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By RACHEL LOUISE ENSIGN

The readers’ picks narrowly beat the darts in Sunday Journal’s 44th Investment Dartboard Contest, extending their winning streak to four in a row.

But the tepid market of the second half of 2011 led both the readers and the darts to overall declines.

The reader with the biggest gain in the six months ended Dec. 31 was Minneapolis Star Tribune reader Evan Stein. His stock, Caribou Coffee, was the only reader pick to end in the green, up 5.4%.

“I’m a big fan of the coffee,” says the Indiana University undergraduate. “With the new year and how well coffee’s doing right now, there could be a [further] expansion.”

Christine Luttermoser’s selection, retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, fared the worst with a 27% decline. That’s likely because the retailer tends to be “higher priced and they don’t put things on sale nearly as much as other companies,” says the Harrisburg Patriot News reader.

As a group, the six readers’ picks fell 12.8%, compared with a 13.1% loss for the six stocks chosen randomly by darts thrown at stock pages. Sunday Journal contributor Sarah E. Needleman’s picks were up 1% overall.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 2% over the same period.

The darts have historically beaten the readers, with 26 wins out of 44 contests.

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

The Job: Museum Curator

Nature of the Work: Ever been to a museum? Well, it’s these nonprofit professionals who are responsible for identifying, acquiring, arranging and protecting the various bodies of work you’ve admired. They’re also often tasked with writing descriptions and interpretations of items on display and contributing to exhibition catalogs, trade magazines and other publications.

Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame

Curator Jasen Emmons prepares a costume for a coming exhibition.

Curators at small institutions may be expected to handle additional duties, such as fund raising, guiding visitors and even maintenance work. “If it means you pick up the garbage before the guests arrive, that’s what you have to do,” says Paula Tognarelli, curator and executive director at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Mass., who is one of three employees there.

The Pay: Salaries vary depending on the size and type of the institution. At art museums, assistant curators earn a median annual salary of $42,642, while chief curators earn $87,125, according to a 2007 survey from the Association of Art Museum Directors. Curators at the Newark Museum (N.J.), which offers a mix of art, history and science, earn between $35,000 and $95,000, depending on experience and the level of the post. Pay typically is much higher at larger, more well-endowed museums.

The Benefits: Standard health-care and dental plans are common, as are retirement-savings accounts.

The Hours: In addition to traditional business hours, curators must attend industry events such as gallery openings and trade shows. Those at institutions with big budgets may be required to travel frequently to meet with artists, donors and other museum contributors. Zöe Ryan, a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, says her job has taken her to Milan, London, Miami and New York.

Incentives: The opportunity to interview musicians like Elvis Costello for a film exhibit has been an exciting perk, says Jasen Emmons, director of curatorial affairs at the Experience Music Project at the Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame in Seattle. Ms. Tognarelli has met many esteemed modern photographers, including David Levinthal, Joyce Tenneson and Sebastião Salgado.

Best Part of the Job: Working behind the scenes with rare objects, says John Bidwell, curator of printed books and bindings at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. He recently put together a display of three Gutenberg Bibles, which are currently on display. “It was quite a thrill,” he says. Another plus, says Ms. Ryan, is that the job involves a lot of socializing and provides exposure to emerging talent. “You’re constantly meeting new people, and you very much are the eyes and ears on the ground,” she says. “There’s never a dull moment, and no two days are the same.”

Worst Part of the Job: Preparing budgets for exhibitions is challenging because funding is limited, says Ulysses Grant Dietz, a senior curator at the Newark Museum. “We’d love to be able to do more than we have time, space and resources for,” adds Kathleen McCarthy, head curator at Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry.

Career Path: Curator jobs require strong writing, research and communications skills. The ability to be persuasive is also critical. “A lot of times, you’re wooing collectors,” says Mr. Emmons. “You’re trying to convince them that they should loan their artifact, which they (then) may not see for the next three years.” An advanced degree in art, history and other relevant fields is a common prerequisite. Entry-level posts often call for an internship or volunteer experience.

Hiring: Many museums and associations advertise job openings for curators on their Web sites. There are also job sites for curators and other museum professionals, such as museum-employment.com, globalmuseum.org and museummarket.com. Experienced museum workers say networking at industry events is also an important avenue for learning about career opportunities.

