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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT narily creative and aggressive in their job searches. "Networking may be an overused term, but it is really what students have to do to find a position," says Penn. "They have to be so creative as to offer to work 90 days for free, for example. We've had groups of students travel to a city to make the rounds—if they're interested in the energy indus- try, they'll go to Houston on their breaks and visit all the companies together." As Kjeldgaard has discovered, the current job market is a community of scholars one in which opportunities don't always knock, but instead must be searched out. Although he found success, he believes that business schools could do more to help their students expand their networks and think of creative ways to land their first full-time positions. "Students often go it alone because the job market is so competitive," he says. "Business schools could do more to bring students together to brainstorm about strategies that have worked for them. Perhaps a student knows of a job opportunity outside his field or contacts that might help someone's search. That would be a terrific help." The economic problems that face today's corporations may actually be opportunities in disguise for business schools. If b-schools put themselves in the way of those opportunities, says Ward of Fisher College, it will give their graduates an appreciable advantage. He has experienced this serendipity firsthand with his own work with corporations. Two years ago, he was asked to join the advisory board of Ford Motor Company's Lean Resource Center (LRC), which studies ways to make the company more efficient. Through discussions, he and the board determined that an internship specializing in lean resource management would be beneficial for both Ford and Fisher students. "This teaching opportunity came about as a happy acci- committed to innovation JANUARY 2003 FINANCIAL TIMES Top 100 Business School Survey RANKED UCI #21 Internationally for faculty research. The research rating is based on faculty publications in 40 international academic and practitioner journals. December 2002 OR/MS Today dent—but these accidents don't happen on their own. Business educators can put much more energy into outreach efforts," says Ward. "The real key is for faculty to be connect- ed with industry so that they can see what's going on. At the same time, they can take full advantage of their roles as schol- ars to try to understand the context of what's happening." It's true that the reversals of fortune that have affected so OS/MS is the magazine for members of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) many corporations have created a market in which corpora- tions are less comfortable, less confident, and more cautious about whom they interview, let alone whom they offer jobs. Students like Miller and Kjeldgaard who find ways to set themselves apart from the pack will be the first to be hired. And if business schools train their graduates to know how to sell themselves to the right employers for the right positions, business itself may exit the current economic roller coaster all the better for the ride. ■ z BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2003 29 RANKED UCI #8 among the Top 36 most productive business schools publishing in the four IS/IT–related flagship INFORMS journals from 1990-2002. Discover us. (949) UCI-4MBA www.gsm.uci.edu