雇主最看重MBA應聘者的哪些技能？

Sionade Robinson has an almost impossible task. As associate director for the MBA programme at Cass Business School in London, she must manage the expectations of high achievers about where their business school degree will take them.

西奧納德•羅賓遜(Sionade Robinson)有一項幾乎不可能完成的任務。作為倫敦卡斯商學院(Cass Business School) MBA課程副主任，她必須管理優(yōu)秀學員對于商學院學位將把他們帶向何方的期望。

One student arrived in her office distraught after being rejected by a large investment bank from its fast-track management programme. They were offering just 15 places worldwide, Ms Robinson recalls.

一位學生來到她的辦公室，他感到心煩意亂，因為一家大型投行的快速通道管理層計劃拒絕了他。羅賓遜回憶說，他們在全球只有15個名額。

“People think an MBA is a golden ticket, when it is not,” she says.

她表示：“人們以為MBA是一個金獎券，實際上不是。”

Landing a job after business school has never been straightforward. But a new survey by the Financial Times could help shed light on the process. The anonymous survey reveals what skills leading employers want — and what they don’t — from MBA graduates. You can read the full methodology at FT.com/work-careers.

從商學院畢業(yè)后找到一份工作從來都不是容易的。但英國《金融時報》的一項新調(diào)查可能有助于解釋這個過程。這項匿名調(diào)查顯示出領(lǐng)先雇主希望MBA畢業(yè)生具備什么技能，以及他們最不在乎哪些技能。你可以在FT.com/work-careers查看完整的調(diào)查方法論。

Our findings suggest students should prepare themselves for a changing MBA jobs market. Our subsequent conversations with employers found graduates should be realistic about the roles for which their MBA degree alone will qualify them.

我們的調(diào)查似乎表明，學員應該為不斷變化的MBA就業(yè)市場做好準備。我們隨后與雇主的對話發(fā)現(xiàn)，畢業(yè)生應該對MBA學位本身讓他們有資格做什么工作抱有現(xiàn)實的想法。

One in three of the employers we surveyed said they struggled to find business school graduates with the right skills.

在接受我們調(diào)查的雇主中，有三分之一表示，他們很難找到具備合適技能的商學院畢業(yè)生。

The five most important skills were not core MBA subjects, such as finance and marketing, but more loosely defined qualities, or so-called soft skills, such as the ability to work with a wide variety of people (cited by 76 per cent of employers) and the ability to prioritise (cited by 72 per cent). Of these, employers said the ability among MBA graduates to manage their time effectively was the most difficult to find.

最重要的5項技能并非財務和市場營銷等MBA核心課程，而是定義更寬泛的素質(zhì)，也就是所謂的軟技能，例如與不同人工作的能力(有76%的雇主提到這點)以及區(qū)分輕重緩急的能力(72%的雇主提到)。雇主們表示，其中，在MBA畢業(yè)生中最難發(fā)現(xiàn)的能力是有效管理時間。

The findings may be explained in part by a perception gap. Employers in some sectors, such as oil and gas, civil engineering, transport and energy, see little need for senior staff to hold an MBA degree. Part of the reason, they say, is that they do not believe that business schools teach the right skills.

認知差距可能在一定程度上解釋了這些調(diào)查結(jié)果。一些行業(yè)(例如油氣、土木工程、交通和能源)的雇主認為，高層員工不怎么需要具備MBA學位。他們表示，部分原因是他們不相信商學院會傳授合用的技能。

Business schools are reacting by trying to broaden the pool of MBA employers. At Chicago’s Booth School of Business, technology companies such as Amazon and Google have overtaken management consultancies and investment banks as the biggest hirers in recent years. The school is looking for new sectors in which companies may be interested in hiring their MBAs.

商學院的反應是努力擴大MBA雇主池。在芝加哥布斯商學院(Booth School of Business)，最近幾年，亞馬遜(Amazon)和谷歌(Google)等科技公司取代管理咨詢公司和投行，成為最大雇主。該學院正在尋找可能有興趣聘用MBA的新行業(yè)。

Julie Morton, associate dean of careers services and corporate relations at Booth, says half her team of 22 are employed specifically to spread the word about the value of hiring MBA graduates. Many of the companies new to hiring MBA graduates are interested in soft skills, such as the ability to network — one of the most important skills cited in the FT survey, Ms Morton adds. The trick is convincing companies that MBA students have them. “We work with companies all the time where the MBA is not the goal,” Ms Morton says.

