2010 MBA Graduates Confident About Finding Employment

Results from a recent survey are released at an opportune time for students getting ready to apply to graduate school.

With graduate school admissions essay deadlines approaching for the 2010-2011 school year, students are reminded that their hard work and sacrifice will pay off soon. In the face of a tough job market, 2010 graduates of MBA and other graduate management education programs are more optimistic about the economy than their counterparts were last year, according to new data from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC.)

Results from the survey are released at an opportune time for students who need an extra push while wrapping up their law school, business school or medical school personal statement essays. The new survey suggests that recent graduates are “confident that the skills and abilities they developed in business school will give them an edge in years to come.”

According to GMAC, 33 percent of survey respondents said they felt the global economy was stable or strong, compared to only nine percent in 2009. The optimistic outlook mirrors the findings of the 2010 GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey, which found that employers are “shifting away from an emphasis on cost-cutting and retrenchment, devoting more attention to expanding their businesses – and growing increasingly likely to hire business school graduates.”

The following statistics should also encourage students who are applying to graduate schools and writing their graduate school admissions essays. The survey found that the most popular industry among graduating MBAs in 2010 is finance and accounting, followed by products/services and consulting. The most successful students were graduates seeking employment in the manufacturing industry, followed by those seeking employment in the healthcare and energy/utilities sectors.

Whether you’re writing a law school, business school or medical school application essay, consider the following advice: “While the job market may be cyclical, the value of management education is constant. The investment people make in their own human capital by going to business school gives them a competitive advantage that transcends the ups and downs of the economy,” said Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officer of GMAC.