Chicago Booth: Employment Report

The US$5,000 overall MBA salary rise was doubled by those moving into the finance sector, which also attracted a slightly greater proportion of graduates this year. The proportion of the class of 2014 moving into the finance sector was 36% with a median salary of US$110,000, up from 35% and US$100,000 in 2013. 

Investment banking/brokerage took the largest stake of students into the finance sector and indeed, upped its total class proportion from 14% to 16%.

Finance’s gain came at the same time as a drop in the number of graduates heading into MBA jobs in consulting – in a reversal of what was seen at Columbia Business School. The consulting sector was down 3% - from providing the destination of 31% of last year’s class to 28% this time round. The median MBA salary, however, was unchanged at US$135,000. 

The industry swing since from last year is mirrored in the functions of MBA jobs taken by the class of 2014, albeit at a smaller rate. Finance functions rose from 40% to 41%, while consulting functions fell from 31% to 30%.

The technology sector, meanwhile, was also able to show a gain at Chicago Booth this year – taking 14% of the class of 2014, up from 12% last year. A rise that follows the general trend among US schools this year.

At the lower end of Booth’s industry breakdown, there were notable increases in the number of graduates taking MBA jobs in consumer products (up from 2% of the class of 2013 to 6% this year) and energy (up from 1% to 3% this year).

With regards to employers, the top three hirers of McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group remained unchanged with just a slight alteration in their order. Tech industry employers Samsung, Amazon, Apple and Google all hired virtually identical numbers of Chicago Booth graduates as they did in 2013. 

School-facilitated positions provided almost exactly the same proportion (approx. three-quarters) of the opportunities outlined above as it did last year – in this, a 5% drop in school-assisted MBA internships (from 45% to 40%) was made up by rises in other school recruiting areas such as job postings and campus interviews.