Competition for curator jobs can be stiff, as positions are limited and turnover is rare. Mr. Dietz, one of six curators at the museum, has held his position for 28 years. And consider, for example, that the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., has just three curators on staff, including Joan Kropf, who has held her post for 35 years. “These types of jobs are few and far between,” she says.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D5

By DIANA MIDDLETON

(See Corrections & Amplifications item below)

In these tough times, lots of workers are stuck in a bind: They need an M.B.A. to boost their career, but they can’t afford the cost or the time out of the work force.

The solution? Many are turning to programs that let them earn a degree in half the time, often at a fraction of the cost.

Consider Marco André. He knew if he wanted to achieve his dream of managing companies and working in different countries, he’d need to get an M.B.A. But taking two years away from his career for a traditional program was too big a sacrifice. So, Mr. André, a product-management director for a technology company in Portugal, opted for ESADE’s one-year program in Barcelona.

His M.B.A. brought him the change he wanted: After graduating last April, he landed a job as a market-planning manager for Procter & Gamble Co. in Madrid. “At a certain point, the extra length just doesn’t add value,” says Mr. André. “You can learn everything perfectly well in a shorter time span. Nowadays, the opportunity cost of two years is just too high.”

Accelerated M.B.A. programs, which take between 10 and 15 months to complete, have been around for decades and are the norm in Europe. Although these programs are much less common in the U.S., they’re growing increasingly attractive—especially among older students, who are becoming less willing to spend two years out of the work force.

More and more students are opting to attend one-year MBA programs, rather than the typical two-year program. While these can be more stressful, student Alli Johnson finds they offer rewards. Diana Middleton reports.

These programs have rarely been evaluated by outsiders, in part because they’re still less ubiquitous than their two-year counterparts. About 90 accredited schools world-wide offer the accelerated M.B.A., and many of them only recently added the option.

But the degree’s growing popularity and reach led The Wall Street Journal to take its first close look at accelerated M.B.A. programs. To measure these programs’ quality, and student and alumni satisfaction with them, the Journal, with the help of research firm Management Research Group and survey technicians Critical Insights, surveyed the current graduating classes and alumni who graduated two years earlier at 48 schools. We looked only at schools that have graduated four or more classes with 12 or more students. We eliminated schools where students had little or no work experience. Responses came in from 1,361 recent grads and 735 alumni. We asked students about everything from the programs’ flexibility to career services. And we pressed alumni on issues like the usefulness of the training in their careers and whether their degree protected them in the recession. (See the full methodology.)

European Edge

The result is the Journal’s first-ever ranking of accelerated M.B.A. programs. The ranking comprises nine European schools, five in the U.S. and one in Latin America. Some smaller, lesser-known schools—along with bigger schools that haven’t been offering a fast-track degree long enough—might be noticeably absent for now. But as the degree gains ground, more entrants are sure to be evaluated.

At the top of the list are three European schools with a strong tradition of delivering respected degree programs. At No. 1: IE Business School in Madrid, praised by students and alumni for the diversity of its student body and networking opportunities. From Switzerland, IMD’s rigorous leadership-oriented 11-month program came in at No. 2. The U.K.’s Cranfield School of Management, with its teamwork-focused atmosphere, is No. 3. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business—both in the U.S.—round out the top five.

Frank Brown, the dean of INSEAD, a business school with campuses in France and Singapore, discusses the advantages of taking an accelerated MBA program. He also tells WSJ’s Diana Middleton what he believes are the benefits of attending an international school.

These schools stood out by delivering a strong curriculum and cramming in a healthy dose of international exposure. The best schools also cultivate relationships with local and global companies, giving students the chance to work on real-world projects.

At IE, students and alumni say the program’s intensity lent itself to constant engagement in their course work, as well as close bonds with their classmates. They say they benefited from IE’s additional programs, such as the Venture Lab, a competition that awards student entrepreneurs capital to launch a business. At IMD, the course work had the rhythm of a real job, students said—real, that is, if 100-hour workweeks are the norm.

Spanning the Globe

The driving factor for pursuing a fast-track M.B.A. among those surveyed was the ability to re-enter the work force faster—more than 82% of students put that at the top of their list. When it came to choosing a school, students and alumni cited reputation (92% said it was critical and 43% called it the most important consideration) and an international focus (74% said it was critical and 15% said it was at the top of their list) as the biggest criteria.

