Unemployed MBAs Seeking Help in Support Groups

The current economic recession has brought with it a new trend for recent b-school graduates: support groups.

According to BusinessWeek, "In the last year or two, dozens of job search support clubs, often called 'job accountability' groups, have sprung up on MBA campuses across the country." Some groups are led by campus career services and others are informal student-led groups, but they provide job-hunting MBAs with the same services, from resume critiquing to giving interview advice to sharing networking opportunities.

There is good reason for the birth of such groups, as evidenced by a few statistics from a recent Stanford Daily article about MBA graduate employment stats:

• An impressive 98 percent of Stanford GSB grads received job offers three months after graduating in 2005-2008. For the class of 2009, the number dropped to 90 percent.
• In 2005-2008, 93 percent of Stanford GSB grads accepted job offers within three months of graduating; only 85 percent of 2009 grads had accepted employment offers within the same timeframe, showing that while MBAs are still receiving offers, they may not be lucrative enough to justify their b-school education -- or to make a dent in their student loans.
• At Haas School of Business, 85.4 percent of the class of 2009 received job offers three months after graduation; the number was 95 percent from 2006-2008.

Emotionally, it has been really helpful. When it's been 20-odd degrees out there every day and cold, it gives you a warm and fuzzy human feeling to talk to people. It's a support structure, so you don't feel like you're alone and the only one out of work.