布斯商學院就業(yè)服務和企業(yè)關(guān)系副院長朱莉•莫頓(Julie Morton)表示，在她22人的團隊中，有一半專職宣傳聘用MBA畢業(yè)生的價值。莫頓補充稱，很多對聘用MBA畢業(yè)生不熟悉的公司對軟技能感興趣，例如拓展人脈的能力，這在此次英國《金融時報》調(diào)查中被列為最重要的技能之一。關(guān)鍵是讓企業(yè)相信，MBA學員擁有這些技能。莫頓表示：“我們一直與企業(yè)合作，即使他們對MBA無所謂也是如此。”

Several employers told the FT that MBA qualifications were not their priority. At Servest, the facilities management company, four people in senior posts have MBAs. But the company, which employs 51,000 people across the UK and South Africa, did not seek MBA graduates to fill any of these roles, according to Dennis Zietsman, Servest’s deputy chairman.

幾家雇主告訴英國《金融時報》，MBA資歷并非他們特別看重的學歷。在設(shè)施管理公司Servest，高管職位中有4人擁有MBA學位。但據(jù)副董事長丹尼斯•齊茨曼(Dennis Zietsman)介紹，在英國和南非雇用5.1萬員工的該公司，從未特意尋找MBA畢業(yè)生來填補任何高層職位。

“It’s the type of person rather than the business degree that we focus on,” he says. “[MBA graduates] have never been our star performers.”

“我們關(guān)注的是人，而不是商學位，”他表示，“(MBA畢業(yè)生)從來都不是本公司表現(xiàn)最優(yōu)秀的員工。”

Some joining the company with business masters degrees have struggled to convert theory into practice, he says. “Case studies in the MBA programmes seem to be based on big corporates, often American, which cannot be applied to smaller corporates that have cultures different to those that they’ve studied.”

他表示，帶著商業(yè)碩士學位加盟公司的一些人很難把理論應用于實踐。“MBA課程中的案例研究似乎基于大公司，而且往往是美國公司，這些案例不適用于文化不同的較小公司。”

Neither are MBA graduates a priority for the clients of Mark Butter, director of Blueprint Recruitment Solutions, a company that specialises in executive appointments for the oil and gas, marine, civil engineering, transport and energy sectors.

對于Blueprint Recruitment Solutions公司董事馬克•巴特(Mark Butter)的客戶而言，MBA畢業(yè)生也不會被優(yōu)先考慮，該公司專門從事油氣、海洋、土木工程、交通和能源行業(yè)的高管招聘。

“They are far more likely to be concerned with whether the candidate has industry qualifications, such as being a chartered engineer,” Mr Butter says.

巴特表示：“他們更有可能關(guān)心候選人是否具備專業(yè)對口的資質(zhì)，例如注冊工程師。”

Adrian O’Connor, founding director of Global Accounting Network, which helps with appointments of qualified accounting professionals up to finance director level, says an MBA is a “nice to have” rather than a sought-after qualification.

幫助合格會計專業(yè)人士找到財務總監(jiān)職位的Global Accounting Network的創(chuàng)始董事阿德里安•歐康納(Adrian O’Connor)表示，MBA“有也不錯”，但不是受追逐的資質(zhì)。

Some clients will accept an MBA instead of an accounting qualification, Mr O’Connor notes. “This is particularly true in either the more commercial finance roles, or indeed at board level.”

歐康納表示，一些客戶會接受沒有會計學歷的MBA畢業(yè)生。“在比較側(cè)重于商業(yè)金融的職位或者董事級別，尤其如此。”

The FT research suggests there may be an opportunity for business schools to market graduates more effectively among companies not used to hiring at this level. Even among Mr O’Connor’s clients, the perception is that business school graduates are good at networking — listed in our survey as among the five most important skills to employers.

FT調(diào)查似乎表明，商學院或許有機會更有效地向不習慣聘用高級別應聘者的企業(yè)推銷它們的畢業(yè)生。就連在奧康納的客戶中，普遍的印象也是商學院畢業(yè)生善于建立人際網(wǎng)——在我們的調(diào)查中，這一條被列在企業(yè)最看重的5個技能中。

MBAs hear very often that they are special during their courses — when coming back to business, reality often hits them hard

MBA的學生在課堂上常常聽到老師說他們是特別人才——在回到商界后，現(xiàn)實往往給予他們沉重的打擊

survey respondent ——————調(diào)查受訪者

Often, MBAs do not have much patience. When companies hire them, the MBAs have been off the market for between one and two years. It takes time to integrate and learn about a new company

MBA的畢業(yè)生往往沒有多少耐心。當企業(yè)聘用他們時，MBA的畢業(yè)生已經(jīng)脫離市場一到兩年了。他們需要時間融入并了解新公司

SURVEY RESPONDENT ——————調(diào)查受訪者

“Clients view it as a strong testimonial of someone’s intelligence and ability to apply that,” Mr O’Connor says.

“客戶把這視為應聘者具備并且有能力運用智慧的強有力證明，”奧康納表示。

Ilona Drozd is campus recruiter for the online travel site Expedia in Europe. The company became interested in hiring MBAs for senior strategy roles in part because many of its board directors were MBA graduates, Ms Drozd says.

