Maureen May has spent more than 30 years in higher education career services, building employer relationships across every industry. Now, as the leader of Employer Relations and Recruiting at Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business, she's the face of the Tepper Masters Career Center to external recruiters.

May’s background gives her an unusual vantage point: she started as a career counselor before moving to the employer relations side. She knows what students need to hear and what employers are really asking for, and how to find alignment between the two.

We connected with May to understand what's really happening in the MBA job market and how candidates can prepare for 2026.

Here’s what she’s hearing: 

We asked May what cuts across every function and industry. Surprisingly, she doesn't say “AI,” “data science,” or any specific technical skill.

“All roles and industries need a strong combination of skills that can be somewhat elusive,” says May. Specifically, recruiters “need quantitative analytical skills in tandem with strong interpersonal skills, and an ability to tell a story through data – persuade and sell your ideas and get a team in agreement,” she explains.

She hears this requirement across “multitudes of industries” and has relayed the feedback to Tepper School leadership, who've tracked employment trends to keep the curriculum relevant. 

This is about what employers are really asking for: someone who can dig into complex data, surface meaningful insights, and explain those insights to non-technical stakeholders to drive decision-making.  

“MBA candidates who take on leadership and work on their ability to communicate in an effective, compelling way – both verbal and written – will be the ones who excel, especially if they have a STEM foundation,” May says.

Technical skills might get you in the room, but communication skills get you the job. 

The Tepper School deliberately helps MBA students build a combination of skills through hands-on industry capstone projects to solve real business problems. For example, May points to their recent “SHOWCaISE” event, where 11 teams presented AI solutions for real company partners. Industry professionals across the board saw how Tepper School candidates could bring cutting-edge skills to market – not through credentials, but through actual problem-solving.

It’s no secret that AI fluency has become table stakes for all MBA job seekers.

Here’s what May is hearing:  

“Rather than stating ‘Here are the AI skills I seek in a candidate,’ recruiters are asking whether we have MBA/Masters candidates with cutting-edge AI skills and experience that they can bring to their company, so they’re not left behind,” May explains.

In other words, companies know they need AI expertise, but not all of them know exactly what that looks like. They're looking to top MBA programs – especially at a university like CMU – to determine who will bring AI solutions into their organizations.

“It's such a new world, so they are more prone to ask if I can send resumes of AI-skilled candidates in general,” adds May. 

This is an opportunity for MBAs who understand how to position themselves when requirements are vague. It's not about listing AI certifications on your resume – it's about demonstrating how you can apply AI to solve real problems, and how you have done so already.  

This isn’t just limited to opportunities in tech, of course. May is emphatic about this: “MBA students need to realize that, regardless of career and industry goals, everything now has a technology component to it. So, you need to have some level of curiosity regarding innovation and how it will impact your future job. Learning about technology and obtaining some level of expertise on how to leverage it will give you an advantage, – no matter what industry you are targeting as a career.”

Which functions are most hungry for MBAs with the right AI skillset? 

“It is the usual and traditional suspects that demand MBAs who are AI savvy, including consulting, financial services, and fintech,” says May.  

Consulting is fundamentally changing, and the industry is “leaning away from the old 'strategy' and general management skills needed in the past,” May explains. Now, “candidates need to have a unique technology background along with executive presence/emotional intelligence if you want to make it in consulting in the future.”

More recently, consulting projects are pivoting from change management to digital transformation initiatives. “That will mean that MBAs need to understand technology – from an elementary to a sophisticated level – to be an effective consultant. The major firms all have growing Digital and Technology enterprises, and that is likely where the hiring will go.”

May describes some of the companies in these sectors as “leaders in actual and effective tech and AI implementation.”

Additionally, there are some less-obvious industry opportunities to pursue these paths. May referenced “Why the Coolest Job in Tech Might Actually Be in a Bank,” a Wall Street Journal article that captured the trend she’s seeing: "Both known branded banks and lesser known fintech companies are recruiting in droves for STEM talent."

Not all tech- and AI-oriented MBAs are rushing toward the banks. May acknowledges that “Getting candidates to see these roles as desirable can be a challenge, particularly if it's the traditional banks, which can be seen as old school. Ironically, they are on the cutting edge.”

Fintech companies don't have the same branding problem, but they do have demanding hiring processes: “The MBAs who want these 'cool jobs' need to know that the path to getting an offer usually involves proving your skills via brutal testing and case challenges.”

If you want to work somewhere that's implementing AI at scale – not just talking about it – financial services and fintech are great industries to explore. 

Before pivoting your job search based on where the hiring is, you should probably figure out if you'd actually enjoy the work.

May discussed a couple of work simulation platforms – resources that let you experience “a day in the life” across different industries and functions. These platforms serve a dual purpose: recruiters can assess skills, and candidates can test whether they'd excel in specific roles. 

“I am extremely impressed with Forage, AmplifyMe, and IBM SkillsBuild, to name a few," May says. These platforms offer free modules where you complete real-world business projects, earn badges and certificates, and get an actual flavor for the daily work.

If you want to know whether you’d thrive in the tech-focused model of consulting, complete a simulation. If you’re curious about fintech product development, try the modules. These are zero-cost, low-risk ways to test your assumptions before going too far down a path with recruiting.

We’ve all been saying it: the MBA job market has fundamentally changed. AI hasn't just added a new skill to the list – instead, it’s reshaped what employers expect from candidates, regardless of what they’re doing. 

May’s perspective tells us that a winning skill set includes: 

Here’s where some of the opportunities are: 

How can you prepare?

Maureen May oversees the Employer Relations & Recruiting Team at CMU Tepper's Masters Career Center. She has more than 30 years in higher education career services, with business development experience across all industry sectors. May now focuses on connecting MBA candidates with market opportunities.