B-Schools Move to Assist Alums

2008-09-17

B-Schools Move to Assist Alums

From wsj

The day after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said it would file for bankruptcy protection, University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business career office had already made personal calls to all of their 26 alumni from the 2008 class who worked at the firm.

One former student volunteered to become the spokesperson and a group conference call to discuss future career strategies with career experts is in the works, says Stacey Kole, deputy dean for the full-time program, which sent 20% of its 504 alumni hired to work in investment banks in 2007. Career office representatives are also flying to New York Friday to have dinner and strategize with the some of the alums. Ms. Kole said they are ready to meet any demand. “We’re like a tennis player on their toes,” she says.

Associated Press/John Smock

Students of the Columbia University School of Business in New York attend commencement ceremonies.

With the Bear Stearns meltdown this spring already affecting alumni, career offices were bracing for a tough recruiting year and the possibility of more layoffs and jobless alumni to come. Schools were largely unprepared for the onslaught of grads looking back to their alma maters for job help when the Wall Street woes began. But many schools have since used the summer to find ways to step up more immediately.

At the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business – which received about 60 career-related calls and emails from alumni on Monday – updating alumni and job databases has been a top priority. “As the jobs come in, the turnaround from hitting my desk to the database is within the hour,” explains Peter Guilioni, compared to a few months ago when it could take about a day. Currently, the business school has 300 alumni working on Wall Street and about 150 students interested in finance each year, and most want to work in New York.

Inside undergraduate career offices, staff members are also talking to alums displaced from the investment banks about alternative options–like corporate finance and investment management. Patricia Rose, director of career services at the University of Pennsylvania, deals with undergraduate business students along with students in other majors. She says she’s even recommending students look into technology or public service jobs, which are more plentiful than coveted finance jobs. “We are encouraging students to think more broadly,” she says.

With the fall of Wall Street, thousands are going to be out of work. WSJ’s Sarah E. Needleman gets some job seeking tips from Deborah Markus, executive director of executive search firm, the Gerson Group. (Sept. 17)

At the University of Chicago, helping M.B.A. students who had been set on finding investment banking positions figure out new career possibilities is top of mind, says Ms. Kole. During the summer, after it became clear that Wall Street hiring would be off for the Class of 2009 and for summer interns next year, the career office reached out to boutique and middle market firms like William Blair & Co. and Perella Weinberg Partners in order to beef up finance recruitment. “We sat down face-to-face with our friends at firms that are healthy and growing and implored them to think about their current hiring,” says Ms. Kole.

There are 40 new finance-related firms slated to come to Chicago’s campus; they probably will be looking for one or two key recruits—not the 20 or so grads a typical large investment bank hired at the school in the past. But Chicago officials hope the number of new recruiters will make up for the smaller volume. “People understand that this is a great year to get talent,” she says.

At Columbia Business School, 2008 graduates who left school in May will continue to get access to several student databases and personalized counseling sessions from the Career Management Center, says Michael Malone, director of career education and advising. It’s proved time consuming: “At this point we are not quite to the level of investment banking hours, but we are earning our keep and are pleased with results,” says Mr. Malone of the long hours he’s putting in working to help displaced alums.

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Interest in banking among current students is already down. Typically, more than 50% of the nearly 700-person graduating M.B.A. class at Columbia head into finance jobs—with more than half of that group working in investment banking and brokerage. But, on Monday at a previously scheduled annual event called “Day in the Life of an Investment Bank”–which included much-touted networking opportunities for first-year M.B.A. students–only about 170 students showed up, compared with about 250 students that attended in years past.

There have been plenty of smaller gestures as well. Officials from other business schools, including New York University and Stanford University sent out emails on Monday reminding alumni of the career services available for them. It may take time for grads to take advantage of any resources, says Andy Chan, director of Stanford’s M.B.A. Career Management Center. “Alumni have been appreciative, but basically saying that things are in a lot of flux,” says Mr. Chan.

Write to Alina Dizik at alina.dizik@dowjones.com

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