The X Factor - The Skills MBA Recruiters Want

A deeper understanding of the skills MBA recruiters are looking for will provide an insight into the kind of candidates they are hiring.

"When we are hiring MBAs, we really do look for an X factor" says Nicky Burmester, a recruitment manager, who hires MBAs into one of eight different leadership recruitment programmes for MBAs at GE. She explains "the X-factor can best be described as an entrepreneurial spirit or a drive and enthusiasm that makes this person stand out from the crowd." This trait may not be unique to MBAs, but when you add in Nicky's other requirements, namely "a requirement for academic rigour, a breadth of understanding of general management, proven leadership skills, language ability and geographic flexibility", it's not surprising that "an MBA becomes almost mandatory to our hiring profile."

"The truth is" says Lindsey McQuade, Careers Director at Cass Business School, "most MBA employers take the analytical and problem solving skills as a given when they look at MBAs. They really do focus on the soft skills when they make their hiring decisions." In a recent survey of 508 MBA employers from around the world, QS TopMBA found that; people skills, strategic thinking, and leadership were the three most important qualities for their MBA hires. A separate survey of MBA recruiters by Saad Business School also identified soft skills - communication, entrepreneurship and creativity - as of greatest importance.

The TopMBA survey found that, whilst almost all employers were satisfied with analytical, language and technical skills possessed by MBAs, there was a common feeling that business schools are still not doing enough to develop these softer skills (as shown in chart).

People and leadership skills

Dimitris Belbas, an MBA recruiter at Eli Lilly in the UK, says "we place a major emphasis on people and leadership skills. Generally we are very happy with the MBAs we pick and some have risen to fill the majority of senior management positions at Eli Lilly around the world, but many don't make the grade at interview." Dimitris adds "many schools seem to neglect leadership development and organisational behaviour at the MBA level, despite these subjects being central to executive education courses." Lilly does recruit regularly at Manchester Business School. Clare Hudson, the MBS Career Director believes that "our course in soft management skills, combined with several live consulting assignments with real clients, help to develop the leadership and personal skills of our MBAs."

Warwick Business School has responded in 2005 by "introducing a compulsory course on the practice of management", to develop student soft skills, in direct response to recruiter feedback" confirms Helen Swain from the Career Service. Of course, different sectors look for different profiles. Ellen Miller at Lehman Brothers investment bank places a big emphasis on "problem solving and initiative " we want people who have been successful in their former careers, no matter what their background."

Yet, even in an industry renowned for its quantitative nature, soft skills remain key, (most of our research and pure quant roles are filled by PhDs and graduates ) MBAs tend to prefer and are best at client facing roles, be it in equities, fixed income or corporate finance."

Positive impact on the business

The TopMBA.com Recruiter Survey (conducted each year since 1990 between February and May) shows that, overall, recruiters are satisfied with MBAs, rating them 2.3 (where 3 represents highly satisfied). Ellen Miller agrees "Some of the MBAs we have hired into Lehman Brothers Europe have had a huge positive impact on the business. We monitor performance carefully, because it feeds into annual compensation. Admittedly in some years, the quality is better than others." She adds "if I have a criticism of the MBAs, it is about expectation management. We recruit only from the best business schools globally and they are a really talented pool. But some MBAs just don't fit in because their expectations are wide of the mark."

Professional experience

"Most MBA employers take the analytical and problem solving skills as a given when they look at MBAs. They really do focus on the soft skills when they make their hiring decisions."

The TopMBA.com survey also reveals that recruiters have a strong preference for MBAs with prior professional experience - 88% prefer candidates with between two and eight years of professional experience - only 4% will hire MBAs without any prior work experience. Nicky Burmester sees the prior experience as crucial, though "problems still arise with candidates who have great experience but in a completely unrelated field. An MBA does enable people to change their industry or function, but they have to bring relevant transferable skills - we didn't hire the MBA who was previously a Jeweller.

MBAs need to be realistic about how radical a career change they can make." Around the world, demand for MBAs continues to rise. Cass Business School has reported a 100% increase in on-campus recruiting in 2005 compared to 2004. Almost all UK business schools have reported positive recruitment trends this year. In this environment business school careers officers will be working hard to subdue the (arrogance) factor and encourage soft skills and the "X" factor.