For the past few years, AACSB has collaborated with the MBA Career Services Employer Alliance (MBA CSEA) to deliver their annual survey of MBA graduate data as part of AACSB’s BSQ Employment Module. While the AACSB data entry sections of the survey gather basic employment data for graduates of degree programs at all levels, the MBA CSEA sections (which conform to their standards for full-time MBA programs) take a deeper dive into the specific employment outcomes of full-time MBA program graduates.
Figure 1. Full-time MBA Graduates by Industry of Employment, Numbers and Weighted Average Starting Salaries
Note: Data come from 89 AACSB-accredited business schools that completed the MBA CSEA data entry sections of the BSQ Employment Module in all three years.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of graduates gravitate to the industries with the highest average salaries in each year, although it is interesting to see the direction of some of the trend lines in the tab labeled “FT MBA Graduates Accepting Position.” For example, the numbers of MBA graduates reporting that they accepted a position in the consulting and financial services industries (the two highest-paying of all industries on the list, on average) have dropped 5 to 6 percent over the past three years. This is in spite of the fact that the average starting salary reported in both industries increased by a similar percentage over that same period.
In contrast, the numbers of MBA graduates reporting that they accepted a position in the technology sector increased nearly 17 percent, despite the fact that the average reported starting salary only increased by 2.5 percent over the last three years. A particularly surprising finding was the overall increase in average reported starting salary for graduates going into either government or transportation and logistics services. These were the highest two increases of all industries on the list, although it is likely that the small number of such graduates may be skewing the averages somewhat.
Comments