Candidate Services

MBA’S??

Q: I have received a couple of telephone calls from recruiters over the last month. While I am not currently looking to change jobs both opportunities looked intriguing enough to pursue. We had brief conversations where they outlined the position and asked me some screening type questions. Everything seemed to be clicking until they asked me if I had an MBA. I do not have one. In both cases the recruiters were polite but brought the conversation to an end because their clients required an MBA.

Since I am not looking I am not terribly disappointed but I am wondering in the future if not having an MBA will affect my chances when I do change companies.

A: I have discussed the subject of college degrees in some brevity in the past. This column will focus on MBA’s and their impact on a job search.

I want to start with a couple stories. A number of years back I had a Fortune 50 client that I did a good amount of work for. They were very big on MBA’s, especially at the more senior levels. One time I was doing a search for a director of product marketing (This was a senior director type position with a lot of responsibility, including a large revenue stream for their set of products.). I identified an exceptional candidate who came recommended from a number of sources. He interviewed with two divisional presidents and a number of VP’s. They all loved this gentleman, his experience and abilities. The only issue was he did not have an MBA. He also did not have an undergrad. They hired him without hesitation. The same company, another senior hiring authority in sales, asked me to find a sales director with an MBA. In sales most would think this isn’t really that critical. You would want someone with a proven track record. But there was no bending.

The bottom line is this is all a bit of a crapshoot.

Briefly let me review the creation of the job description. Most good job descriptions will have a list of desired experience and skills. Many times this list would require 2-3 people to fill it. Generally this list can be boiled down to 3-5 must haves. In other words don’t bother if you don’t have these certain credentials. A good recruiter will be searching off this shortened list. Now let’s review the MBA scenario from three perspectives.

Recruiter: As I mentioned a good recruiter has reduced this list to 3-5 must haves. They typically are not going to make exceptions to this list. First of all they know their client well enough to understand what will and won’t be acceptable. So they have already tweaked the list to incorporate that. Next the company might make an exception if they are hiring directly. But they are paying the recruiter thousands to find a pretty close match to what they want. That is the recruiter’s job. So if a recruiter has an MBA as one of the requirements (without a desired behind it) then that is what they want.

Human Resources: Human resources is similar in certain ways to the recruiter. The hiring manager has provided them a laundry list. The good ones will also have narrowed down this list to the must haves. The one advantage they have is they typically know the hiring managers pretty well and know what that manager will overlook. But remember the HR person’s job is screening and reduction, not typically the hiring decision. Also as another fellow coach said in a recent column another one of their unstated goals is to get the hiring manager off their backs. Bottom line if they are also requiring an MBA chances are there is no wavering.

Hiring Manager: This is the person with the most pain, hopefully. Typically they are already “bleeding” and need to fill the position. Someone has left with 2 weeks notice so they have not had a chance to prepare. Most of the time if they see a great candidate that fits everything else they are not going to be burdened by the MBA requirement. After all it is typically theirs anyway. See my example above. Now there will be a few where the MBA is more important than anything else, by far. These people, in my opinion, are being very myopic.

So where does this leave you? It just confirms what you have already heard from the knowledgeable sources. You need to get in front of the hiring manager. That is your best percentages and they are the ones, again, with the pain.

Obviously this is not black and white and can be impacted by different things such as:
· Labor supply. The greater the supply the tighter the requirements can be.
· Pay. An MBA will typically get a few more $$. If the pay is on the lower end of the range it is going to be harder for them to get an MBA.
· MBA School. There are 10-20 top MBA programs, Wharton, U of M, U of Chicago, Kellogg, etc that sometimes make hiring authorities go gaga. Nothing else matters except the candidate has that credential. All other MBA’s are pretty much equal in value.
· Two or more equally outstanding candidates. Many times an MBA can be a tiebreaker.
· The myopic view of a hiring authority. Covered above.
· Size of company. The smaller they are typically the less interested they are in MBAs.

I wouldn’t let all of this concern you. As I have said many times before, “It is what it is”. For every company that is insistent on an MBA there are 10 that aren’t. If you let it concern you or be a hindrance it will. If you don’t then you will have a much greater amount of success. If you come up against an MBA requirement do your best to overcome it and if you can’t, move on. An MBA has nothing, generally, to do with your skills and accomplishments. It is their loss.

I want to close by saying I have no desire to demean or discount MBAs or other graduate degrees. I think it is great that people have pursued them and have them. But there are many that don’t and I just do not want that to be a discouragement to them.

Here’s Wishing You Terrific Hunting,

Bill

Bill Gaffney has 17 years experience as an executive recruiter, and a career coach. Bill can be reached at 937-567-5267 or wmgaffney@prodigy.net. He doesn’t have an MBA but seems to do alright. For questions to be considered for this column please e-mail askamaxa@yahoo.com.