M.B.A. grads face daunting job market

From MarketWatch.com

Fresh M.B.A. grads, especially those working for large banks, say they are living in a climate of fear.

"I feel lucky that I still have a job at this point because I've seen so many people lose them," said Deepa Pai, who recently obtained her master's degree from Northwestern University, and now works for Bank of America in New York, the company that bought Merrill Lynch as the credit crisis was unfolding.

As this type of upheaval became commonplace on Wall Street, a dicey reality emerged for young M.B.A.s. Read more on Wall Street's job woes.

"A lot of people are looking for a job whether they have one or not because they don't know what's going to happen with banks and the economy," Pai said. "I feel like the [job] recruiting process didn't end."

Turmoil in the stock market and decreased opportunities at big banks directly affect a lot of classic M.B.A. career paths, according to Steven Goodwin, an independent Washington-based education and career-strategy specialist.

He said he's received a surge of phone calls from nervous workers who obtained degrees over the past few years. Many of these former students are forced to broaden their job search and lower their standards, a move labor economists say trickles down and strikes people at the lowest rung of the ladder.

In general, students who settle for a lower position during an economic downturn rarely make up the financial differences in the long term, according to Lisa Kahn, a Yale University economist who studies the intersection of employer practices and external labor market factors. M.B.A.s are a unique subset of these students because most of them worked for several years before going back to school.

While it's too soon to tell how many people's career hopes have been dampened by the Wall Street crisis, it's likely that many M.B.A.s who wanted to work in the financial sector took jobs elsewhere -- or don't have a job at all. These individuals will have a lower financial trajectory over the course of their lifetimes, Kahn said.

"I definitely thought that getting out [into the working world] would be a time to focus on making long-term connections at the bank," Pai said. "But now I think I just need to focus on what I can do over the next six months to make sure I don't get laid off."

There is a small silver lining. "The people who do survive this in the banking sector will have a promising career," Pai said.