Telecoms Stake Claim for MBA Talent

Telecommunications has seen a recent surge in MBA recruitment, what with the sudden interest the industry is generating in applicants.

In years past, if you asked the typical MBA student what industry he or she expected to work in after graduation, telecommunications would rarely come up - unless there was ample prompting from some industry drop down menu.

Indeed, in the 2009 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey, only 9% - down from 11% in 2006 - of MBA candidates worldwide picked out telecoms as a potential postgraduate career. But things might be changing.  While financial services firms and other typically prominent MBA recruiters  lick their balance sheet wounds this coming fall, telecommunication companies seem ready for action.

Although they may not be top of mind for MBA graduates, telecoms companies are major competitors in the campus war for talent.  In fact, according to the 2008 TopMBA.com Recruitment & Salary Report, the average starting package offered by American and Western European firms in the telecom/hi-tech industry was US$136,000, eclipsing both financial services and consulting.  In addition, the world’s growing appetite for improved connectivity through useful devices and fun media have kept the industry relatively strong, and could further increase its prominence on campus.

Connected

Lacey Holley, University & Internship Program Manager at T-Mobile, notes that “People need to be connected at all times and we’re in a hot sector even as the economy is soft.”  In order to serve the growing market, T-Mobile, a part of Deutsch Telekom, is in a high-growth and innovation phase.  Jackie Carpenter, Director of Talent Acquisition at Cricket Communications, a wireless service provider based in San Diego, says “What we do every day matters; putting people in contact with other people.  We all want to be connected.”

So has the weakened economy affected the telecommunications industry at all?  Yes.  Entering their ranks is more competitive than ever.  And before MBA graduates stampede towards the application forms they should know that they won’t be alone.  “Our numbers [of applications] are probably three times what we’ve seen in the past,” notes Carpenter, “and it takes longer to go through them and make a decision.”  A relative newcomer to university recruiting, Cricket is piloting an internship program that includes “green” projects and formalized mentoring.  They’ve turned to MBA’s for a pipeline of ambitious and skilled employees to support the company’s rapid growth. “We don’t view [the internship] as a summer job.  We’re using it as a pathway into the organization.”

Holley mentions that T-Mobile also experienced a surge in qualified applications this year that allowed her to be more selective for her summer internship program.  She was able to secure her first choice ‘perfect’ candidates, and even the second and third choice applicants would have been ‘great hires’.  Although T-Mobile hired slightly fewer MBA summer interns this year than in the banner 2008 season, Holley expects that the number of MBA hires at the company will stay the same or grow over the next few years.  “We’re a global company so there are a lot of opportunities.”

According to Odesa Stapleton, Director of Talent Management at Verizon Communications, MBA’s are important to the telecommunications industry because they bring an ability to manage the multi-faceted projects that are typical in the space.  “There are more of the cross-departmental projects that come into play in the telecommunications industry.”  And unlike other industries where new MBA hires may need to take small bites of work before being trusted with a sizable project, Ms. Stapleton notes that with Verizon, new MBA hires “don’t need to wait for the big stuff.”

Internships

Verizon runs a number of development and internship programs for MBA students across accounting, finance, HR, sales, marketing and technology.  As for why an MBA graduate might want to consider Verizon, Stapleton says, “We teach, we train, we entertain and we connect our employees to our customers.”  Maintaining a close connection to customers is a common theme in the industry.  “People need to be customer focused and technically savvy with continuous learning aspirations,” notes Holley.

It’s too early to tell how 2009 recruiting will compare with 2008, but for their part, telecoms are in for another round.  As Stapleton notes, “We wouldn’t want any potential MBAs to assume that we are not hiring.  We continue to seek top talent across the organization; in good times and bad, we need to be out on the campuses.”  That’s good news for MBA students.