The employer's view
Janice Chalmers
Business schools may tell you that it's your ticket to the top. But what do employers think of MBAs? Here five employers from different business sectors give their - very mixed - views
UBS Warburg
UBS Warburg regards MBAs as multi-skilled, strategic hires. MBAs bring a well-rounded, international perspective and have the potential to develop into future leaders. Every year, the global number of MBAs recruited into UBS is established on the basis of business needs at the time. UBS is committed to recruiting MBAs in order to maintain a pipeline of top talent for the future. Applications are accepted from every MBA regardless of business school, although UBS does have strong relationships with the highly-ranked US and European business schools. This said, when recruited from business school, MBAs can sometimes lack the technical application knowledge that is specific to UBS. However, this is addressed on our Global Associate Training Programme (see below).
Tammie Lawson, Associate Director, European MBA Recruiting
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| UBS Global Associate Training Program |
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| All new MBA hires participate in a five- to seven-week Global Associate Training Program in UBS's New York offices. The program exposes them to a range of techniques used in investment banking and the markets, including transaction modelling, advanced accounting, and market data training. For more info visit the UBS website at www.ubs.com/graduates. |
PricewaterhouseCoopers
We don't recruit many MBAs - we tend to look at people based on their qualities and, in the accounting area, it's also more important to have formal accountancy training. In our business, consultants need to have a skill set clients want to buy - skills that come from being an established accounting practitioner rather than from a generalist business training. We don't do the milk round and, when we do hire MBAs, it tends to be into specific divisions like corporate finance, strategy or M&A support practice.
We have also found that MBAs can come with an unrealistic expectation. Having studied high-level strategy, for example, they can expect to go straight into a job at this high level, and find it hard to accept that they need to build the practical experience to support the theoretical knowledge they've learned on the course.
That said, the divisions that do hire MBAs value them for their approach to strategic thinking that comes from their structured learning; for their understanding of the broader business context; and for their more international perspective, which often runs counter to the world of accountancy.
Charles MacLeod, head of recruitment
Golden Wonder
We do not actively recruit MBAs, but if an applicant has one, then fine. Similarly, we would only sponsor an MBA by exception - they can be a very poor investment.
Jo Nicholl, personnel director
Marks & Spencer
We recruit people from a variety of different backgrounds, which includes those with an MBA. We value [people with] great experience, retail acumen, customer relation skills and an understanding of, and passion for, the product. There are a number of people within the business whom we have sponsored to do an MBA.
Matthew Chester, graduate and business placement recruitment
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McKinsey & Company
McKinsey referred Workthing to their website for information: "We're proud of our record as the number one career choice for graduating MBAs of the last six years. McKinsey recruits at business schools internationally. If we don't recruit at your school, or if your careers services office directs you to the website, please submit an online application."
Unisys
Unisys doesn't have a defined policy or position on MBAs. We don't work with any specific business school for MBAs, but do have a relationship with Cranfield for other projects. The company does sponsor employees to do MBAs through its Education Assistance Programme, but it is on request, and funded by individual business units.
Bob Illingworth, UK HR director
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