Indeed, almost all the schools offer plenty of chances to stretch internationally. At IMD, students recently traveled to South Africa for 12 days to meet with 20 companies to help get new ventures off the ground. Eighty percent of INSEAD’s students spend time at the school’s two campuses—one in Fontainebleau, France, the other in Singapore. Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, requires its students to spend five weeks abroad doing mini-internships. Other schools, like IE, offer international seminars and exchange programs from Latin America to China.

The ranked schools also prepared graduates to land higher-paying jobs and excel in a global business environment, according to students and alumni. And most survey respondents say recruiters and managers view their fast-track degree in the same light as a two-year degree.

There was one big divide among the schools: Students and alumni thought programs outside the U.S. offered a much stronger international exposure. Eighty-six percent of students at non-U.S. programs identified their program’s international focus as critical to their choice. Only 36% of those at U.S. schools said the same.

Why the divide? Non-U.S. programs often take great care to choose students from a host of countries and industry backgrounds. In addition, students at many European schools are often required to learn another language, and some schools require that students be bilingual before setting foot on campus.

Albany, N.Y., native Ian Rogan, a December 2008 graduate of Switzerland’s IMD, says the school was his only choice for an M.B.A. program. For Mr. Rogan, who had been working as an assistant director of the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics at Boston College, studying abroad was the best way to test his leadership style.

“In my study group, there was never any one nationality represented twice,” says Mr. Rogan. “We were put under pressure to deliver solutions, and when you have different personalities at play, you have to navigate the cultural differences and find a way to come to a consensus.” Mr. Rogan returned to Boston College, but in what he calls a “significantly heightened role,” as a director of operations and finance at the school’s Center for Corporate Citizenship.

There are other distinctions between U.S. schools and their European counterparts. For one, few U.S. schools offer the shorter M.B.A. option. Those that do still focus the bulk of their attention—like career services and recruitment—on their two-year offerings. Non-U.S. schools tend to have larger graduating classes and older students—an average of 30 years old vs. 28 at U.S. schools. Programs outside the U.S. are slightly shorter as well—with most averaging just under 12 months.

Still, U.S. programs have their own strengths. Partway through the one-year programs, some accelerated M.B.A. students at Kellogg and Cornell, for example, start taking classes with two-year MBA students, offering an influx of new study partners and work experiences to incorporate in their personal networks. And U.S. schools tend to have more women—35% vs. 23%.

American schools also tend to excel in softer skills, like teamwork, building relationships and managing across functions. According to alumni, Kellogg outperformed all other schools in negotiation training, for example. (The one European school that stood out in this area was IMD, which focuses heavily on leadership training.)

What’s Not to Like?

Of course, these programs aren’t for everyone. If you’re expecting hand-holding or significant help changing careers, an accelerated M.B.A. might not be for you.

Many students complained that their career-service departments didn’t do enough to help them build contacts or make inroads to a new career. In addition, there’s sometimes not enough time to squeeze in an internship or consulting projects—which means no chance to build contacts at a new company. And some students said the alumni networks weren’t well developed, unlike the strong networks at two-year programs.

Still, for people looking for a boost in their current career—or a way to wrangle the skills they have into a new industry—the fast-track M.B.A. can produce a boost in title and salary. On average, alumni survey respondents reported pre-M.B.A. base pay of $55,050. At their first job after graduation, that figure increased to $95,000. And two years later, the same alumni earn just over $110,000.

Economic Buffer

What’s more, many alumni said they felt the degree protected their careers in the economic downturn. “I have friends who’ve been laid off who were at the same level as me [prior to graduation],” says Justin Rose, who graduated from Kellogg’s one-year program in June. “When they interviewed for [new] jobs, they were told the firms would only hire M.B.A.s.”

Mr. Rose says the degree also helped him land a promotion: Before the program, Mr. Rose was a project leader at Boston Consulting Group; now he is a principal with the firm. Overall, alumni of the top 15 programs largely gave their schools high marks for making a lasting impact on their careers. “I can lead and participate in conversations around any functional area of business and feel well prepared to make decisions quickly,” wrote one Babson graduate.

All of this comes with a heavy commitment to studies. While IMD is famous for its six-day, 100-hour weeks, most of the programs in our ranking also have rigorous course work. Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said they spent more than 15 hours each week on schoolwork outside the classroom.

Some students said they wish they had more time to absorb case studies. Others said that the fast-paced curriculum was exhausting, leaving little time for extracurricular activities, like clubs or business-plan competitions.

