Oct 5, 2017 - Economy

Amazon sinks its teeth into MBA recruiting

Axios

Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon. Photo: Reed Saxon / AP

"Amazon.com is flooding the zone at business-school recruiting events — drawing overflow crowds and irking other recruiters," writes Wall Street Journal's Kelsey Gee.

The takeaway: "Many big banks and consulting firms now want to know when Amazon is coming to campus so they can schedule their visits for a different day and avoid going head-to-head for an audience."

"Amazon has hired some 1,000 M.B.A.s in the past year ... a drop in the bucket for a company that plans to add 50,000 software developers in the next year."
"The talent wars begin even before classes do. This past June, Amazon sponsored an event at its Seattle headquarters for 650 soon-to-be first-year and returning women M.B.A. students, some of whom left the event with internship offers for summer 2018."
Why it matters: "Tech companies, once averse to hiring PowerPoint-loving B-school grads, have embraced them in the past few years."
Miriam Park, Amazon's director of university programs, "said business students understand Amazon's customer-obsessed ethos and tend to be 'risk oriented,' scrappy and analytical."
How they do it: "Amazon's campus recruiters descend en masse and are in almost-constant touch with students ... Amazon might have eight or 10 alumni working large events or hosting coffee meetings for one-on-one conversations with students, compared with a typical one or two presenters from other companies. 'It's been a huge volume play.'"

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Amazon sinks its teeth into MBA recruiting

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