The Corporate Ivy League?
Robert Li has a great piece in the YDN today focusing on the lack of corporate recruiters at Yale and other Ivy League schools. Robert argues that more Yalies need to be targeting corporate positions. While he does make an excellent point – that Yale’s UCS focuses on consulting and investment banking positions to the detriment of students looking to explore other avenues – I think he does overstate his argument a bit.
Sadly, the University seems to care little in helping students clear those clouds. Maybe they themselves understand little better. President Levin told the News in the same December 2005 article that “if industrial companies really want to attract Yale-quality caliber, they’re going to have to pay more to make their jobs competitive.” So many of us follow the same logic when it comes to a career choice.
Robert proceeds to argue that there are jobs in other sectors that can impart students with the same benefits as the glamorous careers in i-banking and consulting. This, however, doesn’t seem to jive with reality. This current recession notwithstanding, there seems to be a sizeable gap between how much someone can earn off-the-bat at a place like McKinsey or Boston Consulting Group (darlings of the consulting world), and a company like Coca-Cola or Nike (traditionally considered top destinations among employers in the Consumer Products space). There are other interesting problems to consider – many consultants choose to jump ship when enticed by lucrative offers from these same large corporations that they eschew upon graduation. Similarly, the ease of transitioning from a consulting company or bulge-bracket hedge fund to a specific corporation is easier than the reverse; in other words, the choices made by Yalies are made to preserve their flexibility later on in their careers.
This is not to denigrate the larger point of Robert’s article, nor the tangible benefits of working at a Coca-Cola or Nike rather than a BCG or a JP Morgan. The shifting economy will certainly realign incentives; the degree to which this occurs remains to be seen.
Tags: finance