The Monroe Street Journal

Issue date: 4/6/09 Section: Features

Almost unbelievably, we are within weeks of the end of the school year. For graduating students, this is, of course, quite a bittersweet time as the end of one experience gives way to the excitement and uncertainty of another. Graduating during such historical economic times will forever be one of the marks of the graduates of 2009. Conducting a job search during times like this has been a momentous challenge. The grace and dedication with which so very many of you have handled this adversity and with which you continue to work toward your goals has been nothing short of inspirational for those of us in Career Services and in Student Affairs broadly. You represent the best that Ross has to teach and it is your resolve that keeps us working to support you in any way that we can with corporate outreach, personal counseling, pep talks and advice as needed so that we can help you to add that final piece of your overall Ross experience.

Without regard to when you ultimately conclude your career search, we will continue to be here working on your behalf and making ourselves available to you to help in whatever way we can. In the short term, we will continue our outreach and solicitation to companies, alumni, faculty and MAP sponsors as we leverage as many of the Ross community resources as possible to enhance your own significant efforts.

The current data reflect the challenges that so many of you are working through. While we are fortunate to have actually fared better than many of our peers, until each of you have settled into a position where you can deploy the skills and philosophies that you have acquired here in Ann Arbor, we won't stop working on your behalf.

As of Friday, 27 March, with 84% of the MBA class reporting data, 68% of those responding indicate having received an offer. With the same % of the class reporting last year at this time, 81% indicated that a job offer was in hand. That decline of 63 students with an offer is focused disproportionately in the international student population where a decline of 45 students with offers makes up 3/4 of the overall decline. To date, we have not seen rescissions from the companies en masse, but the rescissions that have occurred have been almost exclusively to international students. I urge everyone to leverage whatever connections they have to ensure that your future employers understand how to open their doors to your classmates who keep us globally fresh at great personal expense. They'll be better for it.

Continued...

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