Recruiter Interest And Starting Salaries Surge For UB Mbas

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Preliminary job-placement statistics for the UB MBA Class of '99 are very promising, according to staff of the Career Resource Center in the School of Management.

Thirty MBA students have been hired to date at an average starting salary of $50,300, with four of the students reporting starting salaries of more than $65,000. If this trend continues, it would mark a dramatic upturn in starting salaries for UB MBAs, compared to the average salaries of 1997 and 1998 graduates, which were about $41,000 and $42,000, respectively.

Among the Class of '99, one student fielded six job offers -- and turned down several other interview opportunities -- accepting a position with IBM in Boulder, Colo. Other students, like Lauren Israel of Somers, N.Y., had two or three job offers in their pockets.

Israel benefited from increased demand in the hottest of MBA job markets -consulting --and fielded three offers from big-name firms before accepting a position with Arthur Andersen Business Consulting.

Cynthia Shore, assistant dean and director of the Career Resource Center, said her office has experienced a busier recruiting season than usual, with most of the increased activity coming from companies seeking to fill multiple positions. It's been so busy that she's had to book extra meeting space for on-campus interviews.

"The big boys are definitely back and are eager to hire lots of talent," Shore said, referring to the large firms that visited campus with several positions to fill. "We're very pleased with the quality and the salaries of the positions. Many of our students have landed great jobs."

While some of the increased recruiter activity is attributable to marketplace trends, Shore and her staff have helped to spark recruiter interest by aggressively marketing students' capabilities to blue-chip companies, which usually offer the most attractive positions at the most attractive salaries.

GE, for instance, already has hired five UB MBAs from the Class of '99, M&T Bank has hired two and EDS-Enterprise Solutions has hired 11 UB students, at both the MBA and undergraduate levels.

Praxair, Inc., which traditionally has hired MBA students only from Harvard, Northwestern and other top-10 business schools, has hired one UB MBA from the Class of '99. Impressed with the quality of all the UB candidates, the company has committed to an annual recruitment stop in the School of Management.

Other companies that have hired UB Class of '99 MBA students to date include National City Bank, Xerox, Fisher Price, Dun and Bradstreet, IBM, Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and Paine Webber.