MBAs’ new ways to find jobs

MBA careers advisers have never had more technology at their fingertips than now. With several companies, usually start-ups by MBA alumni, offering their services to universities’ careers departments, technology is influencing how business school graduates find their first job.

These are three examples of companies – all founded by former business school graduates – that have made a business of matching employers with MBA graduates and supporting careers departments:

Vmoc

Vmock describes itself as “a SMART Career Analytics company whose products are being used by global educational institutions including most of the premiere Business schools across Europe and US, including Stanford, Kellogg, Chicago Booth, LBS, Insead and many others”.

The company uses a CV feedback system that works with machine learning predictive analytics and artificial intelligence techniques. The goal is to help MBA students develop high-quality résumés. The company’s algorithms compare students’ CVs with those created by thousands of successful job hunters: The system then suggests edits and improvements. According to the Financial Times (FT) the company – which was founded in 2009 by Chicago-based Salil and Kiran Pande, is used by more than 100 higher education institutions. 17 of the top 20 business schools on the FT MBA ranking list pay an annual subscription for Vmock’s software, starting at US$19.95 per student user.

www.vmock.com

12Twenty

Another offer stems from 12Twenty which was founded by Kenny Berlin and Adam Levitt. This LA-based start-up supports the school’s careers team track MBA hiring activity and provides students with data on salaries and interview processes for different companies. According to the company’s website careers departments can post jobs and build job boards, create on-campus and company events and track attendees using mobile QR code check-in as well as coordinate on campus recruiting. Most important the company also connect employers with the most qualified students and creates downloadable resume books.

www.12twenty.com

TransparentCareer

TransparentCareer started out as a class project for a coding class at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2016. Mitch Kirby, co-founder and CEO of TransparentCareer wanted better data on what different companies paid MBAs, how happy they were, and ultimately how different choices would impact careers long-term. So, he decided to build a better compensation and culture platform, and created TransparentCareer.

“When we released it to some friends and classmates, it took off immediately and within months became the largest source of MBA compensation and culture data in existence,” according to the company’s website. Today nearly half of all MBA students in the US use TransparentCareer claims the company. TransparentCareer offers the reverse model as well, explaining that ”for employers, we take the same data-driven approach to help them find, hire, and retain the best business talent in the country”.