A couple interesting BusinessWeek articles

For those of you who might have questions about the newly-structured BBA Program, there are a couple of interesting and useful articles in BusinessWeek:

• “Big Changes for Michigan BBAs”, September 27, 2006: An interview with Michele Thompson, head of Ross Undergraduate Admissions.
• “A "Luxurious Position" at Michigan”, April 17, 2006: An interview with Al Cotrone, director of the Office of Career Development at Ross.

Taken together, these articles provide a lot of clarifying detail about getting into the program, about the program itself, and about getting a job after graduating.

While I don’t have anything to add to the articles themselves, I am going to take the opportunity and reply to a couple of the more uninformed comments at the end of the Thompson interview:

• We have lots of reasons for having a direct admit program, and copying Indiana’s program (or anyone else’s) was certainly not on the list. We added this because we wanted to provide attractive, high-performing high school students with another option. UM’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions had told us for many years that this would be an attractive option for high school students. They have the option of going to MIT and Wharton directly out of high school. We wanted to give the cream of the high school crop the opportunity to apply directly to Ross — given the quality of the applications that we received and the quality of the students who matriculated here this fall, I am happy to report that we have exceeded our expectations (in no small part due to the efforts of Ms. Thompson). Further, we are not going to be going to 100% direct admissions because we know that many students do not decide to go into business until after they get to college.
• As for the size of our courses: Core courses have 70 students, while electives usually have between 25 and 50 (usually around 40). I’m an associate professor and head of the BBA Program, and I have office hours twice a week for the students in my sections of the core.
• Related to the BBA and MBA: If you get a Ross BBA, then you may or may not need an MBA. It all depends on your desired employer. Some companies require that their employees get an MBA as a prerequisite to moving up in management. Others don’t care about it at all. For others, getting certified as a financial analyst or a CPA is what is really needed in order to advance. It just depends. A typical Ross BBA shouldn’t worry about this type of thing until several years out of school; he or she is very well prepared to succeed in his or her job immediately after graduating. The BBA is neither simply a preparatory degree for receiving an MBA nor a deterrent to getting admitted into an MBA program. It is simply an undergraduate degree that is also very good at preparing a student to succeed in business. Further, it is an excellent preparation for law school or graduate studies in public policy. We have an excellent track record at placing students in the best programs in the country in these fields of study.

So, that’s it for now. If you are interested, or if you have a friend or family member who is interested in the Ross BBA Program, pass along these links.

Important attributes recruiters look for

In a Wall Street Journal article from September 20, 2006 entitled “M.B.A. Survey: Something Old, Something New” discussing the WSJ ranking of schools granting an MBA, Ronald Alsop reported the percentage of recruiters who ranked an attribute as “very important” to them:

89.0	Communication and interpersonal skills
86.9	Ability to work well within a team
86.2	Personal ethics and integrity
84.3	Analytical and problem-solving skills
82.9	Work ethic
74.5	Fit with the corporate culture
74.0	Success with past hires
72.5	Leadership potential
67.1	Strategic thinking
64.9	Likelihood of recruiting “stars”
53.9	Willingness of students to relocate to the required job location
50.7	Well-rounded
43.2	Student “chemistry”
38.0	Content of the core curriculum
35.7	Students’ years of work experience
31.7	Overall value for the money invested in the recruiting effort
29.0	Incorporates experiential learning into the curriculum
27.1	Career-services office
25.9	Faculty expertise
21.0	Students’ international knowledge and experience
16.7	Commitment to corporate social responsibility

As someone closely affiliated with the Ross BBA Program, I found the above very interesting. While these are recruiters’ opinions related to hiring MBAs, these also apply quite nicely to BBAs, and should tell BBAs a lot about what they should focus on both inside and outside of the classroom. Let’s look at those attributes that at least 70% of recruiters thought was very important:

Communication and interpersonal skills

Your writing and speaking skills, and your experience working with a team getting things done. And working on a team not necessarily just as a leader, but also as a good team player.

Ability to work well within a team

This is amazingly important to companies. Most of your work, actually all of your work, involves working on teams. The more experience you can gain working in teams, the better you’ll be.

Personal ethics and integrity

It is a better situation by far to not have any ethical problems appear in your work or school record. Do not take the easy way out. At the end of the day, your integrity is all that you have. Don’t do anything to devalue it.

Analytical and problem-solving skills

This is one area in which our curriculum really gives the students a workout. We do this over and over again, in many different forms. Our BBA graduates should be top-notch by the time they graduate.

Work ethic

The more that you can show that you are diligent, organized, and committed to getting the job done, the more employers will be interested in you.

