A glance at the 2010 Financial Times MBA rankings underlines the importance of choosing the right school – where you graduate from directly affects your career prospects and earning potential. Yet, in terms of maximising the value of an MBA, when you graduate can be just as important.

The class of 2009 found the going tough, as many companies were looking to shrink or freeze head counts. FT data, collected from business schools as part of the 2010 rankings process, revealed that for those graduates from the most recent academic year actively looking for a job, one in five had not found employment three months after graduation. That represented a doubling of the proportion reported for the same period in 2008.

The figures masked variations between regions. Graduates of North American schools, predominantly looking for work in that region, found it hardest to secure employment within three months of graduation. Some 23 per cent failed to do so. Alumni of Asian schools fared better, with 86 per cent in employment at after three months. Nonetheless, data for all regions showed a worsening of employment prospects for recent MBA graduates in the short term, when compared with 2008.