Jobs are the biggest concern

At a recent town hall meeting at Darden, Dean Robert Bruner answered questions from students about how the crisis would affect them and their careers. His message, says Christine Bohle, a second-year student at Darden, was that students could continue to dream big about their careers but they might have to find more creative avenues for fulfilling their goals. Laura Pearson, a first-year MBA student at Darden, added that faculty are not sugar-coating the problems students will face. "It's been an honest discussion of what we're going through, how long it might last, the impact, and how to find solutions," she said.
Students, who may have invested more than $100,000 in their education, are most concerned about how long the crisis will last and how they will find jobs. With the economy shedding more than 650,000 positions in February, unemployment hitting a 25-year high of 8.1%, on-campus MBA recruiting taking a nosedive, and some of the biggest MBA employers on Wall Street having ceased to exist, they have good reason to worry.
Career services teams at business schools across the country geared up for this crisis in the fall. They sent S.O.S. messages to alumni asking them to provide leads for students currently seeking jobs, helped students retool their resumes, and shifted their strategies. Some schools are asking professors to help their finance students pursue careers outside of Wall Street. At the Villanova School of Business, John Kozup, associate professor of marketing and director of the Center for Marketing and Public Policy Research, created an undergraduate class that addressed the crisis in real time. Taught by 10 different professors and distinguished speakers from a variety of businesses, the course also has students learning about job opportunities in the public sector, one of the few areas where demand for MBAs is growing.