It looks as if confidence has finally returned to the M.B.A. jobs market, according to the latest survey of employment trends for professionals and managers around the world. The July edition of the ‘Global Snapshot’ from the international recruitment specialist, Antal, for example, questioned nearly 13,000 companies on six continents and found 52% currently hiring, up from 50% in February. And in many of the top emerging markets confidence is even higher.  In Brazil, for example, 70% of employers are planning to recruit at professional or managerial level in the next three months, in China 70% and in India a staggering 80%.

No surprise then that this sense of optimism is permeating the business school arena. The latest data from the MBA Career Services Council shows 76% of US schools registering more on-campus recruitment activity in 2011 than in 2010. As Lisa Feldman, director of recruiting at UC Berkeley-Haas explains, “Investment banks and consulting firms continued to recruit MBAs throughout the downturn to maintain their leadership pipelines, and firms like Chevron and Abbott that hire for rotational programs kept them going. But the real difference we’re seeing now is the enthusiasm, the time and the money these recruiters are investing and the sheer number of positions available.”

Rebecca Joffrey, co-director of Career Development at the Tuck School of Business in New Hampshire gives a similar up-beat report. “This was an outstanding employment year – the strongest in the last 6 years. Companies had slowed down so much in hiring for the last 2 years, so when the economy picked up this year, they had to be aggressive in their hiring and it showed.” Building on the school’s tight network of alumni to help secure jobs, 97% of the Tuck class of 2010 already had job offers 3 months after graduation, but Joffrey says that 2011 looks even better. “Every sector was up in hiring this year. In retail there was a 10% increase in the job postings, and of course the financial and consulting sectors were strong across the board too”.

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Of course, to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, even at the worst point of the global financial crisis, reports of the death of M.B.A. hiring were greatly exaggerated. While the banking sector certainly cut back on the its previously high level of recruitment and consultancies took a much more cautious approach to candidates, relatively new entrants to the market, such as Google and Amazon, and the SME sector took up much of the slack. “The greater activities of consumer packaged goods and retail firms show that the recession is certainly over from the M.B.A. recruiting perspective,” says Lisa Feldman at Haas.

And on the international stage several key markets remained virtually unscathed. “There was a slight drop in demand for our graduates in 2009,” says Jane Prior of Australia’s Melbourne Business School, “but on the whole the country hasn’t been hit by the crisis in the same way as many other economies. And banks and consulting firms here are now recruiting more strongly than they ever did.”

At the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, job offers for graduating students are up by 65% over a two year period. “Consulting and finance companies continue to be the mainstay”, explains Sriram Gopalakrishnan. “However, new technology companies like Google and Facebook have generated significant interest among students, and luxury goods and energy sector companies also made their presence felt in campus.”

What is significant about 2011 is that it appears to mark a shift in the balance of power between potential employer and potential employee. Since the demise of Lehman Brothers in 2008, M.B.A.s have been able to find jobs, but only by pursuing every opportunity with real energy and commitment. Now, however, it seems that McKinsey’s famous description of a ‘war for talent’, which has been little more than a minor skirmish for several years, is breaking out once again. “We’re seeing companies wanting to come on campus earlier and earlier because they are concerned about missing out on the candidates they want,” says Marie-José Baudin of the Desautels Faculty at McGill in Canada. “And they’re also investing in more internships to tie them in even before they hit the permanent jobs market.”

This tilting of the balance may end up significantly altering the nature of the M.B.A. hiring landscape, at least over the next few years as graduating students take a long, hard look at the opportunities open to them. There are already signs that the colossal mess perpetrated by the financial services sector in the lead up to 2007 may have removed some of its attraction as a career option. A recent survey of M.B.A. students at top ranked schools suggested that Goldman Sachs may finally have lost the accolade of being the world’s most sought after employer. The results showed that Goldman had slipped to fifth place with only 19.1% of the poll, clearly beaten by new kid on the M.B.A. block, Google, which took 27.8% of the vote to come in at second place, just behind McKinsey & Co.  Places six, seven and nine were all taken by technology companies – Apple, Facebook and Amazon, while the tenth slot was occupied by the design consultancy, IDEO. “Students have a broader interest in mission driven organisations these days,” says Tuck’s Rebecca Joffrey. “They want to work for companies that have a soul, organisations that are striving to have a positive influence in the world.”

2011 may be the year when the battle for the brightest and best in the M.B.A. community really starts to heat up.

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