Comments on: Socially-Conscious MBA Students Aim to Avoid “The Trap”

By: alyson

alyson — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:15:55 +0000

I found this article from searching ’socially conscious’, trying to define it. In the manner I experienced tonight, it most closely meant vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.
This was new to me, as is a socially conscious MBA, because I normally think of socially more like environmental ‘green’ sustainable architecture. They all mean the same thing to architecture. Some people do it, some don’t. I want to because it is the future. We have to be more conscious of our effects, respectful.
But I can’t seem to get a job in an architecture firm that LEED certifies buildings or puts green roofs on them. A recent option was with a local non-profit

By: CindyW

CindyW — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:17:52 +0000

Baby steps. When I graduated form an MBA program 5 years ago, not one person mentioned the concept of sustainability. So I’d say it has come a long way. If all fails, start your own green business, after all one does have to pay $80K for an MBA degree which hopefully provides some green ROI.

By: Andy Woolard

Andy Woolard — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:20:49 +0000

Great post – and proper comment William, but I think the real positive is that just with other refining moments in business (IT, mobile tech, heck even emotional intelligence) a demand is being created not only within the job pool, but by consumers (and smart companies). The current state of affairs will only get better if we continue to raise the conversation and thus increase the demand.

By: William Hertling

William Hertling — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:38:04 +0000

As a graduate of a MBA program, I think that this post and the Newsweek article paint a far rosier picture than reality.
Sure, there are more green jobs than ever before. I see them inside the major Fortune 50 company in which I work, I see them in my local community, I see them at major green companies like Patagonia. This is definitely positive news, especially as compared to five years ago, when the number of jobs was far fewer.
But the number of applicants far exceeds the number of positions available for them. Patagonia has over 700 applications for each job that they open. Several recent sustainability jobs in Portland, Oregon each had several hundred applications.
More than 99% of applicants are not getting the jobs they want. What about the less than 1% that do? Are they able to live by their ideals and make a living? Hardly.
A recent sustainability job at a for-profit financial company for a data analyst paid less than $15 per hour – less than $30K per year. You won’t be eating a lot of organic food or wearing much sustainably made clothing at those kinds of wages. A comparable job at a Fortune 500 company would probably pay $80K to $100K. So living by your ideals does have a cost – about $50K to $70K per year.
I agree that the job market for sustainability jobs is improving, especially as compared to five years ago. But even with a green MBA, it is still far more difficult to find a green job than a non-green job, and far more difficult to achieve income parity.