Why Do You Hate MBAs?

For some reason recruiters and HR professionals don’t like MBAs. But if I subtract out the cocky bankers, and remove the rankings B.S. that for some reason, companies use to rule MBA recruiting, there’s actually some pretty great MBA talent in a number of disciplines…including HR.

There aren’t many schools that have strong HR programs or emphases–Cornell, Michigan and Vanderbilt are among the few. But while most HR types won’t argue that we’re constantly fighting a battle to be seen as strategic and value-add, many will be surprised that it’s a Business School and two companies working to change this.
It seems like every business school has a case competition. But no business school has ever launched a human capital case competition…until now. At Vanderbilt (Owen Graduate School of Management), we have a ton of active clubs, including the Human and Organizational Performance Association (HOPA). HOPA is the club for students who are concentrating in HOP and may work in HR, HR consulting or something human capital. And while finance and accounting types like to scoff at us, we’re about to leave them in the dust.
Today, Vanderbilt solidified sponsorship for the first-ever Human Capital case competition at a business school. It will be held in September 2007 and co-sponsored by GE and Deloitte and will carry a $20,000 cash prize for the winning team. Yep, I said $20,000. I’m no finance whiz but I do know you can buy alot of Blackberrys with $20K.
Seriously though, we’re excited about this becasue it won’t just be an HR case competition. After all, HR problems are never JUST HR problems. It will be a case focused on a challenging human capital issue in business –often the issues in the way of success: hiring challenges in the the wake of a labor shortage, creating an employment brand for a growing business, staffing up quickly to support rapid growth, talent management in the wake of a merger etc. So we’ll encourage teams to be diverse in expertise (i.e., HR, finance, strategy, marketing).
Will this change the HR world? Will it help employers take a fresh look at MBA recruiting? Maybe, maybe not. But we’re just looking for your attention. Once we get it, it’s easy to make the case why HR talent and MBA talent might just be the best combination a recruiter’s ever seen.
Susan Strayer
http://www.susanstrayer.com
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This CollegeRecruiter.com Blogswap article is courtesy of Recruiting.com and CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students and recent graduates who are searching for internships and entry level jobs.