The Top 5 Reasons Diversity MBA Conferences Should Be on Your Recruiting Calendar
Pictured above: Tuck second-year MBA students Bianca Goins, Sadé Lawrence, and Jodine Gordon.
More than 10,000 MBA students, business school representatives, recruiters, and business executives filled the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia late last month for one of the largest career conferences serving minority professionals. The conference has been around since 1970, but for the first time this year the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) and Prospanica, the association of Hispanic professionals, joined forces to present it. The result was an incredible opportunity for attendees to network with companies and each other, take advantage of career development programming, and interview for and secure job offers from hundreds of companies spanning multiple industries.
Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management had a group of approximately 55 students attend, a mix of first-year and second-year students, according to Cynthia Saunders-Cheatham, Executive Director of Johnson’s Career Management Center.
“It was double what we have had in recent years, and perhaps the largest attendance we ever had for an MBA diversity conference,” she said. “Having a joint NBMBAA/Prospanica conference, in addition to the Philadelphia location that was driving distance away [from Ithaca, NY, where Johnson is located], helped to drive attendance.” The connections that students made while there have already resulted in multiple job offers, she added.
While securing a job or internship is a primary reason many MBA students choose to attend the National Black/Prospanica conference and others like it, that’s just one of many potential benefits events like this offer. Given that this most recent conference was right here in our hometown of Philadelphia, we went to check things out for ourselves. Through conversations with attendees, school representatives, and recruiters, we’ve compiled the following list of reasons why this year’s crop of applicants should be sure to add diversity MBA conferences to their recruiting calendar next summer and fall.
1. Unparalleled Recruiter Access—Including Many That Don’t Come to Campus
The Career Expo, which took place on the last two days of the five-day National Black/Prospanica conference, filled a cavernous hall in the Convention Center and included booths from close to 300 companies spanning dozens of industries. Among them were coveted post-MBA tech employers like Google and Amazon, consulting industry leaders including Bain & Company and Accenture, and financial services firms such as BlackRock, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley. There was a continuous gaggle at the Google booth, and one of its MBA internship recruiters, Tanya Choudhury, had to resort to wearing a sign by the second day explaining that she’d lost her voice.
Big pharma and healthcare were also well represented, with booths attended by recruiting representatives from drug maker AstraZeneca to medical products and equipment company Zimmer Biomet and many in between. Leading consumer packaged goods (CPG) firms including PepsiCo, General Mills, and Proctor & Gamble were also there, as were oil and gas giants like BP, Chevron, and Exxon.
Morgan Stanley was one of almost 300 exibitors in the conference’s packed Career Expo.
But there were also plenty of organizations that are perhaps less top of mind as potential MBA recruiters—the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Department of State, Teach for America, and USAID, for example—who were just as eager to share how highly they value the MBA skillset. Dozens of leading business schools also had booths, largely to provide support and serve as gathering places for students who were attending, but also with an eye out for promising diverse talent. For example, Roberto Martinez, a Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant for Dartmouth College—home to the Tuck School of Business—was eagerly distributing glossy handouts touting the school’s varied career opportunities, commitment to diverse hiring practices, and excellent benefits. “We’re here not only to support students but also to hire more diverse staff to campus,” he said.
For Tuck second-year MBA student Bianca Goins, the breadth of companies at the expo was a big part of the draw. “I wanted a diverse group of companies to look at in a single spot,” she said. “There are so many companies here, and as second-year you can really come and pick and choose the experiences you want to have.”
Tiffany Anderson, a second-year student at Emory’s Goizueta Business School, was also impressed by the sheer number of companies present. A self-proclaimed conference veteran, she also attended National Black last year, as well as conferences presented by the Forté Foundation, the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, Management Leadership for Tomorrow, and JumpStart. “Out of all the diversity conferences, I would certainly say this is the flagship,” she said. “Wow! There are A LOT of companies here,” she recalled thinking to herself as she walked in. More so than last year, before National Black and Prospanica teamed up, she added.
