Banks try to lure MBA graduates away from Big Tech

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Going to business school enabled Alessandro Scauzillo to achieve his ambition of moving from a job in tech into banking. He is now a product manager in the online trading division of UniCredit Group.

But despite studying at MIP Politecnico di Milano, in the heart of Italy’s banking hub, he was the only member of his cohort of 29 on the full-time MBA programme to join a financial services business after graduation.

“Most people in my class wanted to start businesses,” Mr Scauzillo says.

Investment banking has lost its business school chic. Finance was the most popular career choice for MBA graduates in 2009, by 2016 it had been replaced by consulting jobs and marketing roles in other companies, according to data compiled by the Graduate Management Admission Council.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft have arrived in force on campuses, and now vacuum up the talent at many leading business schools. Big Tech made the largest group of student hires from Mr Scauzillo’s year at MIP.

The biggest recruiter at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business this year was Amazon. The US school’s top 10 hirers consisted entirely of tech companies and management consultancies.

“Banks still hire people but they have to up their game,” Bill Boulding, dean of Fuqua, says.

“If you are going to attract the current generation of students you have to give them something that has meaning and purpose, not just the opportunity to make a lot of money.”…