Career Expectations and Perceptions of Part-Time MBA Students

In the U.S., part-time MBA students regard work/life balance as the critical factor that drives career expectations and perceptions. Job aspects and benefits/compensation closely follow in importance, while employee relations are valued less. Within work/life balance, students value job location, travel time, and telecommuting. Promotional opportunities and annual salary are critical factors in job aspects and benefits/compensation, respectively. Students expect to remain in their next position 2-4 years, and most will not take a job outside of their specialty. The majority expect at least semi-annual evaluations through conversations with their superiors, evaluations based upon their work's end product, and performance as the primary criteria for rewards and promotions. These results have important implications for recruiters, professors, and advisors. Literature Review Over the past few decades, several studies note a shift in students' work values and expectations compared to the generations before them (Loughlin & Barling, 2001; Ng & Burke, 2006; Smola & Sutton, 2002). For example, in the 1950's, American graduates focused on promotional opportunities, high salaries, and job security, while students in the 1960's focused on the meaning of life, and students of the 1970's and 1980's directed their careers towards individual achievement and reward. In the 1980's, students indicated their primary concerns for choosing a career path were future earning potential, promotional opportunities and employer location (Parmley, Parmley & Wooton, 1987). In the 1990's, students' primary concerns for choosing a particular career path focused on promotion, challenge and responsibility, working conditions and the type of work (Devlin & Petersen, 1994). Students at the turn of the century appear to be following in the footsteps of their parents--or are they? With the changing global landscape, as well as changes in the traditional family norms in Western culture, future research is necessary to understand the career expectations of current students and the implications these student expectations have for organizations, recruiters and managers (Jarlstrom, 2000; Kirrane & Ryan, 2000; Rose, 2001; Ng & Burke, 2006). Several studies exist on student career expectations in relation to (1) choosing a career and company, (2) global and cultural issues, (3) gender issues, (4) differences for specific business functions, (5) recruitment, and (6) promotion, length of employment, ideal job acceptance, and the job search process. In the early 1990's in both the United States and New Zealand, with respect to their first position following college, students placed high priority on long-term career oriented attributes, such as promotion and self-development (Devlin & Peterson, 1994). Do today's students still place high value on long-term career oriented attributes? What are the current perceptions? As recently as 2008, in a study of first semester MBA students in a western U.S. University, students' primary attribute for choosing a career was an individual emphasis on self-development, specifically favoring career benefits and wealth as leading factors (Ng, Burke, and Fidsenbaum, 2008). Family and non-family issues in career selection were not predictors of career decisions. Similarly, in a large study of Canadian undergraduate business students, students who participated in a cooperative exchange with a business had more realistic work expectations and a better understanding of their own abilities (Ng & Burke, 2006). Cooperative students placed a greater emphasis on 'work' and 'people' dimensions of a firm and less on the firm's reputation and benefits. For Canadian business students, good people to work with, reputation of the firm in the form of commitment to social responsibility, challenging work, and job security were critical factors of importance to students in obtaining their desired job and organizational attributes (Ng & Burke, 2006). …

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