It’s all true, administrators say. “These students want to be taught, and then they want to move on,” says Sean Rickard, director of Cranfield’s M.B.A. program, adding that students have no time to do anything but study. “They never stop. It’s five days of intensive lecturing and projects, week after week—except for Christmas. They begin to realize they can handle any problem you throw at them.”

Corrections & Amplifications

Miami University (Ohio) requires its student to spend five weeks abroad doing mini-internships. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Miami required two weeks of mini-internships.

–Ms. Middleton is a management-education reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York. She can be reached at diana.middleton@wsj.com.

When I was a child and my parents told me we were moving, I was terrified. I worried that I’d be an outcast at my new school, that the kids on the block would be brats and—worst of all—that I’d never see my best friend again.

That’s understandable when you’re 10. But what about when you’re an adult?

I felt the same way all over again recently, when The Wall Street Journal moved to a different part of town.

It’s an old saw that moving is among life’s most stressful experiences. I’d always thought it was because of the mad rush to stuff everything into boxes before the movers arrived. But as my colleagues and I have learned, moves are tough even if you’re packing little more than the contents of a desk. Indeed, moving offices can be as disorienting as moving homes.

First, the decision to go is not ours. And where we work affects almost every part of the day, from our commute to what we eat. Most important, the office layout shapes some of the most significant bonds in our lives: our work relationships.

Over and over, as my Journal colleagues arrived at our new office, I heard the same themes. “I feel like a junior-high kid coming into work every day, going in the wrong direction, ending up on the wrong floor, and just generally being such a total dork,” explains one reporter.

“It felt like we were the new kids at school—the new people we saw in the café looked like the girls you disliked in high school,” says another.

“It was literally that feeling of being lost in the hall. Where’s the bathroom? Who are all these people? Did I just turn a corner and stumble into a space where I don’t belong, like where the cool kids hang out?” says an editor.

It seemed that moving our office just a few miles had hurled us back into adolescence. We wandered around in search of our friends, whined that others had nicer desks
and flocked to lunch in droves, seeking safety in numbers.

Our ’tween behavior went on for weeks. One editor admits that at the elevator banks, she still keeps her head down and moves quickly, out of fear she will run into an ex-friend who works in our new building.

It’s no coincidence that my colleagues kept referencing junior high. “That’s a big period of insecurity in our lives,” says Rudy Nydegger, professor of management and psychology at Union Graduate College in Schenectady, N.Y. “It’s halfway between being a child and being an adult.”

Tell me about it. We’re all happy to have our jobs. And our new offices are spiffy—a vast improvement over our dumpy old space. But to the child within us, the angst feels instinctive.

Humans are creatures of habit—we have favorite chairs, coffee vendors and watering holes. If we change where we work, we may have to change all our haunts. This can take us far out of our comfort zone.

That explains one reporter’s reaction: “I felt like a cat whose owners had moved to a new house,” she says. “I was sort of sniffing around, looking for comfy corners.”

Of course, a move can really shake up an office’s social structure. It rearranges the company’s informal pecking order—the one based on who has the biggest office, the choicest view, the best desk.

“In their minds, a lot of people sort out the winners and the losers,” says Mitchell Marks, a psychologist and a professor of management at San Francisco State University. “Who is closer to the action, who is farther away, and where am I in all of this?”

People are jockeying for position. “We have come up with rules on physical boundaries,” reports one of my co-workers. “My colleague and I have decided that her space includes the little two-foot counter between us. So whenever my Rolodex or my tape recorder impinges on the edge of it … I pull them back. Otherwise I would be a ‘colonizer.’ ”

Even more significantly, the move upends our support network. Research shows we form the tightest workplace bonds with people who are near us. A change in the seating chart can rearrange friendships.

Sadly, my colleagues confirm this. One says she feels her buddies have forgotten her. Another explains that he no longer knows where to find certain people, so he doesn’t think about them as often.

One reporter feels like he’s been through a divorce. He says of colleagues he once sat near: “Now, I occasionally swing by their desks and wave or say hi, but it’s not the same. I’m not privy to all the jokes or burdens people share.”

But give us time. Just like junior-high-schoolers, we are slowly making new friends.

“I seem to laugh much more in this place,” says a graphic artist, citing the new office’s open layout, which has allowed her to get to know the “outrageously funny” guy across the aisle. “My ear will seize upon phrases like ‘I don’t even have time to have sex anymore.’ It can be a welcome respite in an otherwise stressful day.”

Write to
Elizabeth Bernstein at Bonds@wsj.com