How European Business Schools are Creating Career Opportunities for their MBAs

When it comes to applying for an MBA, a perennial debate is whether prospective students should choose a traditional two-year course or a shorter one. There are a great many advantages to a breezier degree — not least the savings on tuition fees and having to sacrifice fewer months of your annual salary. But, it does mean students can miss out on the summer internship, a well-established route to a post-MBA job.

Are students on one-year programs at a disadvantage in the jobs market? “Many firms today only source their MBA hires from the pool of interns,” says Jeff McNish, career development director for University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. This is particularly true of investment banks and consulting firms. MBA internships are usually between six and 12 weeks long, and are a good way for employers and students to test-run each other.

But Keith Bevans, head of recruitment at Bain & Company, disagrees, saying that although the firm’s official 12-week internship program is important, there are other routes into the consultancy firm. “There is a well-established set of schools that have a custom internship, like Kellogg and Columbia, so we are familiar with fitting our internship around different schools,” Bevans says.

“What’s important is that you get too see people doing the job in a live environment, even if that’s just for five days,” he adds.

Nevertheless, concerns around internships have led business schools with shorter MBA programs to forge closer links with businesses.

“We need to prepare students for what the market needs and the only way is to develop relationships with firms to understand their challenges and integrate that into the curriculum,” says Brandon Kirby, MBA admissions director at Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands.

“What companies want now has changed compared with 10 years ago — for example there’s a greater focus on data analysis and technology.” 

At RSM, students on the 12-month MBA can opt to prolong the program by three months to complete an internship, typically between December and March, with companies including the brewing giant Heineken. Around 30% of the students opt to do the extra time. Julia De Vargas-Marquez, MBA career services director with IMD in Switzerland, says that opportunities for students to showcase their skills to corporations can make them more employable.

As part of the 12-month course at IMD, students take part in an International Consulting Project for seven weeks in September through November, in which they solve real challenges posed by companies in small teams. To date, IMD students have carried out more than 600 projects.

“It’s not rare that MBAs are offered a position within the companies they consult,” De Vargas-Marquez says. “Our MBAs also get to present to senior people and interact with different parts of the business.”

In addition, IMD has used its close-knit alumni network, forged from a smaller and more experienced than average MBA cohort, to broker bespoke internships with a large technology employer, rather than the formal 12-week program the employer usually offers.

“One of our alums who has a senior role in this organisation was able to offer an assignment to a group of our MBAs for four weeks in August,” De Vargas-Marquez says.

The need to offer more employment opportunity has become more pertinent for European schools because of the rise of specialist master’s degrees, such as the Master’s in Management (MIM), on the Continent.

“You can do an MiM for cheaper than an MBA and gain similar technical skills, but technical skills become less relevant as you progress in your job,” says RSM’s Kirby. “That’s where the leadership skills taught on an MBA, and the ability to manage different personalities, comes in. If you just know how to crunch numbers, you will not get very far.”

With more employers demanding practical rather than academic experience, the growth of internships and international consulting projects will likely grow. Kirby says: “Top employers all want social skills — leadership and presentation, for example — and that’s something we are increasingly integrating further into the MBA.”