Question and Answer

Q:
"Hi Tony, on the recruiters' attributes, I noted that 'personal ethics and values' is way up there, which is good. However, I am surprised to see 'international knowledge and experience' quite close to the bottom which sort of surprises me, given the globalized economy. Unlike Canada here, is it because MBA grads are most likely working in the domestic market, as opposed to international trade and investment?"

A:
Thanks for checking out my blog.

In reference to your question, I can't say that I'm qualified enough to have an answer for you... nevertheless I'll give you my 2 cents. What I can say is that, at least at Ross, there seems to be a heavy focus on international business in our classes, through our multi-discliplinary action projects (MAP), and by the sheer number of international students comprising our class. During our orientation Ross admissions told us that the Class '08 includes 36% international students (frankly, I was a bit shocked); in a class of about 420 MBA1s, there are close to 45 from China/Taiwan, and India outstrips all other countries with a whopping 80+ students in our class. These numbers alone, I think, are testament to how our school truly has an "international" focus.

I think that you're partially right in that most MBA graduates from U.S. schools end up working in the U.S., which explains why recruiters may not "value" "international knowledge and experience" as much as other core business skills, like communication and interpersonal skills. I think that the WSJ/Harris survey mainly concentrated on U.S.-based recruiters, and since these recruiters are by-and-large looking for graduates to work at their U.S.-based offices, international knowledge and focus is probably just not as critical as other business skills (this is not to say that they wouldn't like to have more international knowledge and focus from their hires... just that with all things being equal, it's just not as important that a brand marketer working in Minneapolis needs to know what his/her brand marketer counterpart is doing in Japan). I would bet that business schools in other countries are big feeder sources to U.S.-based businesses, which means that MBA graduates outside of the U.S. must learn about the U.S. business system in order to work here... hence why non-U.S. based MBA programs may stress the need for international knowledge and focus in their students.

Hope this all makes some sense.

-Tony