Get Smart Part Two: Recruiting Report

The Appeal of E-Divisions

The rise and fall of e-consulting shops like Viant, Scient, and Marchfirst has affected recruiting practices at mainstream firms like Deloitte & Touche and Accenture, says Resnick. MBAs frightened by the recent pink-slip frenzy, yet still interested in the high-tech sector, are flocking to well-known firms with new Internet-strategy divisions.

"An awful lot of graduating MBAs are asking to work on e-business projects within larger companies," says Webber, who will accept one of several offers from consulting groups this winter. "As e-business issues become more prevalent at large consulting firms, students will gravitate toward that new sector."

Don't Call It a Comeback

Because they can predict hiring needs better than smaller tech companies, investment banks are often among the first employers to extend job offers. Though MBA acceptance rates are not yet available, Sykes expects more University of Chicago students to decide quickly to accept offers from firms they interned with last summer.

"There's a certain degree of uneasiness on campus because the economy seems to be shifting," Sykes says. "Firms are telling us that so far, they are experiencing a higher-than-normal acceptance rate from former interns. That's clearly a sign of economic uneasiness from students."

Sandra Buchanan, manager of university relations at J.P. Morgan & Co., is not so quick to credit economic anxiety for her company's recent success at B-schools. Consolidation within the financial-services industry is opening up new, attractive opportunities for graduates looking to work at an industry powerhouse with locations and opportunities around the world.

Bad News for MBAs

MBAs are more anxious now than they were one year ago -- and with good reason. Today's graduates face stiff competition from each other and from scores of dotcom refugees.

"Many of our new competitors are MBAs who graduated a few years ago, joined a dotcom that recently collapsed, and now want to enter a new marketplace," Webber says. "Those people who have been in the industry for a few years have an advantage because they hold a stronger and richer network of contacts in the industry."

At Anderson, Polkes says that last year's cockiness is being replaced with nervousness and apprehension as more employers warn the career center of scaled-down recruiting needs. Sykes says that the University of Chicago has doubled its number of interview workshops for students looking to get a leg up on other job seekers. And both schools are drowning in alums -- former graduates who are looking for career help as they enter Act II of the new economy.

In addition, potential entrepreneurs are less likely to strike out on their own during these uncertain times. People at Columbia and Chicago say that more entrepreneurial students are launching their careers at big companies where they can cull contacts and hone their business plans for a few years.

"Many of our students interned for dotcoms last summer that no longer exist," Polkes says of Anderson entrepreneurs. "Now those students are trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up, and that's not a desirable place to be in February of your second year of B-school."

Good News for Recruiters

This year's recruiting prognosis is not all gloom and doom. In fact, the silver lining is shining bright for companies that have regained the upper hand with potential recruits.

"The psychology of the marketplace is changing," Resnick says. "Companies are reasserting themselves, and they are feeling more confident in their recruiting."

During the past five years, many of these same companies have taken cues from smaller, nimbler startups and have improved their recruiting strategies for the long haul. For example, Buchanan says that J.P. Morgan has introduced casual dress, new compensation packages including stock options, and work-life balance initiatives designed to compete with similar programs at new-economy competitors.

In fact, Polkes says that many large companies are growing strong on dotcom failures. "I know many students who left a Nestlé or a General Mills to work for a dotcom," she says. "Now they're back at those companies, and it all happened within less than a year. Larger companies are having the last laugh: Those companies are welcoming back employees who are more technologically savvy now than they were when they left."

Companies aren't the only winners here. Webber suggests that the dotcom shakeout has cleared the job-search landscape for business-school students who had difficulty separating the champs from the chumps in years past. She says that a Darwinian effect has wiped the horizon clear of weak business models. "If a company is well-funded at this point in time and its competitors are piling up by the wayside," she says, "you can feel more confident about joining the staff."