recruitment Manager at Goldman Sachs, "We recruit MBAs for their maturity, client readiness and skill sets. But the cost of doing an MBA from a top university is high. At schools like Wharton, Harvard and Stanford the tuition fee is approximately US$.34,000 per annum and closer home IIM-Ahmedabad charges Rs.2 lakhs P.A. However, are there enough good jobs that would repay the cost of even the most expensive MBA programme? The answer is yes.
According to QS TopMBA.com international Recruiter Survey average salaries for MBA graduates, from 1996 to 2006, have risen an imressive 55 per cent in dollar terms. But there is a definite downside to such high salaries. MBAs now appear to have excessive expectations in relation to their performances in the workplace. Even well established MBA recruiters such as Goldman Sachs spoke of a "high level of expectation in comparison to undergraduates." There is also a danger of recruiting to the days when MBAs had a reputation for arrogance which tarnished their potential contribution.
Recruiters are also expecting more from their hires. Raiffa, for example is concerned with the current "high level of expectation versus undergrads." The message for newly graduating MBAs, therefore, is not to chase the highest short-term salary offer. They must step back from the numbers and think of the bigger picture - otherwise recruiters may start looking elsewhere.
A growing number of companies all over the world now see a top MBA as an essential management entry-level qualification. Says Janet Raiffa, MBA Recruitment Manager at Goldman Sachs, "We recruit MBAs for their maturity, client readiness and skill sets. But the cost of doing an MBA from a top university is high. At schools like Wharton, Harvard and Stanford the tuition fee is approximately US$.34,000 per annum and closer home IIM-Ahmedabad charges Rs.2 lakhs P.A. However, are there enough good jobs that would repay the cost of even the most expensive MBA programme? The answer is yes.
According to QS TopMBA.com international Recruiter Survey average salaries for MBA graduates, from 1996 to 2006, have risen an imressive 55 per cent in dollar terms. But there is a definite downside to such high salaries. MBAs now appear to have excessive expectations in relation to their performances in the workplace. Even well established MBA recruiters such as Goldman Sachs spoke of a "high level of expectation in comparison to undergraduates." There is also a danger of recruiting to the days when MBAs had a reputation for arrogance which tarnished their potential contribution.
Recruiters are also expecting more from their hires. Raiffa, for example is concerned with the current "high level of expectation versus undergrads." The message for newly graduating MBAs, therefore, is not to chase the highest short-term salary offer. They must step back from the numbers and think of the bigger picture - otherwise recruiters may start looking elsewhere.
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