The financial industry has long been a favorite of Harvard Business School graduates, so you would expect the mood on campus to be a bit apprehensive — especially students who are just now starting to evaluate career options for the coming year.
“Students recognize that the ground beneath them has shifted enormously,” W. Carl Kester, deputy dean for academic affairs at Harvard Business School, tells the Financial Times. “This is not just about Wall Street. There will be ripple effects in industries not related to financial services. Who knows where it will stop?”
At Yale, Columbia Business School, and MIT Sloan School of Management, the FT finds students are:
- Unsure of what the meltdown means for job offers already extended.
- Shifting employment targets from top investment banks on Wall Street to boutique firms such as Greenhill, or abandoning investment banking altogether for careers in real estate, entertainment and media, and consumer products.
- Confident careers in consulting may escape job cuts suffered in other areas, because companies will want plenty of advice on cost cutting.
Are you in business school now or thinking of applying? How have your goals changed with the current financial crisis?
