The benefits of graduating with an M.B.A. this year are a far cry from just a few years ago when six-figure salary offers were fairly common. Now, job offers are harder to land as Wall Street attempts to reinvent itself during this recession. As a result, business schools are seeing a surge in graduates from M.B.A. programs such as Harvard and New York University who are deciding to start their own businesses, according to BusinessWeek.
But starting a new business has its challenges, as venture capital funding is harder to come by as investors become far more discerning about what startups they bankroll. The Deal's senior writer Mary Kathleen Flynn recently wrote: "VC investment plunged to a 12-year low, and the number of new funds hit a five-year low." Specifically, that 12-year low came in at just $3 billion, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.
Many M.B.A. programs have recognized that venture capital funding has been declining while the ambitions of entrepreneurs increase, and so they have started their own summer business incubators, business plan competitions and other programs that focus on entrepreneurship to cater to the growing demand.
"Students are looking out over the horizon and saying, 'You know what, there may be no job waiting for me when I graduate,' " Bernhard Schroeder, director of the Entrepreneurial Management Center at San Diego State University's College of Business, told BusinessWeek. Schroeder commented that membership in the school's entrepreneurship club has tripled this year. "This recession is showing them that they can't trust anyone with their career," he observed. - Gerald Magpily
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