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Jobless MBAs Seek Solace in Support Groups (With job market in shambles MBA's need encouragement)
Businessweek ^ | 12/22/2009 | Alison Damast

Posted on 12/22/2009 7:03:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind

With the job market in shambles, MBAs need encouragement wherever they can find it. For tea and sympathy, many are now turning to B-school support groups.

Gillian Mager was in the midst of updating her MBA job club members on her networking efforts last June when she broke down in tears. Like most in the support group at the University of California at San Diego's Rady School of Management (Rady Full-Time MBA Profile), her job search had extended beyond graduation and she spent her days sending out reams of résumés, often getting no response back. Making matters worse, she learned shortly before the meeting that a promising job opportunity she'd pinned her hopes on had fallen through.

"I remember talking about it and I just started crying hysterically," she says. "My friend just hugged me and was like, 'You know what, everything is going to work out.' "

For the rest of the hourlong session, her business school classmates discussed what might have gone wrong during her job interview, critiqued her résumé, and gave her ideas on what she could do differently next time. The group's encouragement and advice paid off; by August she landed a job as a marketing data analyst at Petco. Says Mager: "I just think if I were doing it alone, it would have been a lot harder. Having that shoulder to lean on really helped."

Students are banding together to help each other more than ever before as they navigate one of most dismal MBA job markets in years. In the last year or two, dozens of job search support clubs, often called "job accountability" groups, have sprung up on MBA campuses across the country. Some are official school-sponsored ones organized by career services offices at business schools, while others are student-generated and student-led meetings.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: harvardmba; harvardmbas; job; mba; mbas; recession; unemployment

1 posted on 12/22/2009 7:03:22 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s the Obama Economy!

and once he takes over health care in addition to banking and auto makers that he already took, it will be totally

THE OBAMA FASCIST ECONOMY


2 posted on 12/22/2009 7:12:04 AM PST by buffyt (I don't agree with Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Nelson, Landreiu, does that make me RACIST?)
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To: SeekAndFind

I got my “MBA” from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies — without spending a dime. Everything I needed to learn about running a business, I learned there.


3 posted on 12/22/2009 7:13:16 AM PST by libh8er
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To: libh8er

Yeah, I have mine from there as well. But my kid graduated with his MBA last weekend, and he didn’t spend a dime either.

He was a GA and his tuition was paid in full. That being said, he has a job, he was offered full time employment where he had been interning. Is it the salary he would have hoped for...no? But he’s happy to have a job in this economy.


4 posted on 12/22/2009 7:15:52 AM PST by dawn53
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To: SeekAndFind

Hey kiddies - as long as Democrats are in control and Hussein is the usurper teleprompter you are screwed.

Start organizing kids to get rid of these facists - if not your MBA or whatever is worthless.


5 posted on 12/22/2009 7:16:18 AM PST by Frantzie (Judge David Carter - democrat & dishonorable Marine like John Murtha.)
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To: dawn53

Is a GA like a GI? What is a GA? Glad he found a gig. This economy is a nightmare.


6 posted on 12/22/2009 7:18:25 AM PST by Frantzie (Judge David Carter - democrat & dishonorable Marine like John Murtha.)
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To: SeekAndFind

MBAs are largely at fault for the debt crazy predicament we’re in. They were inundated at business school with the “debt is leverage” lie that caused our current problems.


7 posted on 12/22/2009 7:21:23 AM PST by MichiganConservative (I wouldn't hate the government if it didn't exist. (Evil + Stupid) === Government)
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To: MichiganConservative
the “debt is leverage” lie that caused our current problems.

Archimedes said "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."

Mission accomplished. The fulcrum turned out to be the American consumer.

8 posted on 12/22/2009 7:27:33 AM PST by Oratam
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To: libh8er

“I got my “MBA” from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies — without spending a dime. Everything I needed to learn about running a business, I learned there.”

Actually, you are pretty much correct.