“I have seen the most people—students from many different schools and recruiters from many different functional areas of interest,” she continued. “It seems to be the most diverse in terms of attendees, degree of programming, and companies in attendance. For the majority of people, this is going to be one of the best to attend.” Anderson estimates that there were probably 30 or so Goizueta students there, a mix of first- and second-years.
2. Multiple Touch Points and Opportunities for Face Time
For some students, certainly, the primary purpose in attending the conference is to land a job. Second-year IU Kelley School of Business MBA student Henrique Barbosa, a native of Brazil pursuing travel hospitality, had a simple answer when asked why he was there: “To get a job!” He acknowledged that most of the firms he was interested in only conduct first-round interviews at the conference followed by second-round interviews on site, which lessened the likelihood of his leaving with an offer in hand. “But it would be great if it happened,” he said.
But several other students were less interested in job or internship offers—or even in early round interviews. For Jodine Gordon (Tuck ’18), the biggest factor in her decision to attend was hearing success stories from Tuck grads whose higher-level touch points with conference recruiters later helped them secure offers. “I have a couple companies on my list, but really I just want to meet as many people as possible so they can get to know me and I can get face time,” she said.
Sadé Lawrence, also a second-year student at Tuck, was likewise attracted by the opportunity to get in front of recruiters in person. “For a lot of opportunities you might be interested in, you start online at a website, applying through data base,” she said. “But coming here they now have a face with your name, and there are all kinds of organic connections that can happen,” she added. “It’s kind of amazing that you are able to build connections with people even at such a big conference, but you are. You make contacts and get lots of face time—so much more so than you can blindly through a website,” she continued. “What I have heard more of is people have an interaction with a recruiter here that leads to an interview later—here is more about entering the pipeline.”
Tuck’s Goins has taken the opportunity to network with recruiters who don’t make it to Tuck’s campus, but also those who do. “With every interaction, you are getting a more nuanced understanding of the company and can take that information and use it in subsequent interactions.”
3. Valuable Chances to Network with Peers
Goizueta’s Anderson interned in operations at Google over the summer—an opportunity she got through another diversity conference—and has been offered a full-time position on the tech giant’s Mountain View campus after she graduates. Despite having that full-time offer in hand, attending the conference still made lots of sense.
Kelley School second-year student Luis Vilchez Kupres, a native of Peru, also converted his summer internship—in supply chain operations at Cummins—into a full-time offer. So his reasons for attending the conference were not to get a job. ”I am here to support fellow Kelley first- and second-years and network a little more,” he said. He also gets to reconvene with students from other schools he met at last year’s Prospanica conference. “Often, you connect with somebody and they will help you connect with someone else,” he said. “Networking definitely helps—even among other MBA students.”
Tiffany Anderson, Goizueta MBA ’18, a diversity MBA conference veteran
For the Google-bound Anderson, the value of peer networking can’t be stressed enough. Being able to connect with students from other schools is the part she finds most enjoyable—but it’s also strategic. “When candidates are selecting a school they like to look at the size of the network they are going to get—and that’s great,” she said. “But the way I see it, I don’t have to be at Stanford or Wharton because I have friends at Stanford and Wharton. So in a way that’s kind of my network, too.”
“You have that domino effect,” she continued. If she’s trying to connect with someone at a company where she doesn’t have a contact or her classmates don’t have contacts, she can reach out to a friend at another school to see if there’s someone in their network. “Some might say, ‘Well, they’re a peer, they’re not an employer, they’re not going to get me a job.’ But there is so much more benefit to expanding your network. I don’t think everyone understands that.”
Of course, peer networking can be a two-way street. “My motivation to expand my network comes from wanting to help others as well,” Anderson said. “When you are part of these diversity networks, one of the great things is you are going to have a friend who says, ‘Do you know someone who can help me with this?’ And I can say, ‘Well, I met someone at a conference who does that very thing and I’m happy to put y’all in touch.’”
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Like most parts of the country, the U.S. heartland is undergoing a massive shift on all fronts, becoming more urbane, diverse, and open to outsiders than seemingly ever before.
Many communities are becoming increasingly diverse, attracting international residents at an unprecedented rate. Young, urban professional-types who once flocked to the coasts are now moving in droves to Midwestern cities, which were once dismissively filed under “fly-over territory.” Nowhere is this change more apparent than in the Windy City.
