Job recruitment: the offers are a bit thin on the ground

A recession is a double-edged sword for business school students. It is better to take two years out of a stagnant job market than a booming one. However, it is increasingly difficult to get a job offer while at business school.

The recruitment process is a permanent fixture of business school life. Second-year students apply for permanent positions to start after they graduate and first-years seek summer internships with companies for 10 weeks during their summer vacation.

In theory, a summer internship provides the opportunity to try out new careers. However, as a result of the recession, my classmates are less inclined to take a chance on an alternative career.

Instead, they seek the security of establishing a foothold in a company for which they hope to work after graduation.

Classmates applying to the staple MBA recruiters - the investment banks and management consultancies - have found competition for places intense. Many, however, have been able to get offers.

To seek a position in private equity, which is currently a fad at school, is particularly difficult as there are so few places on offer. The media and entertainment industry is similar.

Some enlightened students choose to pursue alternative career options. A friend is touring Napa Valley in search of an opportunity in winery management. Despite the harsh labour market, the majority of first-year students at Wharton have secured summer internships.

Students wishing to switch careers and international students have had the most difficulty finding a job. Second-years in search of permanent positions have fared better.

At Wharton, about three out of four students have full-time offers starting after they graduate. Nevertheless, the harsh recruitment process has tended to dent the confidence of my classmates and made them more conservative in their career choices.

In order to allow students time to devote to their job searches, the course work is lighter in the second semester. However, academics are still prominent in student life.

In the most recent quarter, we were required to take four courses. The core courses covered macro-economics, managerial accountancy, US legal studies and linear programming. The Enron saga proved an excellent model for studying the US legal system.

Our professor used the unfolding news about the energy trader to illustrate the intricacies of contract law, directors' fiduciary duties, securities regulation and effective strategies for lobbying Washington.

I also took a public speaking class, in which we watched Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" speech from the movie, Wall Street, as a model for making a persuasive argument. Each student was then video-taped making oral presentations and given positive feedback.

In addition to the core classes, I study an elective course in entrepreneurial management. The class is taught by Professor Thomas Hellmann, who is at Wharton on a one-year teaching sabbatical from Stanford. The class puts students into the role of entrepreneurs by assigning them to teams tasked with developing a full business plan to present to potential investors.

My team is typical of the internationalism at Wharton. It is made up of a Canadian, an Israeli, a Brazilian and a Belgian. We are trying to develop a clothing brand targeted at the growing Latin American population in the US.

Other classmates' plans include a Los Angeles to Las Vegas high-speed train link, a marketplace for organic foodstuffs and a business to provide secure internet e-commerce trades.

The class is complemented by a range of case study discussions as well as visiting lectures from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. During the past 10 years, Wharton has endeavoured to enhance its reputation for leadership education.

Leadership classes are now a fundamental part of the core curriculum. In addition, prominent speakers are invited to share their perspectives with MBA students.

Last semester, Jeff Immelt, president and chief executive officer of General Electric, did one such speech, which followed on from Jack Welch's visit, also last semester. Alluding to the harsh job market, Mr Immelt started off his entertaining talk by telling the MBA students in the room that "you think that you have problems".

He pointed out that he took over at GE on September 7 from a man that everyone said was an impossible act to follow and then comparisons with Enron and Tyco put massive pressure on GE's stock performance.

Students also seek to develop their leadership skills by becoming an officer in one of the numerous professional, sporting or cultural clubs.

There is a great deal of energy among the student body to get involved in projects that reflect their interests. However, a cynic may argue that students are more interested in bolstering their resumes than developing their leadership expertise.

This is increasingly evident in a tight job market in which it is difficult to differentiate yourself to recruiters from an omni-competent student community.

This year, there were five candidates to be president of the student body as compared to three and one in the preceding two past years, when job prospects were better.

Fortunately, there is more to business school than academics and dealing with the trials of the recruitment process. I was recently involved in writing Wharton's annual satirical show based on life at school.

The so-called 'Follies' is scripted, acted and directed by existing students. The show runs for four nights: three in Philadelphia and one in New York.

Students raise a budget of more than $80,000 from corporate sponsors and ticket sales. As a result, the production is extremely professional. Going to New York as part of the stage crew was as close as I will ever get to being on Broadway.

This year's show included a number of professors prepared to laugh at themselves. The demure and serious finance professor, Franklin Allen, brought the house down with his performance as a singing nun in a 'Sound of Music'-style introduction to portfolio investment theory.

And Anjani Jain, Wharton's cerebral and popular vice-dean, made his stage debut by dancing with a feather boa.

As my classmates settle into the rhythm of business school life, I increasingly appreciate the diversity of people at Wharton. I recently met Safia Rizvi, a Pakistani doing an MBA course, who had just been invited to discuss US policy in south-east Asia with President George W. Bush.

At the same time as I was struggling to find time to write my business school applications, Safia did the same as well as founding an organisation to help women in poverty to develop technological skills.

Her not-for-profit organisation has computer centres in Pakistan, India and Philadelphia. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that she returned home from class one day to find a message from the National Security Agency on her answering machine as a precursor to her meeting with the president.

Many of my friends have interesting stories to tell that one might not normally associate with a typical MBA student. One of my friends taught Latin and Greek in New York, another is negotiating a recording contract with a label and another starred in a South African soap opera.

Although the recruitment process during a recession has been trying, one recruiter pointed out that, as first-year students, we will be entering the market just as the business cycle accelerates.

And for those of my classmates who do not yet see that light at the end of the tunnel, there are plenty of other distractions that add colour to business school life.