Bull Market for M.B.A.s

Business-school graduates of the class of 1973 are opening their first pay envelopes about now, and thanks to a bull market for Masters of Business Administration, the checks are plumper than ever. Graduates of such elite schools as Harvard, Stanford or Pennsylvania's Wharton start out at an annual average of close to $17,000, up $1,000 or more from last year. The number of companies actively recruiting has increased nearly 15% since 1972. At Harvard, 861 recruiters showed up to vie for 777 graduates. The school collected the students' resumes in a book and sold it for $75 a copy.

To the graduates, glamour fields include management consulting, land development, banking and finance. In those fields, M.B.A.s tend to start fairly high on the ladder, gain responsibility quickly and move ahead fast. But there is a decline of interest in that old M.B.A. watering hole, Wall Street, where hours are long and profits shortening. In fact, says Robert Flanagan, chief recruiter for Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc. management consultants: "It's very tough to get people to consider coming to New York City for anything."

Despite that, New York's First National City Bank is one of the most successful organizations when it comes to hiring M.B.A.s. It employs a recruiting staff of 19 and has an extensive summer-intern program. After signing up students for summer jobs the year before they graduate, Citibank executives spend as much time selling the bank to the interns as they do evaluating their abilities. Says Marni Gislason, an intern from Harvard: "The program is very effective. You run into these surprisingly young M.B.A.s who have literally flown up in the ranks of the bank. They really believe that Citibank is the greatest thing since night baseball."

Another successful recruiter, McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm, rented a floor of a Cambridge motel, where ten of its recruiters met individually with 160 of Harvard's graduates, who were vying for seven $20,000 positions. If a top student expressed a desire to work in a particular city, McKinsey sent him or her there for a look. One student even got a trip to the Paris office. Sea Pines Company, a recreational land developer in Hilton Head Island, S.C., surprised the business schools with a lavish recruiting program, contacting 15% to 20% of the graduates at Harvard and Stanford. The company invited 50 M.B.A.s to South Carolina and hired at least eight from Harvard.

The following list shows the most successful recruiters and the number of graduates hired, as reported by the placement offices of three leading graduate business schools.

HARVARD

Sea Pines Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Arthur Young (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Bankers Trust Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Boston Consulting Group. . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Hewlitt-Packard Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .7

McKinsey & Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Coopers & Lybrand (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . .6

First National City Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . .6

General Motors Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Goldman, Sachs & Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .6

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

First National Bank of Chicago. . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Arthur Andersen (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Goldman, Sachs & Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Xerox Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Ford Motor Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Price Waterhouse (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Touche Ross (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Procter & Gamble Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Federated Department Stores, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . .3

STANFORD

McKinsey & Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Arthur Andersen (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Hewlitt-Packard Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . .8

First National Bank of Chicago. . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Arthur Young (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Peat, Marwick, Mitchell (accounting). . . . . . . . . . . . .4

The Boston Consulting Group. . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Xerox Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. . . . . . . . . . . . .4

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