Whereas Wharton and Sloan students might head to securities industry jobs that require advanced mathematical backgrounds regardless of economic conditions, Harvard grads—who Soifer said are trained to be “generalists”—might spurn Wall Street offers during a bear market for business jobs not directly linked to the stock exchanges.

“CAREER COUNSELING”

Soifer warned investors not to use his data in making stock decisions. “The problems are two-fold,” he said.

First, “there’s a long reporting lag,” he said. The Business School doesn’t publish career data from the previous graduating class until November—while most second-year MBA candidates accept job offers the preceding spring.

Second, because the data is self-reported, it only “reflects those who got jobs and who were willing to talk about it,” Soifer said.

“Two or three years ago in the bad market environment, I gather through the grapevine that 20 percent of Harvard MBAs were not getting jobs,” Soifer said, so the career data for those years may be inaccurate.

But he said the data could point to broader lessons for graduating students. “MBAs and Harvard College grads as well should bear in mind that the job markets they’re going into are literally just as cyclical as the markets that affect the companies that are hiring them,” Soifer said.

Kenneth A. Froot, who is Jakurski professor of business administration, wrote in an e-mail that he finds Soifer’s analysis “wonderfully amusing.” But he advised that “anyone who would take this into account when making career decisions should spend some serious time in career counseling therapy.”

And Froot jested, “If you are contemplating using it for investment decisions, please make an appointment with me. There is a bridge over the Charles that I think you may want to buy from me...”

—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.