Bangalore: In the bygone era every MBA graduate dreamt of going to the West in search of green pastures, but now they prefer working in Asian countries that are growing at a phenomenal rate. At premiere institutions such as the University of Chicago's Booth School, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and Northwestern's Kellogg, the percentage of MBAs taking jobs in Asia has more than doubled in the past five years, from roughly five percent of the graduating class to more than 10 percent, reports Michelle Conlin of BusinessWeek. The number of students taking international jobs usually swells in a recession, says Kellogg Assistant Dean Roxanne Hori. But Hori and others believe that the refrain of "Go East, Young Man" is not a short-term response to the U.S. economic downturn but a structural shift toward an internationalized, mobile talent market. And right now, Asia is where the career velocity and opportunity are. For many MBAs, the prospect of making a bigger impact faster is simply too good to pass up, especially now that the pay packages offered by both domestic and multinational companies are competitive with those in the U.S.