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Northwestern Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern Kellogg School of Management graduates earned average starting salaries between $106,000-$138,000, depending on their chosen industry. According to recent statistics, the four most popular industries to attract Kellogg MBAs were consulting (32.6 percent), where the starting salary hovers around $138,204 with a $29,375 signing bonus. MBAs in tech (22 percent) earned a starting salary of $119,713 with a $23,749 signing bonus. MBAs that specialize in consumer products (13.8 percent) earned an average starting salary of $106,052 with a $26,634 signing bonus. MBAs in financial services (12.8 percent) earned an average starting salary of $128,090 with a $32,100 signing bonus. Top employers of Kellogg graduates include: Adobe Systems, Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Apple, Bain & Co, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Boston Consulting Group, Cisco Systems, DaVita Healthcare Partners, Dell, Deloitte, Facebook, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, JPMorgan Chase, Linkedin, Mars, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, Nike, PepsiCo, among others
DePaul Kellstadt Graduate School of Business
Recent graduates from the DePaul Kellstadt Graduate School of Business posted record employment numbers for the school. According to an overview the school published, 92 percent of 2016 MBAs landed positions within 120 days of graduation. The average starting salaries for Kellstadt’s available MBA concentrations are as follows: Accountancy at $83,000; economics at $90,000; finance at $89,000; management at $83,000; marketing at $75,500; and real estate at $75,000. The most popular industries to attract Kellstadt graduates were accounting, financial services, manufacturing, health care, and consulting. Top employers include: Allstate, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, GE Capital, General Mills, Google, Groupon, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, PwC, United Airlines, and Wilson Sporting Goods, among others.
Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business
According to statistics surveying the most recent MBA class, the average starting salary for Mendoza College of Business graduates is $105,000 with a $20,000 signing bonus. About 91 percent of MBAs received job offers within three months of graduation. The most popular industries to attract Mendoza MBAs are within tech (27.1 percent), financial services (18.8 percent), consumer products (14.6 percent), and consulting (11.5 percent). MBAs working in tech earned average starting salaries of around $110,000; financial services, $110,000; consumer products, $100,000; and consulting, $105,000. Top employers of Mendoza MBAs include: Deloitte, Procter & Gamble, PwC, Deutsche Bank, IBM, Discover, Allstate, IBM, Samsung, Amazon, American Airlines, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, Kraft, Hershey, Heinz, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Major League Soccer, United Airlines, General Mills, General Motors, Microsoft, GlaxoSmithKline, and Citibank, among others.
University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Chicago Booth School of Business graduates earned an average starting salary of $125,000, according to recent statistics. The top industries to attract Booth MBAs are financial services (36 percent), consulting (27.5 percent), and technology (16.7 percent). Booth MBAs working in financial services earn average starting salaries of $125,000 with a $40,000 signing bonus; consulting, $145,000 with a $25,000 signing bonus; technology, $125,000 with a $30,000 signing bonus. Top employers of Booth graduates include McKInsey & Company (7.1 percent), Boston Consulting Group (4.7 percent), Amazon (3.9 percent), Bain & Company (3.1 percent), Accenture (2.6 percent), Google (2.4 percent), Bank of America Merrill Lynch (2.2 percent), and PwC Strategy (2 percent).
University of Illinois at Chicago Gies College of Business
On average, Gies College of Business graduates can expect to start their careers in the $90,000 range with a $10,000 signing bonus. According to statistics supplied by the school, MBA grads have a 94 percent employment rate. The most popular industries are technology (20.3 percent), financial services (18.8 percent), consulting (15.6 percent), and consumer products (12.5 percent). Liautaud MBAs who took positions in tech started at $94,000; financial services, $87,857; consulting, $89,125; and consumer products, $95,800. Liautaud graduates work for a broad range of companies, but top employers include AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Walt Disney, Amazon, Chrysler, Hewlett-Packard, Sears, Google, State Farm, City of Champaign, Bank of America, and Whirlpool Corporation.
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