MBA opportunities put African-American students on fast track careers

Black Collegian, Oct 1999 by Johnson, Brent E

It has been well documented that today's young people will probably have three to five different careers during their working years versus one or` possibly two careers (on average) for workers just a generation or two ago. In other words, nothing lasts forever is an appropriate byline for generation-next. While this may be true, students should pursue each opportunity as a career ... not just a job. An MBA degree will insure that you are prepared for a diversity of career options. It is still the degree of choice for more than 100,000 people a year.

What are your short-and long-term goals? How will an MBA degree help you to achieve those goals? You have got to have a reason in mind for pursuing the degree. Furthermore, you should conduct enough of your own research to feel confident that the MBA will help you achieve your goals. The opportunity cost involved in attending a full-time MBA program is more than enough to make you be doubly certain about pursuing the degree. Opportunity cost is usually calculated by adding lost income to debt incurred for the two-year period of matriculation. Assuming you are ready, the career opportunities continue to abound.

The lion's share of the new job opportunities can be found in the private sector of our economy, sometimes referred to as "Corporate America." As our nation has experienced phenomenal stability and growth over the past several years (witness the stock market), our economy has responded with additional employment opportunities.

The national unemployment rate has never been as consistently low as it has over the past five years. Yes, you could say we're on a roll!

For the new MBA, there are some "hot" areas of opportunity, careers where the opportunity for initial employment and growth within the field are readily available. Marketing has historically been a popular concentration for MBA students, and the field offers a number of diverse career options. The process of getting a company's product from manufacturing to the ultimate consumer is an increasingly popular area of employment. Managing the process is called channel management, and because very few companies market directly to their ultimate consumer, the links along the channel can pose some uniquely interesting situations. As the distribution outlets get larger (Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, for example), they become more important to manufacturers and can dictate terms and conditions. Managing this process has become an area of specialization in which the high demand continues to increase.

Along with our revolution in technology, we have moved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy (you are more likely to encounter some sort of customer service representative than you are a blue-collar employee). This change in our basic economy has created an additional need for people to do service marketing. What do we mean by service marketing? Selling access to the Internet, express delivery service, telecommunication services, banking, investing and other financial services are all examples of service marketing. In other words, you are marketing an intangible service versus a tangible product. The skills required to succeed in this career field are very specialized within the marketing discipline, but opportunities are plentiful.

The average age of America's citizens continues to climb upward. The concern over this significant faction of our population has created an entire career field. The technological advances in the development of new drugs, and the medical advances in treatment interventions for various diseases, have made pharmaceutical marketing and sales an area of tremendous growth. Consider how many new people Pfizer will need to hire just to get its new product, Viagra, to its clamoring customers.

Another growing field for MBAs is consulting. If you have professional work experience before pursuing your MBA and want to continue to work in the area of your experience or something closely related, you may be a prime candidate for a career in consulting. You don't need any particular area of concentration; but you do need a passion for working in a particular field. The big accounting firms' spin-off of consulting groups, as well as the traditional consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, etc.), are all experiencing double-digit growth and employment opportunities are plentiful.

Additional areas where career opportunities appear to be plentiful include financial services, specialized banking and operations management. Most companies have some kind of investment portfolio and the careers involved in managing and investing those funds are exciting and rewarding. As the country moves toward mega-banks, the breadth of services they offer becomes more and more specialized. Some areas within the bank may work exclusively with commercial developers to provide construction financing for new ventures, while others work with small business clients to provide factoring services, and still others work to develop new marketing opportunities for expanded credit-card services. Operations is another significant growth area. No matter what the business, operations people are always needed to help produce the desired results. THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine, second semester issue, always publishes a list of the largest employers expected to hire for opportunities in these and other areas.