9 posted on 12/22/2009 7:28:15 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (Support our troops, and vote out the RINO's!)
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To: SeekAndFind

As an MBA, who got his while working, I think it is stupid to go for an MBA straight out of undergrad. An MBA has more value if you have actually worked in the real world for a few years. It should be meant to supplement your other skills: engineering, law, etc.


10 posted on 12/22/2009 7:32:56 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: libh8er

I guess the first thing they should have been taught was to SUCK IT UP! Life is hard and everything isn’t going to be handed to them on a silver platter. Save a lot of money in counseling and just get over yourselves.


11 posted on 12/22/2009 8:06:47 AM PST by No Socialist
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To: SeekAndFind

The OLD MBA (Masters in Business Administration) is no longer useful in Amerika. Business is old news, something that evil capitalists concern themselves with. College students should now be focusing on the NEW MBA (Masters in Bureaucratic Ass-kissing). Study of central planning and political graft is all the new rage. It will help land you a job in the new growth industry of progressive government.


12 posted on 12/22/2009 8:10:13 AM PST by MCH
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To: MichiganConservative

I thought only muslims were anti-debt! We would not have capitalism without debt in one form or another.


13 posted on 12/22/2009 9:48:39 AM PST by balls (Sarah, get off your facebook and do something!)
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To: dfwgator

An Executive MBA, where all the students are experienced managers or knowledge workers with at least five years under their belts, and from a decent school, is invaluable.


14 posted on 12/22/2009 9:54:14 AM PST by balls (Sarah, get off your facebook and do something!)
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To: balls

I am anti-debt, and I am not muslim ... and, actually, I have quite a bit of debt.

Debt is risk. They can’t foreclose if you don’t have a mortgage. They can’t repo if you don’t have a car loan. Collectors can’t call if you don’t borrow. And think of the nest-egg you could save up if you weren’t paying for two cars and a house every month (instead investing the $2500/mo. you would’ve been paying to someone else). You could very literally be a millionaire inside of 15 years.

Debt stifles growth because it teaches you to live above your means, and to make payments for the rest of your life.

SnakeDoc


15 posted on 12/22/2009 10:54:43 AM PST by SnakeDoctor
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To: balls

Capitalism is the economic expression of freedom. Capitalism could exist in a barter economy. However, using money makes trading easier. What we call money today, Federal Reserve Notes, are debt certificates. During the great period of prosperity in America during the 19th century, the Federal Reserve did not exist. We didn’t have a central bank. I think we were on something called a “gold standard”. Interesting that that’s also the time when we had capitalists some call “robber barons”. (I’m not defending them all. Some were legitimate entrepreneurs that created novel things that made life better. Some were coporatists.)

We do not need a central bank printing debt certificates out of thin air to have a health economy or to have capitalism or entrepreneurship. In fact, that’s the poison that destroys economies and enslaves people. For an example, see how we’re doing in this country both privately with credit card debt and upside down mortgages and nationally in relation to China.

You should read Thomas Woods’ “Meltdown” and Vox Day’s “Return of the Great Depression” for more.


16 posted on 12/22/2009 1:48:32 PM PST by MichiganConservative (I wouldn't hate the government if it didn't exist. (Evil + Stupid) === Government)
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To: MichiganConservative

I did not intend to defend the Federal Reserve system and the usury practices of the money lenders going back to biblical times. I’m talking of debt as a promise to pay the lender at some agreed to date in the future at an agreed-to interest rate. It’s as simple as that.

I have leveraged debt wherever it’s to my advantage; for example, where the NPV > 0. It’s always a win-win for both the lender and me. As a result, I now live very comfortably and almost beyond the reach of the pos in the WH.

Incidentally, my word is my bond. I have not missed a debt in over forty-years. Those who cannot manage their debt have nobody to blame but themselves.


17 posted on 12/22/2009 3:02:01 PM PST by balls (Sarah, get off your facebook and do something!)
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To: SnakeDoctor

I had you in mind in #17


18 posted on 12/22/2009 3:05:40 PM PST by balls (Sarah, get off your facebook and do something!)
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