Fall 2000, MIT Sloan website

eBusiness puts students in the spotlight

A champion of the New Economy, Bob Fitzpatrick, SM '00, might seem an unlikely hire for GE Capital, a financial arm of GE. Fitzpatrick came to MIT Sloan from an eBusiness startup, graduated from the School's eBusiness Track, and tested his mettle in the MIT $50K Competition, a proving-ground for entrepreneurs.

Lured by security and the company's new commitment to eBusiness, Fitzpatrick opted to join GE Capital after he graduated last June, and he doesn't regret the decision. The company made him a marketing leader in eBusiness and IT, and he immediately set out to develop a toolkit to help GE companies market over the Internet.

Even though he was a recent graduate and a new employee, GE Capital already saw Fitzpatrick as a vital source of information — an expert in the burgeoning field of eBusiness. A similar reception awaits future MIT Sloan grads, as both startups and old-line firms covet technical knowledge and the innovation and managerial skills to help them flourish in the New Economy.

Leader in technology
MIT Sloan students are poised to satisfy firms' high-tech demands. Innovation and management are at the core of the School's rigorous curriculum, and MIT Sloan's commitment to the management of technology is renowned.

"To me, that's the future of business," says Jacqueline Wilbur, new director of MIT Sloan's MBA Career Development Office. "Sloan is uniquely positioned to be a leader in this arena. And our students are going to have more opportunities because of that."

The New Economy has indeed reinforced the value of MIT Sloan students. In its biennial survey, Business Week cited the School's leadership in technology management as one reason MIT Sloan ranked fourth among the nation's top business schools. It also said MIT Sloan students were buoyed by their career prospects.

Placement statistics for the Class of 2000 support the students' optimism. The average base salary by industry ranged from $78,741 to $110,909, with average signing bonuses by industry ranging from $18,000 to $40,833. Many grads joined consulting (27 percent) or investment banking firms (15 percent), and more than 30 percent of the grads joined eBusiness, software, computer, or telecommunications companies—core businesses of the New Economy.

In one manner or another, many recent graduates are plying their skills in eBusiness. Sean Foster Hinners, SM '00, for example, joined marchFirst as a consultant after graduating in June from the eBusiness Track. One of his first assignments was to seek venture capital for an eBusiness. Hinners is so bullish on the talents of MIT Sloan grads that already he plans to recruit from the School for marchFirst.

"Compared to other MBAs, Sloan students are well informed on the New Economy," he explains, "and anywhere you go, you are surrounded by the New Economy."

Skills still matter
Although recruiters value MIT Sloan's emphasis on technology management, students still must exhibit the intrinsic skills that are essential to effective management. Tom Anderson, a partner with McKinsey & Company, Inc. in Boston, looks for such skills as problem solving, leadership, teamwork, personal presence, and communication.

For Anderson, who heads up MIT Sloan recruiting for McKinsey, the interview process with a graduating MBA is aimed at detecting those "intrinsics" — whether they are evident through a candidate's professional achievements or a candidate demonstrates them during interviews.

He says MIT Sloan students often come to the table with the requisite skills, an observation that is borne out by McKinsey's hiring 17 MIT Sloan grads in 2000 and traditionally hiring more MIT Sloan grads than other employers.

"Historically, we hire somewhere around 7 or 8 percent of the Sloan MBA class," says Anderson. "The reason is that the School admits high quality students to begin with, and the students tend to have problem-solving skills. Sloan is also internationally oriented, which is great because we are a global company."

Personal approach
From a recruiter's perspective, Anderson says a school's career development office is an important variable in whether firms can find the right candidates. The arrival of Wilbur in August, then, is an important development. Formerly an assistant dean at Georgetown's business school, she espouses a personal approach to the placement process for students and employers.

Working to expand services to students, she already has increased the staff devoted to counseling and support and has partnered with the communications faculty to guide first-year MBA students in preparing resumes and cover letters.

She also has increased the office's dialogue with recruiters. That is especially important now, as the demand for technically savvy grads soars and the New Economy reshapes the recruitment process.

"Twenty percent of the companies coming on campus this fall are small-tech firms," notes Wilbur. "That's up significantly. They're taking a proactive approach to the MBAs coming this year. They're coming from all over the place, doing what big companies have done for years."

Recruiters from traditional firms have taken notice, she adds. Most spent the summer evaluating last year's recruitment. Some have rethought sponsorships of events and jumped onboard career education initiatives. Others have even created websites targeting MIT Sloan MBAs — hoping like their small-tech counterparts to pluck the right grad from the spotlight.