Through the economic growth experienced in the last decade, Latin America has seen an increase in demand for MBAs, and U.S. schools are the main target for applicants. Students from the region have been an important part of the community at Fuqua prior to that growth, but recently our numbers have grown to around 40 or 50 students per class—which means around 100 total at any given time. In line with the employment needs of these students, an increasing number of companies have started to offer internships and full-time positions in the region, making it a great alternative for MBA students from Latin America or anywhere else.

Opportunities include those found through on-campus recruiting, job postings facilitated by the Career Management Center (CMC) and off-campus alternatives. The industries that have recently recruited at Fuqua for positions in Latin America include: consulting firms (McKinsey, AT Kearney, BCG, Bain and Virtus Partners), airline and travel (Latam Airlines and Despegar.com), retail (Falabella, Cencosud and Walmart), banking (Banco Itaú, BTG Pactual and Credicorp Capital) and others (AB-Inbev and CMPC).

This past summer there were more Fuqua students interning in Latin American than in any previous year. Alan Levy, cabinet member of the Latin American Student Association (LASA) explains: “Latin American companies are becoming an active player in recruiting at Fuqua. In 2014 we saw a 50% increase in students interning in the region, from 13 to 19. Countries include Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Peru.”

Year by year, Fuqua is building new partnerships in response to the increasing interest of Latin American companies. Eduardo Prada, also from LASA, says: “as students with local contacts, we help the CMC to identify firms that would be interested in starting to recruit in our school. We like to be involved and to continue developing our network abroad, while reinforcing Fuqua’s vision to be a student-focused school.”

U.S.-based companies have also started to take a close look at Latin American MBA students while they expand their operations to the region. Companies such as Google, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Schlumberger hire at Fuqua, providing an interesting option for those who want to pursue a career in a multinational firm. This trend will probably intensify as companies consolidate their position in Latin America.

This year’s recruiting season is in full effect at Fuqua. Latin America promises to again be a very active region for internship and full-time opportunities!