伊洛娜•德羅茲德(Ilona Drozd)是在線旅游網(wǎng)站億客行(Expedia)歐洲區(qū)的校園招聘官。她表示，該公司開始有意聘用MBA畢業(yè)生擔任高級戰(zhàn)略崗位，部分是因為很多董事會董事都是MBA畢業(yè)生。

Despite this, Expedia does not have a specific graduate programme for recruits with an MBA. This year the company, which employs more than 20,000 people worldwide, hired just nine MBA graduates in the UK and three in the US.

盡管如此，億客行并沒有針對MBA畢業(yè)生的特定招聘計劃。在全球擁有超過2萬名員工的該公司，今年在英國和美國分別聘用了9名和3名MBA畢業(yè)生。

The most common reason for rejecting applicants coming in at the senior level, where an MBA graduate would typically aspire to start within an organisation, is a lack of cultural fit and an inability to solve complicated problems, according to Ms Drozd.

德羅茲德表示，在高級職位(MBA畢業(yè)生通常希望在較高級別進入一家企業(yè))上拒絕應聘者最常見的原因是，不具備文化契合度和解決復雜問題的能力。

Soft skills, such as teamwork, are important but they are not enough, she adds. “The ideal candidate is someone we would like to have long term, which means they have to really want to work at Expedia.”

她補充稱，團隊協(xié)作之類的軟技能很重要，但還不夠。“理想的應聘者是我們希望長期聘用的那類人，這意味著他們必須真的想在億客行工作。”

Kevin Marvinac is both an MBA graduate and chief operating officer at TransparentCareer, a database of salary data for people hired from business schools, which is aimed at helping MBA graduates hone their search to find the ideal job.

凱文•馬爾維納茨(Kevin Marvinac)是MBA畢業(yè)生，也是TransparentCareer的首席運營官。這是一個為商學院畢業(yè)生提供薪資信息的數(shù)據(jù)庫，旨在幫助MBA畢業(yè)生找到理想工作。

He believes that an MBA is helpful in securing a rewarding senior executive role, but admits that it is not sufficient in industries where people are also expected to have certain technical skills or experience. The FT survey found big data analysis, for example, was one of the hardest skills to recruit.

他認為MBA學位有助于找到一份回報優(yōu)厚的高管職位，但承認，在應聘者還需要具備某些技術(shù)技能或經(jīng)驗的行業(yè)，只有MBA學位是不夠的。比如FT調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，大數(shù)據(jù)分析是最難招聘到的技能之一。

“It is really hard to be a product manager at a tech company, for instance, if you don’t know how to code,” Mr Marvinac says.

“如果你一點都不懂怎么編寫代碼，那是很難在科技公司擔任產(chǎn)品經(jīng)理的，”馬爾維納茨表示。

Too much tactical execution and not enough big-picture thinking 戰(zhàn)術(shù)執(zhí)行方面搞得煞有介事，大局思維意識不足

Survey respondent ——————調(diào)查受訪者

The ability to deal with ambiguity is missing 缺乏對付模棱兩可問題的能力

survey respondent ——————調(diào)查受訪者

Find the full methodology and add your comments at FT.com/work-careers

你可以在FT.com/work-careers查看完整的調(diào)查方法論并發(fā)表意見。

About the survey 關(guān)于調(diào)查

The FT asked 48 employers what professional skills they want — but cannot find — in MBA graduates. We surveyed leading businesses around the world, chosen for their popularity as recruiters. They are headquartered in all continents and in countries including Brazil, China and Nigeria as well as Europe and the US.

FT詢問了48家雇主：他們需要MBA畢業(yè)生具備哪些專業(yè)技能——卻找不到?我們調(diào)查了世界各地的領(lǐng)先企業(yè)——依據(jù)它們作為招聘方的受歡迎程度選定。這些企業(yè)的總部分布在各大洲的多個國家，比如巴西、中國、尼日利亞以及歐洲和美國。

The businesses were spread across 12 sectors, among them e-commerce, industry and finance. We kept the responses anonymous.

這些企業(yè)涉及12個行業(yè)，包括電子商務、工業(yè)和金融。受訪者都是以匿名方式接受調(diào)查。

We asked the companies to rate 29 so-called soft and hard skills according to importance and how difficult they are to hire. The skills most and least valued by the surveyed companies are presented in the graphics.

我們讓企業(yè)依據(jù)重要性和招聘難度來評比29項軟技能和硬技能。受訪企業(yè)最重視和最不在意的技能都呈現(xiàn)在圖表里。

We intend to expand and improve the survey in 2018. If you have comments and suggestions, or you are an MBA employer who would like to take part, email [email protected]

我們有意在2018年擴大和改進這項調(diào)查。如果你有任何意見或建議，或者你是愿意參與調(diào)查的MBA雇主，請發(fā)送郵件至[email protected]