The Telfer schoool's Philip McIlkenny. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Having an MBA on a resume doesn't mean much if there isn't real-world experience to back it up

David Perry, executive recruiter for Perry-Martel International, knows what HR managers and other recruiters look for in MBA graduates. But his research goes further than his line of work.

"I'm considering doing an executive MBA myself. What I look at when I make the consideration is which one not only gives me a good education in terms of the professors that they have, but which one gives me international contacts at the same level that I am at," he said.

"If I'm going to spend $100,000 or more on an executive MBA, I want to make sure the students are at the same level as me intellectually, that they have at least 15 to 20 years business experience. I don't like being the oldest guy in the class and I don't like being the one everyone copies their homework off of."

Peer group important

Lewis Rusen, managing director of executive recruitment firm Korn Ferry International's Toronto office, agreed that the quality of the other students in the program make a huge difference.

"Our clients certainly value the interaction amongst the peer group going through the program, almost as much if not more than the technical things that they're learning," he said.

"When a person is able to reflect how they are relative to a peer group, those who are self-aware recalibrate. The interaction with the other students teaches them almost as much as the technical curriculum."

This may be why Queen's University School of Business consistently ranks among the top business schools in Canada.

Scott Carson, director of the full-time MBA program at Queen's, said the main emphasis in his program is team work and team building.

"We feel that the two things most evident in good leaders are their ability to leverage their strengths and their ability to work with others in a team," Mr. Carson said. "We wrap the program around team work."

Students are put into teams with different roles for eight months of the program, and half of all grades are team grades.

'Real-world' experience required

Although most students in MBA programs in Canada have around five or six years of managerial experience, some can enter the program with as little as two years or less. This can be a problem for some recruiters looking at a resume from an MBA grad.

"My concern when I look at a resume and see MBA and the applicant is in their 20s, I worry that they don't have enough practical experience," Mr. Perry said.

Ginny Dybenko, dean of the Wilfrid Laurier School of Business and Economics, said she knows young MBA grads can be perceived this way, and that is why Wilfrid Laurier is one of the only schools to make sure its grads get as much real-life experience as they can through a mandatory internship program.

"Recruiters tell me over and over again that they really like our program because the graduates are always useful on the first day of the job. They come in with a much more realistic attitude, not the arrogant edge. They don't think they have to be president within a half an hour," she said.

"We run the only co-op MBA program in the Toronto area and one of the best known well beyond that. It's a little non-standard in that respect."

Being in a tech town, it's only is fitting that the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management emphasizes business software knowledge from local tech giant Cognos, according to Philip McIlkenny, director of U of O's MBA program.

"Our focus is on performance management as part of our complete business education," said Mr. McIlkenny. "It's relevant to what is going on in industry because we have face-to-face meetings with Cognos, a world leader in business management software. We can point students to clients of Cognos to show them the relevance in terms of the use of this software."

The software helps businesses to assess where a company is in terms of long-term and short-term objectives in all areas of a business: marketing, operations, services, manufacturing, private sector or public sector. Ottawa is one of the only business schools in the country with this focus.

He said in four or five years time, business management software is going to be a major area for all large companies and his students will be ahead of the curve.

It all comes down to teaching students what businesses need.

"Does an MBA or EMBA increase your marketability? Absolutely," said Mr. Perry. "But from a client's standpoint I look to see what does this person have that is going to make my client's business better."

By Julie Fortier

Special to the Ottawa Business Journal