MBA Job Report: The Wharton School

Wharton’s 2014 employment report shows that finance and consulting are the two most popular industries with Wharton MBA graduates. No surprise there.  What may come as a surprise, however, is that a lower percentage of Wharton graduates are taking post-MBA jobs in finance and consulting than in previous years.

Financial services was the industry of choice for 35.5% of Wharton graduates, making it the most popular. But, this is the lowest proportion since the year 2000. This may be due, in part, to the fact that fewer Wharton MBAs are taking jobs in investment banking compared to previous years.

Jobs in investment banking still attracted more Wharton graduates (14.2%) than any other of the financial services and represented a slight rise on 2013. However, this percentage – which stood at 21% in 2010, remains lower than at any point in the ten-year period between 2002 and 2012.

Consulting was the second most popular industry chosen by 25.9% of Wharton MBAs. Again, however, this figure is lower than previous years. In fact, it’s the lowest it’s been since 2004, when only 22.5% of graduates chose to work in consulting.

The waning percentages of Wharton MBAs working in finance and consulting may be a result of the fact that more graduates are taking MBA jobs in the technology sector, particularly internet services.

In total, almost 14% of Wharton MBAs took jobs in technology industries, which is the highest it’s been in all reports dating back to 2000. Tech MBA jobs in internet services have grown from 1.9% in 2010 to 10.4% in 2014, making it comfortably the largest source of MBA jobs within the sector.

This year’s increase in technology MBA jobs at Wharton is in direct contrast with Stanford, where tech jobs (particularly those in the internet services sector) are on the decline among the school’s graduates.

When it comes to MBA salaries, many of the figures for 2014 are identical to last year.

Take this year’s median Wharton MBA salary, which is unchanged from last year’s figure of US$125,000. The median sign-on bonus, US$25,000, is also the same as 2013.

Although Wharton’s median base salary hasn’t increased, it’s still clearly something not to be sniffed at; Wharton stands tied with Stanford as being the highest reported of the year so far.

One reason for the lack of change in salary could be the fact that fewer graduates are working in the more lucrative industries of finance and consulting.

Then again, the median annual salaries for graduates moving into finance and consulting also stayed the same. The unchanged median salary figures are US$120,000 and US$135,000 for financial services and consulting respectively.

For those of you who are wondering which industry had the highest salary, it was legal services with a median annual salary of US$160,000.