Have I got a bargain for you!
Today’s business school graduates are facing the prospect of trying to pay off six-figure student loans on a salary from their local Bonzo Burger franchise. For a limited time, a savvy marketer can have their textbook expertise and fresh perspective cheap.
Any marketer that speaks to a few newly minted MBAs will find they’ve had a lot of the braggadocio that came with the dot com mania beaten out of them. Even Harvard’s program, which had once embraced the dot com economy whole hog, is graduating students who understand that businesses really do have to make money after all.
Direct marketers can ruthlessly exploit this talent glut by investing in programs that challenge them and give them structured free time to learn about your operations and offer feedback.
Why should this be considered essential investment spending right now? Because by snapping them up now, firms will have a chance to evaluate the talent and retain it once the economy turns around. The best intern-type programs allow these fresh-faced graduates to prove their worth to your company.
Yes, there are still some biases against a fancy B-school education in our industry. This is nothing new. In 1983’s "The Official MBA Handbook," authors Jim Fisk and Robert Barron quote an executive as describing MBAs as "ten dollar horses with fifty dollar saddles." A cute comment, but can you really take seriously a business author whose name sounds dangerously close to "Robber Baron"?
Don't take my word for this: Peer recommendations are the strongest form of advocacy. I invite readers that have worked with recent graduates from business schools to share their experiences – good, bad or indifferent.
To respond to the opinions in this column, please contact rlevey@primediabusiness.com.