Fit with the corporate culture

This is what fly-backs are all about. This is also what internships are all about. Every day is an interview. They want to see what kind of person you are, and if you are a good “fit”. They’re not worried about whether you’re smart enough, they want to know if they want to have you around the office for a few years.

Success with past hires

Everything past hires (and past interviewees) have done influence what recruiters think about Ross. That is why you should be on your best behavior when you are interacting with recruiters. You’re not just influencing how the company feels about you — you’re influencing how the recruiter feels about Ross.

Leadership potential

Many times this comes shining through (or doesn’t!) in your extracurriculars.

What does this tell us? BBAs should work at their teamwork skills, their communication skills, and their analytical skills. They should work on doing “good works”. And they should look for experiences outside the classroom in which they can exercise and develop their leadership ability. This sounds like a good plan, and one which BBAs would be good to think about.

The top business schools: Recruiters' MBA picks

The Wall Street Journal just came out with its annual ranking of business schools. This ranking is based on evaluations by over 4000 recruiters (completed in early 2006). Ross again did well, ranking #1 for the second time in the last three years. While this is a ranking of MBA programs, it is the ranking that is most closely related to the BBA program. As such I see it as something that I am proud of and think reflects well on the BBA Program. I covered this topic the last time the WSJ ranked us #1, and I’ll repeat my comments here:

...We sell recruiters on the “one-stop-shopping” nature of the University. If they want MBAs, we got ’em; if they want BBAs, we got ’em; if they want engineering students, we got ’em; ditto for LS&A, computing, English, etc. Having a BBA program makes the University more attractive to recruiters than it would be otherwise. And it’s not like the BBA program is the weak sibling of the bunch: it's always ranked in the top 3 or so of any list that I’ve ever seen.

Furthermore, if recruiters come here for MBAs and like, they are (more than likely) also here recruiting BBAs and enjoying the services of our top-notch Career Development office. Speaking of which, the high-quality service of OCD is shared by BBAs and MBAs alike. All of the corporate relationships and alumni and data that are available for MBAs are naturally available to BBAs. This means that you are the beneficiary of services that wouldn’t be there were it not for the fact that we have to support such a large number of students (BBA, Day MBA, evening MBA, MAcc).

Thus, while this ranking isn’t for the BBA Program, students in that program benefit from it.

I gotta tell you, it’s really nice to be able to re-run (with reasonable frequency) text that I use to celebrate one #1 ranking in another column celebrating another #1 ranking. It’s an abundance of riches that we have around here.

Why money doesn’t bring happiness

There was a recent press release by the UM News Service entitled “Why money doesn’t buy happiness”. This summarizes a study published in a recent issue of Science. Here’s a few comments from the author:

Citing evidence from a nationwide survey of a representative sample of people they conducted recently, they noted that people with greater income tend to devote relatively more time to work, compulsory non-work activities (such as shopping and childcare) and active leisure (such as exercise) and less time to passive leisure (such as watching TV and just relaxing).

“When someone reflects on how more income would change subjective well-being, they are probably tempted to think about spending more time in leisurely pursuits such as watching a large-screen plasma TV or playing golf,” the authors wrote. “But in reality, people should think of spending a lot more time working and commuting and a lot less time engaged in passive leisure and other enjoyable activities.”

BBAs should think about this when thinking about a career. Certainly it’s the case that, all other things being equal, it’s better to have more money than less. The point of the article seems to be that it’s rarely the case that all other things are equal. It’s up to each individual to determine what trade-offs between earning money and other activities are appropriate.

Giving of yourself

I was just watching a show on The Food Network (while I’m waiting to watch the UM/ND football game) that had a great lesson for BBAs. It told the story of a working mom who quit her job and wanted to become a chef. She did not have any background in cooking (other than cooking for family and friends) — just like BBAs have little background in business when looking for their first jobs (other than the education they receive here and any experience they might have from internships). After a bunch of looking, she found a cooking school where she donated her time to help out the chefs in the kitchen. She wasn’t looking for anything other than a way to learn about the business. She quickly attracted a mentor. Her mentor was excited to work with her because she came with the attitude that she was looking for ways in which she could help, doing whatever was necessary, instead of looking for ways in which she could shine.

She donated her time and learned from professionals for four years. When a position opened at the restaurant next door (owned by the owner of the cooking school), they offered her the job. Why? Because they had observed her for four years. They knew her work. They knew her working ethic and her attitude. It was a natural fit.

BBAs should think about this approach. Go into a job with a humble attitude. Look for ways that you can help. Know that you are competent and able to contribute but that you are a beginner. Realize how much that you have to learn from people who have been doing their jobs for years. Think about and work on giving of yourself, and you might be surprised by the gifts you receive.